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Hi Shona,
Thanks for this. Having pupils present their work and talk through their thinking is a lovely idea and it is something that could transfer well to almost any Minecraft Education world.
One thing worth checking before you settle on the activity is the focus of Fantastic Fairgrounds. It is actually an AI literacy world. Players work with an AI assistant to help Park Director Leslie solve problems across three pavilions with a focus on AI foundations, data analysis and ethics.
There is no MakeCode building of rides in the world and loops, events, area and perimeter are not really part of the learning experience. Because of that, the Maths links in your reflection do not quite match what pupils actually do in the world.
It sounds like you may have had a different world in mind, so it would be worth going back into the demo and playing through Fantastic Fairgrounds again. You could then build your curriculum links around the AI concepts you meet. There is plenty there for pupils to discuss, so your idea of presenting and explaining their thinking would still work really well.
Hi Shona,
Please watch the video of the micro:bit website tour in the module or follow the steps below to share your micro:bit project link:
- Open your project in MakeCode.
- Select the Share icon in the top-right corner.
- Add a title for your project.
- You can also add a thumbnail image or animated GIF, but this is optional.
- Select Share Project.
- Copy the link that appears and paste it into your forum post.
Please note that this link is anonymous and is not connected to your MakeCode account. Make sure to copy or save the link, as it cannot be recovered if it is lost.
The link is also a snapshot of your project at the time you share it. If you make any changes afterwards, you will need to create and share a new link with the updated version.
Anonymous share links cannot normally be deleted or unpublished.
Hi Shona,
Please watch the MakeCode Arcade website tour video in the module or follow the steps below to share your MakeCode Arcade project link:
- Open your project in MakeCode Arcade.
- Select the Share icon in the top-right corner.
- Add a title for your project.
- You can also add a thumbnail image or animated GIF, but this is optional.
- Select Share Project.
- Copy the link that appears and paste it into your forum post.
Please note that this link is anonymous and is not connected to your MakeCode account. Make sure to copy or save the link, as it cannot be recovered if it is lost.
The link is also a snapshot of your project at the time you share it. If you make any changes afterwards, you will need to create and share a new link with the updated version.
Anonymous share links cannot normally be deleted or unpublished.
Hi Catriona,
Fantastic choice. You are the first person to take on the data logger tutorial, so well done for giving it a go. Adapting the columns to record vehicles, walking and scooting or cycling shows that you really understood what the code was doing and could make it your own.
What I love most is how real the context is. Linking the data logger to your Green Schools walk to school initiative gives the activity a genuine purpose. Recording how pupils travel on a normal day and then again on the initiative day sets up a clear before and after comparison. That is exactly the kind of investigation that makes data handling meaningful because the children are exploring a question that matters to them.
Turning the results into graphs in Maths and sharing them on the Green Schools board closes the loop beautifully too. The information does not just stay on the micro:bit. It is shared with the whole school and could even encourage more pupils to choose an active way of travelling.
One small thought to build on it. You could collect the data across a full week which would reduce the impact of an unusually wet morning and give the children a larger data set to explore for patterns.
Hi Sinead,
This is a lovely honest reflection. A clear strength is the range of tools you use and the way you draw on them to support differentiation as well as engagement. Adapting comprehension texts to suit each child is a lovely example of technology quietly making something possible that would be very difficult to manage otherwise.
Your area for development is a really thoughtful choice too. Your instinct that some of the richest learning can happen when pupils are discussing, making mistakes and problem-solving together.
I really like your action around design thinking. Explicitly teaching the language of the engineering design process, then tracking whether pupils begin to use it independently, is a clever and concrete way to measure learning that can often stay invisible.
One question to help you focus. Would it help to choose two or three key words to listen for at first, such as prototype, improve and test? This would keep your checklist manageable and help you see how confidently pupils use the language across the year.
Looking forward to seeing how you get on with the rest of the course. 🙂
Hi Emma,
There is some lovely practical thinking here. The place value game is a great example because a digital dice fits straight into an activity the children already know. Using it for random pupil selection is such a handy classroom management idea too.
On your question, you were very close. There is not a single “or” block for choosing between the different LED patterns. The micro:bit needs to pick a random number first, then use that number to decide which dice face to display.
I had a little play with it and made an example here:
https://makecode.microbit.org/_3jLA9Dfzfaz6In this version, I created a variable called “dice” to store the number. The micro:bit chooses a random number from 1 to 6 when it is shaken. The if and else if blocks, which are conditional statements, then check which number was chosen and display the matching dot pattern using the show leds blocks.
One small thing to watch in your original code is that pick random 0 to 6 gives seven possible outcomes, including zero. For a standard dice, you want it to pick a number from 1 to 6.
Have a look at the example and let us know if you have any questions. 😊
Hi Sinead,
Thanks for posting the working link again. I am glad you got it sorted.
Catch the Apples is a lovely clear catch/collect game. A basket moving left and right to catch falling apples is instantly understandable for children and it links nicely to your counting and number objective. The healthy eating discussion is a natural extra too.
Your debugging account was clear.
One small idea to build on your Maths link would be to ask pupils to compare their scores across a few games and see whether they improve with practice. This would extend the activity into a little data handling too.
Hi Orla,
This is really clever. Flipping the catch/collect game into an avoid game is a lovely twist, but building the Maths directly into the scoring is the part I love most. Starting at 50 and losing 2 points for every car hit means the children can work backwards from their final score to calculate how many cars they collided with. The multiplication and division practice comes directly from playing the game which is lovely.
Your explanation of the algorithm design fits really well too. Adjusting how quickly the cars appear so that achieving a perfect score is difficult ensures that the children have something to calculate at the end. You have clearly been thinking about the learning and the code at the same time.
