We had an awesome final day of class! Students were focused, worked hard, and managed time well. Our final project allowed students to be game designers. To help get creative juices flowing, I read What Do You Do With An Idea? By Kobi Yamada. We reviewed the engineering design process before beginning the challenge. Each group of three chose one discipline that we studied this week. They created their own Sphero mat similar to the solar system mat used yesterday. Each team also wrote out a mission that involved two specific blocks. This is how each team used the Engineering Design Process:
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Ask a Question: “How can Sphero ______?”
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Brainstorm: Each student wrote ideas down and then shared and collaborated with their team
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Research: Each team used Nat Geo Kids to research their topic and used photographs on the site to help design the game mat
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Design/Plan: Each team made a draft of their mat and mission card; I approved drafts before they moved on in the process
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Create a Prototype: Each team worked together to create their mat and final mission card
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Test and Improve: Each team used Sphero to complete their own mission and made improvements to the mission card as they coded
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Share: Each team had the chance to complete another team’s mission
The photos show the finished products. The students did such a good job working with their teams and using the Engineering Design Process. Ms. Kat and I were really impressed with the teamwork we observed. Each group divided the tasks and helped solve problems together. During the test and improve phase teams noticed vague directions and worked together to make them more specific. The hard work paid off, and the missions went well during the “share” phase!
To celebrate all of the hard work, we did choice centers at the end of the day. Each student got to repeat their two favorite centers from the week. We finished our day with some time for reflection. The students gave me great feedback for the future.
During our wrap-up, I also introduced Scratch. This is a free program developed by MIT that uses block code. It would be a great way to extend the learning from this week at home: https://scratch.mit.edu/about. Your child also brought home a coding workbook. These “unplugged” lessons help reinforce foundational coding skills.
Thank you for giving your child this opportunity to learn about coding at SAVY. We had a wonderful week together. I will miss this group! Enjoy the rest of your summer.
Ms. Allison
