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Before class:
- Check your grades on eLC for Maker project and Genius Hour project post #1. Talk with me if you have any questions.
- Read The 5th ‘C’ of 21st Century Skills? Try Computational Thinking (Not Coding). Think critically and then share your thoughts about whether computational thinking should be one of the 21st century skills in this Google form.
The potential 5th C debate:
- Understanding the background and the purpose of 4Cs.
- Understanding what is computational thinking.
Computational Thinking Project:
You are going to explore block-based programming and work in groups of 2 or 3 to develop an age-appropriate subject-based lesson plan. We will practice with Scratch, but you can also choose Code.org, microbit, Ozoblockly, and many other similar tools as long as you and your teammates agree on it. You will have time in class to finish most of your project together so that you can dive into your Genius Hour project after class (I'm going to share my own Genius Hour project with you this week).
Now find your partners and sign-up with your group here. Take a few minutes to look at Georgia Performance Standards and discuss with your partner what kind of topic/subject you might want to create the lesson plan for. Rubrics and lesson plan templates will be provided later.
Block-based Programming: Scratch
Block-based programming was introduced to help K-12 students learn coding. Instead of learning the traditional text-based coding languages, students just need to drag and drop blocks of codes and combine them together to create programs. The most popular block-based programming website is Scratch. It was developed in 2003 by the MIT Media Lab and designed especially for ages 8 to 16. For younger kids, there is Scratch.Jr.
Let’s try the following:
Go to https://scratch.mit.edu
Click "Explore"
Check out both "Projects" and "Studios" to see what projects are interesting to you or what might be similar to your lesson plan idea.
Try "Create" if you have time. We'll talk more specifically about how to use Scratch in the following classes.
HOMEWORK:
1. Before class, Wednesday, October 16th, search the internet for computational thinking and K-12 curriculum integration examples and share them here.
2. Work on your Genius Hour project. Post #2 is due October 18th, Friday, before class.
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