[Catherine Rice]

I think linking this idea with wellbeing and supporting children identifying misinformation from an early age is a great idea. So many children are now spending a significant amount of time on apps such as youtube, and I can hear it in discussions in my own classroom, that the children themselves are questioning if it’s real or not. Supporting them with an evidence based way to identify this misinformation is a great idea. Doing something like a spot the difference activity, suggested by another poster here, would be a great idea, or showing two different videos, one ai generated, would be great as well. Maybe even using one of those train the ai type activities to feed it a range of ai images and see if it can spot the difference would be an idea, but perhaps an idea for adapting it to an older class moving forward.

[Catherine Rice]

Class -5th/6th

Curriculum area/learning intention – Science (properties and characteristics of plants), technology (using AI to identify patterns), Oral Language (critical thinking and problem-solving scenarios). Learning Intention: understand how AI can identify patterns in nature and use coding to solve problems while critically evaluating the information technology provides.

AI Concept – Pattern recognition and machine learning. Pupils explore how AI can identify leaves by comparing features, and learn that AI makes predictions based on the data it has been trained on rather than “knowing” the answer.

Activity outline: Guided lesson with Dream Space TV: watch the episode and discuss how AI can recognise different leaves. Pupils then complete the coding activity, programming a simple classifier or interactive project linked to leaves. Follow with a nature walk where pupils collect or photograph leaves and compare their own observations with an AI identification tool. Discuss similarities and differences between human observations and AI predictions.

Critical Question: Do all plants look the same if they have the right level of nitrogen or are there differences? Have I included different types of plants or all the same ones?

Responsible use consideration: AI can be a useful helper, but we should check important information using reliable sources or our own observations rather than accepting every AI response as correct.

How will critical thinking be supported: Pupils will be encouraged to make predictions before using the AI, compare AI results with real leaves or identification guides, explain whether they agree or disagree with the AI’s answer, and justify their thinking using evidence from observations. Teacher questioning will prompt pupils to consider why different results might occur.

Evidence of learning: Observe pupil discussions and reasoning during the activity; use questioning to assess understanding of how AI works; review completed coding projects; collect pupils’ comparison charts or science journals; end of lesson summary such as “One thing AI is good at…” and “One reason we should still think for ourselves…” to assess understanding of both AI concepts and responsible use. Check for understanding of science concepts through questioning of AI mistakes – how did you know this plant was healthy when it was classed as unhealthy by AI?

[Catherine Rice]

I really like that, as you say, the lesson you’ve chosen allows the pupils to explore a really relevant topic, but in a fun and meaningful way for them. Another great link would be to tie it in with Safter Internet Day and Arts Educations – students from the senior classes could take their learnings and put together posters, slogans, a rap etc., and share it with the school by putting up the posters or hosting an assembly.

[Catherine Rice]

Demo World: Fantastic Fairgrounds
Lesson Overview: This lesson/world looks at the power of AI in a fun, colourful way. It looks at how AI can be used in many everyday situations and allows you to analyse and question the use of AI in our everyday lives
Lesson Objectives: Understand AI concepts, explore how AI can be used in different jobs, look at the ethical considerations surrounding AI, and reflect on the significance of AI in the future.
Curriculum links: there are many curriculum links for this lesson. For the digital framework: “Pupils use digital technologies to investigate, collaborate and solve authentic problems”. There are also meaningful integrated links with technology, maths, science and SPHE, which makes it a good, meaningful activity to do within the classroom.
As many of the children in my class are quite savvy when it comes to minecraft, I would allow the children to play the world as it is, and then brainstorm together for any changes that could be made to the world, before it is played again.

[Catherine Rice]

I really liked the princess theme to this game, and could see how younger students would love playing it. It definitely supports your goal of understanding the x and y axis more clearly, so it would be a great way for the older students to incorporate their learning and design games for the younger students maybe. The background colours and the colours of your character/flowers are quite similar, so it could be difficult for students to be able to discriminate between the different objects on the screen, I wonder is there a way to make the characters stand out more on the background you’ve chosen?

• This reply was modified 3 months, 3 weeks ago by Catherine Rice.

