3D Design Challenge

HomeOur Senior Learning Community students have utilised their Maths & Technology skills & knowledge to create some amazing 3D structures.

Using the SketchUp 3D modelling program, students learnt how to construct basic 3D shapes and then combined them all for their final design.

Exercising their design & creative thinking skills throughout the process, students finished off their creations by adding colour and texture to make realistic structures.

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Technology Club

Technology Club is a place where upper primary students can gather at lunch time to explore coding, robotics and all things techy.

During Term 2, some students were busy designing and coding animations and games on their iPads, while other students were challenged to construct a powered vehicle that could carry a soft toy passenger. The vehicle was powered by one or more robotic sphero balls and involved skills and knowledge in design, engineering, maths, science and technology.

Please have a look at our short video to see what fun our students had while they were experimenting and problem solving with their friends.

 

 

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MakerSpace Creations

This year we have converted one of our classrooms into a MakerSpace.  Our Makerspace is a place where students can wonder, be challenged, explore and discover through a cycle of imagining, designing, creating, testing and improving.  This space provides opportunities for highlighting the many connections between Science, Technologies, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) and provides students with a relaxing, flexible place where they can “make stuff”.

During term 1 many of our Middle & Senior Learning Community students have been involved in a lunchtime Coding Club & Makers Club.  Centered around a technologies theme, students have explored pixel theory and pixel art through many mediums, including

  • Graph paper & textas
  • Wooden squares & Blu-Tack
  • PixelArt Maker iPad App
  • Tynker iPad Coding App
  • Minecraft add-ons for Tynker
  • Minecraft 3D paper craft
  • Plastic Hama Beads

Through all of these mediums, students have explored how pictures, designs, creations, digital artworks & gaming characters all consist of grids of coloured squares or circles.  They have discovered that the detail & quality of the creation increases as the number of pixels increases.  This knowledge & the associated skills will be built on in the Technologies curriculum as well as in Maths, Science & The Arts (ie digital photography).

Please enjoy our gallery of our students in action and some of their creations.

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Coding our Maths Quizzes

Since designing their algorithms and user interface for their maths quizzes (see last post), students in the Middle & Senior Learning Communities have created their multiple choice maths quizzes in the Tynker coding app.

Shape Quizzes

The Middle Learning Community students designed & created a multiple choice Shape Quiz, where they used their knowledge of regular polygons and created code that used repetition and branching coding concepts.

  • REPEAT code blocks were used to draw the shapes, by creating code for one side of the shape and then getting the program to repeat it a certain number of times.  The students had previously created algorithms to help them work out the angle to turn at each corner of the shape.
  • Branching was coded by using IF-THEN-ELSE code blocks to perform different actions depending on whether the answer to a question was correct or incorrect.

Here are a couple of examples :

Amber – Year 4

Daniel – Year 5

Times Tables Quizzes

The Senior Learning Community students designed & created a multiple choice Times Tables Quiz.  They coded 10 questions and kept a score on the screen.  Some students were creative in the way they kept score and one student also kept a timer so the user would know how long it took them to do the quiz.

Here are a couple of examples :

Jayden – Year 6

Tomas – Year 6

Liam – Year 6

Have a go at Liam’s quiz and see if you can create a bit of peace and quiet by getting the answers correct so that the chirpy birds disappear.

 

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Algorithms, Shapes & Maths Quizzes

In our Middle and Senior Learning Community Coding Classes students have been learning about algorithms.

Algorithms are detailed step by step instruction sets or formulas for solving a problem or completing a task.  Computer programmers write detailed algorithms to instruct computers and robots how to perform tasks.

