Returning to Coding

After a hiatus from coding, due largely to my absence from the Numeracy classroom, our journey has begun again with a range of experiences on the code.org Hour of Code page.

The students were given the choice of exploring the Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code or completing the Classic Maze with Angry Birds.

Some worked on their iPad ....

... some worked on their computer ...

 ... all worked independently at their own pace

They were all focussed and each student achieved at least one of the tutorials. Not a bad effort for the last lesson on a Friday!

At least one student ventured beyond code.org and started to explore the Khan Academy Hour of Drawing with Code tutorial, which is considerably more of a challenge.

The students are excited to be coding again ... which is really pleasing. They want to explore the iPad App Floors by Pixel Press. They've had a bit of a play with it, whilst I was absent from teaching them, so I've agreed to look at developing a project for them to complete during Term 3.

In the meantime, we've got a few more tutorials on the code.org website that we can explore and a couple of interesting coding Apps I've found on the App Store:

Javvy: Learn how to code in Java

Swifty: Learn how to code in Swift

Spiraling Emoji in Hopscotch

This week, Nick shared with the class the Hopscotch tutorial he'd explored last week: Draw with Spiraling Emoji in Hopscotch. Everyone got right into following this simple, but effective tutorial and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The students largely kept up with the instructions and when they missed something, they were quick to ask Nick to stop the tutorial. Once again, they helped each other out when needed ... such a simple thing but nice to see.

There's not a lot of instructions in this tutorial. However, it introduces the concept of using a 'hack' to make something happen for which there isn't a built-in piece of code.

 

At the end of the tutorial, viewers are encouraged to change some of the settings they've added ... just to see what happens. Each student created something different and we had lots of funning checking out what everyone had done.

The coding for this project looks like this ... 

and here's the tutorial on You Tube.

Now, take a look at some student creations ...

At the end of the lesson, we unpacked the lines of code and talked about what each one means. The students remembered most commands and were able to articulate their understanding. I'm looking forward to seeing the next student-chosen tutorial next Friday ... I hope it's as much fun as this one was.

Welcome back to school - 2016

Friday was the last day of our first week of school for 2016. That week flew by at breakneck speed! So, what's in store for Numeracy this year?

The Year 10 Numeracy class is made up of the same group of fourteen students from the 2015 Year 9 Numeracy group, which is fantastic from my point. Why? Basically because they're great young people: ten boys and four girls. Our main goal this year is to develop their numeracy skills to a point that ensures they will pass the compulsory semester of maths required to achieve their Souths Australian Certificate of Education (SACE). Coding for Numeracy is our fun way of spending Lesson 6 on Fridays (last lesson of the week) using the skills we develop during our more structured lessons each week as well as meeting the requirements of a host of Australian Curriculum General Capabilities, which are also considered as 21st Century Skills required in the workplace.

On Friday afternoon, we all agreed that there was a need for some 'refresher' type sessions after the long Summer break. Students were asked to explore You Tube to find one short and interesting tutorial for the coding App, Hopscotch, that could be done by the group in a single lesson (50 minutes). They all got right into this (some working independently whilst other paired up with a friend) to view and then do a short tutorial. At the end of the lesson, each student ... or pair of students ... shared what they'd discovered. These included a simple program that allows the participant to draw pictures on the screen using a finger and drawing using Emoji symbols. Several students explored a tutorial that creates a light-sabre game but thought it too challenging. We'll explore this concept of trying something that seems difficult once we're back in the swing of creating.

Tutorials that got the thumbs up will be on the agenda for next Friday's lesson, with the students who discovered the tutorial taking the lead in teaching the class. This will be a new experience for them. However, I expect them as Year 10 students, to be able to step up and do this. More on this next week ...