I would really encourage others to play Drive Safe and have a look at your code. You have taken the ideas demonstrated in the module tutorials and made your own small changes to create a game with a different challenge and a clear Maths link. That is exactly the kind of adapting and experimenting we like to see. 😊
One small thought. Since the calculation is central to the activity, you could ask children to estimate how many cars they think they hit before working it out from their score, then check whether their prediction was correct.
Hi Eadaoin,
This was lovely to read. You have clearly engaged with what Fantastic Fairgrounds is teaching and that comes through in your reflection.
Your plan to slow the pace and prepare higher-order questions for a whole-class discussion afterwards is really well judged. The world moves through some big AI ideas quite quickly, including data analysis, ethics and how AI can be used to solve real problems. Giving pupils time to talk through these ideas is where the understanding will really settle.
One thought to build on this would be to choose one of the core AI ideas, such as ethical decision-making, and use it to focus your closing discussion. You could ask pupils where they encountered it in the game and what decision they had to make. This would give the conversation a clear focus and provide lovely evidence of their AI literacy.
Hi Sinéad,
Apologies, you seem to have shared a link to a game with no code.
Please watch the MakeCode Arcade website tour video in the module or follow the steps below to share your MakeCode Arcade project link:
- Open your project in MakeCode Arcade.
- Select the Share icon in the top-right corner.
- Add a title for your project.
- You can also add a thumbnail image or animated GIF, but this is optional.
- Select Share Project.
- Copy the link that appears and paste it into your forum post.
Please note that this link is anonymous and is not connected to your MakeCode account. Make sure to copy or save the link, as it cannot be recovered if it is lost.
The link is also a snapshot of your project at the time you share it. If you make any changes afterwards, you will need to create and share a new link with the updated version.
Anonymous share links cannot normally be deleted or unpublished.
Hi Sinead,
This was a lovely reflection to read. A real strength is how naturally computational thinking already runs through your STEM lessons. Watching children break problems into smaller steps, spot patterns and improve their designs through the Dream Space activities shows that they are developing these skills without it ever feeling forced. The engagement you describe is exactly what keeps the learning meaningful.
Your area for development is fantastic. Spreading computational thinking across Maths, Gaeilge, English and SESE is where children really begin to see it as a way of thinking rather than a separate subject.
Your plan to teach one cross-curricular CT lesson every fortnight feels realistic. It is regular enough to build the habit but well-paced so that it fits alongside everything else. Pairing this with a monthly reflection using the framework also means you will be able to see the impact over time.
One question to help you focus. When reflecting on a lesson each month, would it help to track one CT process at a time, such as pattern recognition or decomposition? This would allow you to see how it develops across the term and give you clearer evidence for SSE.
Looking forward to seeing how you get on with the rest of the course. 🙂
Hi Fiona,
This is incredible!!!
I love how carefully you have thought through the Maths. Scoring in fives means the children are practising repeated addition without even realising it which is really clever. Taking the highest scores from five pupils, graphing them and comparing the highest and lowest also turns the game into a proper Data and Chance lesson. The data comes from something they actually care about which makes interpreting it far more meaningful than working with numbers from a worksheet.
Your explanation of the debugging process was really clear too. Checking that the score increased in fives, that Tina lost a life after each attack and that the game ended when her lives reached zero shows that you were testing each rule in turn.
Hi Nicola,
Princess Donut is a fun idea and I like how simply it links to counting and number. Your adaptations are lovely too, such as collecting letters to spell words in Literacy or healthy foods in Science. That shows you are already thinking about how one game structure can support lots of different learning.
I had a look at your code and there are a few small things stopping the game from playing as you have described. There is no countdown timer yet, so the game does not actually end. The donut also moves to the same fixed position each time rather than a random one which means the player is not really chasing it around the screen. There is also a change score by 1 block in the on start section, so the score begins at 1 instead of 0.
At the moment, the game plays more like a chaser than a timed catch and collect game.
My best suggestion would be to watch the timed catch/collect or chaser video tutorial from the module again and build alongside it, pausing as you go. This will walk you through setting the countdown timer, moving the food to a random position and getting the scoring set up correctly. You will then have a game that matches the lovely plan you have written.
Hi Fiona,
I love this. The Dice tutorial is such a good choice because it takes something children already use in Maths and shows them the code behind it.
I really like that you added a sound to play when the dice rolls. That is a lovely touch and not something the tutorial asks for.
Your idea of pupils designing and coding their own board game around it is amazing. It gives the dice a genuine purpose while building the boards brings in engineering naturally. The probability investigation is my favourite part though because recording lots of rolls and comparing experimental and theoretical probability turns a fun activity into real data work.
I also like your point about using it as a fast finisher activity. Coding does not always need a full lesson slot and having something like this ready to go is a practical way to keep it ticking over.
If you try this board game activity out in school, we would love to hear how it goes 🙂
Hi G,
This is a lovely practical plan. The AI-generated wildlife poster is a really clever hook because building the errors into something visual gives pupils something concrete.
Asking them to spot the incorrect habitat or diet, check it against a trusted source and then create a corrected version is especially strong. They are not simply being told that AI can make mistakes. They are proving it for themselves and then fixing the information.
Your critical questions are really well pitched too. That is exactly the kind of transferable skill you want to build at this age.
I also like that you included the responsible use message by reminding pupils not to upload personal information or photographs of themselves. This keeps privacy alongside accuracy which is really important.
One small idea to build on your exit ticket would be to ask pupils how confident they now feel spotting mistakes made by AI. This could give you a simple before and after picture across the class.