The Middle Learning Community practiced designing and writing algorithms for the Pro-Bot robots to draw shapes.  This involved recording some data for each shape, such as the number of sides, the length of the sides and the angle to turn at each corner.  Students observed that algorithms can be written sequentially (the long way) or by using repetition (loops).  They noticed that by using Pro-Bot’s repeat button, the number of buttons that need to be pressed to get Pro-Bot to draw shapes can be reduced dramatically.  Students also used the Tynker coding app to program characters to draw shapes on their iPad screen, as they begin to put together a Tynker Shapes Quiz for other students to use.

The Senior Learning Community students have started designing & coding a Times Tables quiz.  They are choosing 10 times tables questions and presenting each one on the screen as a multiple choice question, where one answer is correct and the other 3 are incorrect.  (They are carefully choosing 3 incorrect answers that could easily be mistaken as the correct answer if the user doesn’t read the question properly).  They have been learning about user interface – what makes a good looking, easy to use and engaging program.  They have been experiencing the importance of good planning & design and have planned out their screen background, characters & questions on paper.  They have designed algorithms using flowcharts that involve decisions and branching for some of their times tables questions.  Planning & design are very important parts of the process of creating software and apps and students have been practicing these skills before embarking on any coding.

Stay tuned to see the quizzes that the Middle & Senior Learning Community students design and create with the Tynker Coding app.

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The Hour of Code

Last week, our Year 4, 5 and 6 classes again participated in the Hour of Code.

The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries.  The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify “code”, to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts.

Our students watched a short video, where computer science professionals such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg told students how their first experience with computer coding was to code something very simple, such as a tic-tac-toe game or a simple shape drawn on the screen.  Our students then chose from many self-paced coding tutorials with themes such as Moana (Disney), Frozen, Minecraft and Star Wars.  Some students used the Tynker coding app to create a simulation of the solar system.

hourofcode

Students learnt about commands such as move forward, turn left, turn right, repeat, repeat until, if-then-else and so on.  Using drag and drop commands blocks and their mathematics knowledge, they were able to programme the characters in the activities to draw interesting shapes and patterns or work through mazes and puzzles, dodging obstacles along the way.  They learnt that the ordering of commands is very important and that commands such as repeat can save 100’s of lines of code and make the coding task a lot quicker.

Some students took the extra challenge to learn text programming, using computer programming languages called Python and Java.  This gave these students a taste of life as a computer programmer.

The Hour of Code activities can be found on this website – https://code.org/learn

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Learning with Thomas

Year 5 Robot Project

IMG_1230

Thomas the NAO humanoid robot returned to our school in Term 1 this year and this time, the Year 5 classes were the main participants in the AISSA Humanoid Robot project.  The focus was to see how the robot could be integrated into the new digital technologies curriculum and what effect it would have on student learning and engagement.

The students learnt how to programme virtual (on screen) robots using the Choregraphe software, which included exploring and using box commands and timelines.  They then thought of a creative scenario where they would need to get Thomas moving – for example, to escape from a jungle, to cross a road or to get a better view at the basketball.  The students were then asked to design an algorithm on paper, using any method they could think of, and then use this algorithm to write a programme to eventually run on the robot.  When complete, students were able to run their project on Thomas and video their work.   Some students did some extension work where they learnt how to make the virtual robot do repetitive movements using the ‘Counter’ box.

The data collected before and after this project showed substantial improvements in the student’s ability to design and write algorithms, to use a visual programming language and to understand programming concepts such as sequence and repetition.  Students commented that it was useful having a real robot to test their projects on because the real robot would sometimes behave differently to the virtual robot because it was a 3D object moving around in the real world.  It was also highly engaging and personable.

This video shows some of this amazing work from our year 5 students.

Year 6 Girls

To encourage our year 6 girls to explore STEM subjects, they each had two 1 hour sessions with Thomas.  In the first, they learnt similar programming skills to the year 5 students, using Choregraphe’s box commands and timelines.  They were then able to write a small programme to get Thomas moving or interacting with them.  One group of girls explored voice recognition and branching (conditional) commands.  They programmed Thomas to ask them what their favourite animal was, and then depending on their answer he would give different responses.  This was a real eye-opener for the girls and they could see real-world uses in libraries etc for such technology.

