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Hi Brona,
This is a fantastic idea and I hope you don’t mind but I’m already planning on using it with the Green Schools Committee in school this coming year!
There are so many extension ideas…one that sprung to mind immediately was discussing what companies could make use of this tool in their process, or may do already? (I’m thinking of Recycling centres and is it possible that future Recycling bins could become ‘Smart’ and ‘refuse’ a non-recyclable item?)
So interesting and relevant- thank you!
Class Stage: 3rd & 4th Class
Curriculum Area and Learning Intention: SESE – History
Learning Intention: To understand why incorrect or insufficient input can cause AI to give inaccurate output.
AI Concept Being Explored: AI accuracy/inaccuracyActivity Outline:
Stimulus & Introductory Activity: A series of images of buildings captioned either ‘Historic’ or ‘Modern’ will be given out to each group of pupils. The captions may or may not be correct- it is up to the pupils to decide in their groups, drawing on their shared knowledge and using classroom resources- books and iPads.
Critical Question: Name some causes for inaccurate information?
Introduce WALT: Understand how AI works and why incorrect or insufficient input can cause inaccurate output.
Responsible Use Consideration: The requirement for human fact checking, as pupils did during introduction activity, using their own and other knowledge sources.
Understanding: Teacher models using the Teachable Machine (https://tm.gen-ai.fi/image/general) to demonstrate a simple classification, e.g. identification of a cat vs. a dog. The teacher explicitly teaches that fewer sample images can result in output errors, drawing pupils attention back to critical question.
Exploring and Using: In pairs children use the Teachable Machine to classify buildings correctly into historic or modern.
Evidence of learning: Pupils record classification errors and reiterations on a tracking sheet (stuck into their SESE copybooks).Hi Meabh,
Thanks for this brilliant summary of the Bad Connections world. I didn’t choose it, but was interested to see what it involved. As part of our Digital Devices Acceptable Use Policy, our school teaches the WebWise lessons and they are great but moving through them can be a bit monotonous for the pupils. After reading your summary I am definitely going to incorporate this lesson to extend the learning on staying safe online. I also connected the content to the Stay Safe programme, and again, have found the resources quite dated for todays pupils, so this Minecraft Education offers an oppotunity to ensure the learning hooks children.
One suggestion I have, and it’s almost for myself after having a quick look at the Educator’s Guide, is if there were any children with literacy difficulties in your classroom, the Immersive Reader is a really handy resource to support comprehension. I immediately thought of opportunities for dyslexic pupils with the Read Aloud support, and for EAL pupils with the picture dictionary.
Thanks again for your excellent summary of the lesson.
The demo world I chose: Fantastic Fairgrounds. It was the first world I clicked on when I had just downloaded Minecraft Education – it looked fun and seemed open ended on initial walkthrough. Following a review of the lesson plan, I can see there is much more structure to the tasks than I initially realised.
An overview of what the world is about: The setting is made up of pavilions, including Botanic Gardens with beekeeper sanctuary, an artist pavilion, and a laser light show.
Summary of the lesson plan, learning objectives, associated resources:
Within this demo world there are opportunities to ‘Practice using AI assistant to identify and repair pavilions at world’s fair.’ Useful resources include the powerpoint and check understanding sheets. As per the Learning objective laid out in the Curriculum Overview Guide, in the Fantastic Fairgrounds world, ‘students will practice data analysis in different fields and explore AI careers.’Reflection on one possible curriculum link/focus of learning: For exploring careers in AI, I plan to use the Blocky Beekeeper role to link to SESE Geography and Science; Strand: Environmental Awareness and Care; Strand Unit: Caring for my Locality. I would be using the Botanic Garden pavilion in this demo world to make a direct link to Global Citizenship and the Irish outdoor ethics programme, Leave No Trace. With the bee tracking lesson, there is an opportunity to demonstrate a real life application of AI that is not in conflict with nature, but the opposite – it serves to understand and protect our natural environment. I think this links well to discussing what it means to be a responsible citizen, and the ethical use of AI. It teaches children the opportunities for use of AI, in keeping with the exploration of careers in AI.
Changes to lesson: Rather than making changes, for a single lesson I would plan to focus on ‘Evaluating AI’s Impact’ using the Botanic Gardens Pavilion and the Blocky Beekeeper role. In evaluating how AI is changing careers, I would encourage pupils to reflect as Global Citizens, imagining potential future careers in AI, specifically those that benefit society and the natural environment.
Hi Neeve, thanks so much for this! It’s so great to be able to see the way you created the variable instruction in your blocks…noted also about the requirement to omit zero- thank you!