[Catherine Rice]

https://makecode.com/_fD1PA8dE601a

Game Type: Timed catch/collect (very simple version following instructions within the module)
Game Title: Under the Sea
Story board: Set under the sea, help Bob the fish pop as many bubbles as he can before the time runs out
Game elements: bubbles appear and drop randomly from the top of the screen, player must “pop” the bubbles by overlapping with the projectile to score points
Goal: to get the most points within the given time
Curriculum area and objective: Science – investigate if bubbles rise or fall?, technology – design a game that involves movement, engineering – design a game for younger children to enjoy

Area of Computational Thinking Within the Game
– algorithm design is a big part of this game, and identifying the steps that needs to broken down to allow the game to operate properly
– Debugging will also feature within this, especially in relation to the positioning of the bubbles as they “fall”
– iteration maybe: could you change the flow of the bubbles so they match how bubbles rise/fall in “real life”.

[Catherine Rice]

I really like how you’ve linked this tutorial to curricular areas outside of what it linked under the STEAM area itself, and in a really practical way. I think it would be a great way to integrate feelings and emotions with digital technologies. Working in pairs is a great way to foster collaboration – you could link your older children with the more junior children in your classroom, with the junior children giving verbal instructions and your older children carrying out these instructions.

[Catherine Rice]

I completed the digital dice tutorial for this project, as I wanted to start with something simple. This allows your micro.bit to act as a dice and display a random number when shaken.

Link to project: https://makecode.microbit.org/_PVegTbU988CY

In order to use this in my classroom, I would approach the lesson as a problem, for example: someone stole all the dice in the classroom, but we need to play a game. What could we use to create/replace the dice that have been stolen?

This could lead to opportunities for the children to make the physical dice as a paper activity first, exploring number, problem solving and shape and space (nets of 3d shapes).

This could then lead to the use of the digital technology approach and align the steps the children used in creating their dice with the steps needed to create the digital version, much like we saw in the tower building video.

This incorporates designing, building, creating, assessing and debugging within the areas of maths, science and engineering. It could even be linked to literacy by extending the task with another problem of “oh, all the dice next door are gone as well, but they still have their micro.bits. Could you write out the instructions step by step for them to follow to create your digital dice?”.

[Catherine Rice]

Hi Susan,

It sounds like you have created a great atmosphere within your classroom that supports teaching and learning in a collaborative manner. I really like what you said about identifying what the students are already doing within lessons that aligns with ideas such as computational thinking. These phrases seemed quite daunting to me at first, but like you, the more I listened, the more I could see there are many elements to what I currently use in my classroom that align with computational thinking, debugging etc.,

I think your idea to include one unplugged activity a month is a really nice, realistic goal to start with. It means you aren’t overloading yourself trying to include one lesson a week, and gives you time to get to know your students and align the activities in relevant way to their goals and individual learning needs.

I wonder if you might consider taking photographs of your unplugged activities and adding these to your observations and work samples, to support reflection on activities?

[Catherine Rice]

The focus I will look at is lies within the Digital Learning Framework: Domain 3 Teachers Individual Practice.

One strength that I feel I show within my practice in relation to this domain, is responding to individual learning needs and differentiating teaching and learning activities as necessary. This is a strength within my practice in relation to many curricular areas, such as differentiating maths tasks, materials provided, methods of response to English tasks etc.,

Within the area of digital technology specifically, facilitating “pupils’ active use of a range of digital technologies to address individual learning needs” is an area I would like to strengthen, and I feel it links in with another focus within this same domain, of the teaching having the knowledge to use this range of technologies in the first place. I feel that often, when trying to differentiate using technology, I’ve fallen short and relied on the use of games to support the activity and a very cursory knowledge of Google classroom for supporting written activities.
The first step that I think support me in this area is identifying one or two key digital learning tools that would be relevant and realistic to include in the classroom, and become more proficient in these myself before trying to add anything into the classroom itself.

Following this, I would like to start small, by extending the choice of responses within a lesson to include one of these digital learning tools – for example, children could record their answers to comprehension questions rather than writing them down and submit it (somehow!) Making receiving work from students a manageable thing for myself is also key here – having 20 copies, 5 voice presentations, 3 slide shows etc., in a very busy classroom could be challenging. As I’m thinking through this post, I think that’s another thing I would like to look into – how to make the use of digital technologies for general classwork, assessment and feedback manageable.

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