This video shows the girls work and some of the voice recognition projects that they programmed.

Ukelele Club

For a bit of fun, some Year 4 girls helped programme Thomas to sing along with the Ukelele club.  Check it out …

 

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Hour of Code

On Monday and Tuesday this week, our Year 4, 5 & 6 classes participated in a world-wide event called the Hour of Code.  The Hour of Code is a global movement by Computer Science Education Week and Code.org reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries through a one-hour introduction to computer science and computer programming.

HourOfCode

During the hour, we discussed what coding (or programming) is, what kinds of devices can be programmed and how devices can be programmed.  We talked about some exciting areas where coding is becoming increasingly important, such as robotics, medicine (ie 3D printing of artificial limbs), digital animation, farming, communication and even the fashion industry.

The students then selected one of four online tutorials that introduced programming concepts and extended their skills in coding.  They learnt about commands such as move forward, turn left, turn right, repeat, repeat until, if-then-else and so on.  Using drag and drop blocks, they were able to programme the characters in the activities to draw interesting shapes and patterns or work through mazes and puzzles, dodging obstacles along the way.  They learnt that the ordering of commands is very important and that commands such as repeat can save 100’s of lines of code and make the coding task a lot quicker.

If your child would like to continue with their tutorial at home, or look as some other excellent activities please see the Hour of Code page on this blog by clicking here or go to https://code.org/learn

Year 4s – We did the Hour of Code

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Maths Fun with Pro-Bot

Pro-Bot

 

Some of our Year 5 and 6 students have been programming our floor robot “Pro-Bot” to draw shapes.  By using their prior knowledge of regular polygons and angles, they determined that they have equal length sides and that the sum of the external exterior angles is 360%.

 

The students constructed algorithms to draw a variety of shapes and then programmed Pro-Bot to draw them.  After testing their programme, they inserted a coloured pen into the robot and the robot then drew the shape on paper.  Here are some of the results from the year 5 girls robotics group.

And here are some of our year 6 students in action.

Yr6 - Programming Pro-Bot to draw shapes

Pro-Bot

From Pro-Bot Robotics manual by Terrapin Software


 

 

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iPads in the Creative Arts room

In Cathy Hunt’s fantastic iBook titled iPad Art, she says

iPad ArtroomThe personal mobile devices we see in the hands of our students are powerful tools for creation.  Mistakes can be erased, experiments are easily undertaken, exploration is exciting, learning is student-centred and confidence reigns supreme. 

But how do you integrate iPads into the hands-on classroom?  It’s not about getting rid of the great things we’ve always done in the art room – the iPad and other technology can be valuable additions to your teaching tool kit.  The studio really is a place where paint and pixels can work together to enhance creativity, visual literacy, divergent thinking, ideation and more.

Our students have been exploring the world of digital art in the following ways:

Still life drawings

As part of a Unit of Inquiry on “How We Express Ourselves”, some classes were given the task of using the Drawing Box app to re-create a still life artwork.  They were asked to use several different shades of colour and to become familiar with blending and the mixing of colours.  Here are some of the masterpieces.

 

Music Video Clips

As part of another Unit of Inquiry on “How We Express Ourselves”, students were given the task of creating digital music and then complementing the music with visual images in the form of a pop-style video clip.  More than one app was used in this process, which introduces the concept of ‘Workflow’, where the output of one app is used as input to the next app until the final product is completed.  The apps used in the process were GarageBand, VideoFX Live and iMovie.

Some of the things students were asked to consider in making their music video clip were:

  1. What makes a song catchy?
  2. What effect does the speed of the tempo have on my song?
  3. How can I use the editing tools to help create dynamics?
  4. How can I keep the listener interested?
  5. What effects can I add to emphasis the feeling of my song?

Here is a brief compilation of some of the student’s music video clips.

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