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Game type: Catch game
Game title: At the orchard https://makecode.com/_VWfK327XzXCo
Curriculum area and objective: Maths-counting, digital literacy
Simple storyboard:
Location-orchard(forest) Player( a small child that moves around the screen trying to catch all the falling apples from the apple trees) Must catch as many apples in 10 seconds.
Many elements of Computational thinking were used in creating this game, debugging was something I had to encounter a lot, it would be great if the system told you were the problem was but following the video helped create an effective game. I have done something similar in my class before and some children are very good at coding and were able to help identify problems for each other which was very helpful for me also.I like how this is very user friendly for children in younger classes, when we think of coding we often think of children in the more senior classes. It is a great introduction as you mentioned without too much unfamiliar vocabulary and instruction required.
If you had access to ipads, perhaps allowing the children to do this in small groups or do it as part of stations where one does art involving the heart, another station have the ipads, another group are talking about the heart and how it beats etc and the other group doing a maths station related to it.
I completed the Dice tutorial on Microbit, you have to change the code so it only uses the numbers 1-6 that are typically the numbers on a regular dice. Also the shake function is an interesting one and makes it more real life for the children when they hover the cursor over the microbit or press the shake function.
Here is the link to it:
https://makecode.microbit.org/_Xfq7vtE5FJD3Within my own class, I would turn this tutorial into an integrated STEM learning challenge through:
Science: link to forces theme, how different strengths of shaking (gentle, fast) affect the micro:bit’s accelerometer and the outcome and this can be applied in a real life dice also.
Technology:Play around with the microbit to add sound, add more numbers for senior classes
Engineering: Create their own dice using various materials.
Maths: Tally charts, how many times a certain number is shown/rolled, graphs, probabilities, pair work on different devices, click the dice at the same time-how many times do they get the same number.I enjoyed reading your contribution and I agree it is so true that we feel we should use digital technology even when we may not need to. One strength that really stood out to me was how you give the children lots of opportunities to work together to solve problems. Perhaps an option to build on collection of the assessment data, allow the children to choose the items they want to record/save. This way it encourages them to reflect on their own learning. I did something similar when children were presenting their google slides this year, I gave feedback and so did the children to each other and they were nearly more inclined to listen to the feedback from each other than me the teacher.
One area from the Digital Learning framework that I wish to discuss is Learner experiences. It highlights the importance of using digital technologies to support active, engaging, and collaborative learning experiences for the children in our classes. I am very fortunate in the school I am as there is a wide variety of digital resources that we have access to and lots of opportunities for the children to engage in meaningful learning activities. However, whilst I have a strength in using digital technologies to inform teaching and strengthen learning, I feel I could use it more to embed computational thinking into their learning and using the unplugged activities on Dream Space to get me started. Taken a step back and asking yourself, what is it that I want the children to learn from this, how will this inform their future thinking/learning and will it develop those skills necessary for lifelong learning.
Actions going forward-embedding unplugged activities into weekly/daily lessons across all subjects for example the Irish activity, Using the Dream Space lessons/activities to inform teaching and have more awareness of the Digital framework when planning lessons.