Hi Adrian,
I love how integrated your Microbit is, with use of the vocab as Gaeilge and your idea of creating a LEGO case as a design construction. As well as Science, I think it would link really well with SPHE also, in discussing emotional wellbeing, and Drama could be incorporated here too.
I followed the Dice Tutorial and made the following: https://makecode.microbit.org/_4rR2kMc3wcYE
Use as a digital dice for (1) integration in Maths, and (2) classroom management.
(1) Maths: There are always games in extension resources for Maths, and very often these require dice. One I can recall immediately is a Place Value Game, where a group of players took turn to roll three times in a row and order the digits to make the highest number possible- highest number wins.
(2)Classroom Management: This digital dice would also be ideal for a quick ‘Pick a number’ when a random pupil selection is required!One change I couldn’t figure out how to make was: I would rather the LEDs showed up as if they were the dots on a dice. I could create the LEDs I wanted, but I couldn’t see an ‘Or’ or random choice option for the LED patterns. So the instruction I wanted to make was: On shake, then Show LED <1 dot> or <2 dots> or <3 dots> and so on… perhaps someone has a suggestion!
Hi Eadaoin,
I liked your theme. It’s a very clear player experience with Buzz as the player, and I immediately thought it links to the very current Toy Story movie, which is a super hook for kids. I found it really challenging to flee from the enemy in time, so my suggestion would be to slightly reduce the speed at which the enemy follows the player, but maybe I just need to get a handheld mouse!
I created a Timed Catch/Collect game called Calamity Jane using MakeCode Arcade.
Game Link: https://makecode.com/_3JLfaT6ioWzP
Curriculum Area and Learning Objective:
Science (Living Things: Plants & Animals) – As part of learning about plants and seed dispersal, the highly effective adaptations of Russian Thistle, or tumbleweed, will be explored. In connection with recent wildfires, a video about the dangers of tumbleweed will be watched and reflected upon. In pairs, children will design and create a simple game that involves breaking up tumbleweed to reduce risks to motorists, risks of wildfires, and reduce extinction of other plants.Storyboard:
Location: Dessert.
Player: A cowgirl breaking up tumbleweed
Game Elements: Tumbleweed to break up, a countdown timer, and a score counter. The player runs around the screen to break up as many tumbleweeds as possible before time runs out. Each tumbleweed broken up increases the score. The goal is to break up the highest number of tumbleweeds before the timer reaches zero.
Computational Thinking:
I was required to use Algorithmic thinking during this activity. I dragged some code into events in what I realised after testing the game, was in the wrong order. I learned how important the sequence of instructions is, and how precision is required. This meant I also used the Iteration process. Once I created the game, I asked my son to try it out. He did and immediately we saw that he could not play as I had intended. I had to go back to my code and re-order the prompts.Digital Learning Framework – Teaching and Learning: 2.2.
One strength in my current practice is that I provide pupils with opportunities to use digital technologies as a means to respectfully communicate, collaborate, and co-create knowledge. Throughout the year, particularly in the SESE subjects, pupils have researched and created projects as well as delving into the area of animation.
One area I would like to develop is a more conscious, explicit use of unplugged activities. While I can reflect on past examples of such activities, it is only following this module that I realise the opportunities there are to pull apart and focus on specific processes of computational thinking.
My actions for this year are:
1. Monthly focus on one particular process of computational thinking, i.e. – decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, algorithm design etc. before introducing technology.
2. Conditional thinking as an unplugged activity before moving to technology to code. I found the ‘Design a Boardgame’ episode really clear in explaining conditional thinking. It inspired me to plan a 2 week set of lessons, starting with playing familiar boardgames, explicitly outlining conditional thinking with the very useful phrase, ‘If…then…’, and asking the children to identify conditions in the boardgames they have just played. Week 2 would then involve the groupwork task of designing the boardgame, followed by testing, including peer testing and feedback, before making improvements and reflecting on a chosen process.
3. Be brave and move to coding. I have basic experience with Scratch but I avoided it this year, lacking the confidence. Following this course it is my intention to feel more confident at leading my 3rd & 4th class in transferring their computational thinking skills to technology.Hi Colm, the same struck me as regards enabling the children to reflect on a specific process rather than the outcome as part of their computational thinking.
I think this a strength in your action plan as it is can easily be so focused, and it really aligns with the curriculum in terms of reflecting on process over product.
I would suggest (and I also plan to do this!) choosing a monthly focus on one of the 6 specific parts of computational thinking outlined in this module. This might ensure clarity for us, as teachers, and our pupils.