MS 5: Scratchin' the Itch to Program!

Even after a couple of weeks of fun using them, this week we've abandoned the cups! In the end I was challenging the kids to make up their own programming games with the cups. They certainly rose to that challenge!

We've moved onto Scratch, which is a web-based, drag-and-drop programming language designed to teach kids programming. So far so good--another way to say it is that most kids love it!

For the next few weeks we will work on developing a strong practice of using Scratch. The final project will be a web based game of some sort, but that will be up to the kids to design as teams or individually!

HS 8: Finishing up

The kids are finishing up their paper models, and they are turning out great! It is really fun to watch them make these constructions because it is a challenge. It is clear to see which students are naturals and which will need more practice to be great--which they will!

All of this work is to prepare for the "Family Portrait" project, and we will keep laying the foundation for that.

Your assignment for the week is to keep on your blog and keep thinking about your upcoming portrait!

HS 7: Paper Models and Music

This week we will continue to work on the paper models started last week. This has been a challenge for a variety of reasons including having never done this before, junky instructions, and patience in reading thoroughly the junky instructions!

All of this is in preparation for the moving family portrait. Just as a reminder, each student will construct a piece of kinetic art whose theme will be "family," which does not mean blood relatives, although it may be that family.

This weeks blog assignment is to make the normal weekly blog, combine the two "Mechanisms" pages, and then create a new one that will contain this information:

1. A list of five songs that represent your chosen "family"
2. A brief but thorough description of why you chose that song
3. A link to an audio or video file that lives on the line
4. This "Parental Advisory" label by any music that is not school appropriate.

As you combine your mechanisms page consider how the mechanisms move and what they accomplish in the world. Does this have any relevance to the movements in your machine? Can  you even see the movements in your machine? Start to consider what you want to happen in your piece. For example, in "The Pier" I wanted my "mother" to catch fish, so I had to figure out how get the fishing pole to move. What action is going to take place in your piece. You don't have to be too specific, but you certainly can be!

MS 4: Cup Sequencing and Cooperation

We are still practicing programming without a computer. This week we will use specifically marked cups, and work as a group to get each cup to get each cup to its spot. Each child will be designated A through E, and the students will work as a group to get each cup to its proper place.

Some of the problems of computing that we will explore with this exercise is the idea of routing and deadlock. In today's day we have parallel computing and great means of creating networks, but efficiency and data flow are still important concerns.

On the second day of the exercise, the students will be introduced to more complicated problems based on the same exercise, which stretches their problem solving skills, ability to work in a group, and their concepts of sequencing and work-flow. For example they will have to solve the same problem without speaking and the configurations by which they will pass cups will change.

Next week we will begin to program using Scratch, which is "a visual programming language. It can be accessed as a free desktop and online multimedia authoring tool that can be used by students, scholars, teachers, and parents to easily create games and provide a stepping stone to the more advanced world of computer programming." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_(programming_language)]

MS 3: Limited Languages--Programming!

With our exercise in programming for cup stacking we learned that when programming we had to be very specific in our instructions because if someone with no experience programming our instructions had to rely only on what we wrote!

Computers are usually programmed using a “language,” which is a limited vocabulary of instructions that can be obeyed. One of the most frustrating things about programming is that computers always obey the instructions to the letter, even if they produce a crazy result. In this activity you will get some experience with this aspect of programming.

What we will do: A child be given an image. The child describes the picture for the class to reproduce. The children can ask questions to clarify the instructions. The object is to see how quickly and accurately the exercise can be completed. Then this is repeated, but no questions can be asked. Then this is repeated with a more complicated image, and the child turns her back! But it might be one of the teachers who does the telling!