Roald Dahl

Marvellous Medicines Creations
Influenced by Roald Dahl’s, George’s Marvellous Medicine

Subject: Technologies

Year Level: 2

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub-Strand: Process and Production skills

Content Descriptors:
ACTDIP003– Collect, explore and sort data, and use digital systems to present the data creatively
ACTDIP004– Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems

Cross Curriculum Priorities 
-Sustainability

General Capabilities:
-Literacy
-Critical and Creative Thinking
-Information and communication Technology (ICT) Capability

Links to other Learning Areas – Literacy
ACELA1470 Understand the use of vocabulary about familiar and new topics and experiment with and begin to make conscious choices of vocabulary to suit audience and purpose

Can use on a:
– PC
– APPLE products such as MacBooks and Ipads
Digital devices must have word and or powerpoint (Which ever you chose)

Overview of activity:
The unit of work is based from the text: Roald Dahl: George’s Marvellous medicine.
Students will be developing the concept of informative texts throughout reading the text and ability to create their own marvellous medicine. Students will use multi modal representations to show the instructions on how to make a marvellous medicine that they have created. This unit of work integrates digital technologies and links with Language, giving students a broader context of literacy components including capital letters, commas and full stops; as well as writing instructions with appropriate audience in mind.

Scratch

Scratch

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year Level: 5-6

Links to other Learning Areas: Literacy, Numeracy, The Arts, HASS and Science

Links to Cross Curricular Priorities/ General Capabilities: Numeracy, Critical and Creative Thinking, ICT.

Platform: Desktop/Laptop

Cost: Free

ACARA Links:

  • Design, modify and follow simple algorithms involving sequences of steps, branching, and iteration (repetition) (ACTDIP019)
  • Implement digital solutions as simple visual programs involving branchingiteration (repetition), and user input (ACTDIP020)
  • Acquire, store and validate different types of data, and use a range of software to interpret and visualise data to create information (ACTDIP016)
  • Examine the main components of common digital systems and how they may connect together to form networks to transmit data (ACTDIK014)

Scratch is a Coding program that can be used in the classroom, to teach the basics of coding computers, however can also progress into more difficult coding projects as well. Scratch can be used by students will varied levels of capabilities, and is a fantastic tool for peer mentoring.

The program is both an online program accessed through Google Chrome (or FireFox) and can also be downloaded as a program onto any Desktop/Laptop computer.

The program allows uses to create stories, games and animations. Scratch could be used as a platform for students to present assignments as well as create interactive quizzes and games to be shared with peers.

The online version is fantastic, as it has tutorials for students (and teachers) of different levels of ability. The tutorials go through step-by-step processes in order to achieve the set out goal.

https://scratch.mit.edu

Plickers: The new way to assess

 

 

 

Resources: Plickers

Ages: 6+

Subject: Technologies

Year Level: Yr 1+

Strand: Digital Technologies

Sub strand: Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

 

Link to the resource: https://www.plickers.com/

Cross curriculum priority & General Capabilities: 

  • Information and communication technology capability
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Numeracy
  • English

Links to other learning areas: This resource can be used in any learning area.

Content Descriptors: This resource can be linked to any content descriptors in the curriculum.

Overview of Resource: Plickers in an online assessment tool that teachers can use to quickly and efficiently gather information on students knowledge on a topic. The teacher creates a quiz on the plickers website and then uses an iPad or mobile phone to gather the information from students. This is done by distributing flash cards to each students that have a QR code on them. Students turn the R code to represent the letter they wish to use to answer the question on the quiz.

Using the Plickers app, the teacher scans the classroom and the app will scan the students answers and record them online. After completing the question the teacher can show students a poll of the answer and can ask questions to clarify why people may have answered incorrectly.

Results can be saved as a PDF and printed off for future reference and to assist in planning for future lessons.

How to use resource in the classroom:

  • This resource can be used to check students understanding of any topic in the classroom.
  • Quickly and efficiently gather assessment record to inform future teaching.
  • Assess students in a fun and engaging way.

 

 

Minecraft and Computational Thinking

Minecraft is interesting from lots of different perspectives. It is a familiar and engaging gaming platform where  kids can spend hours building and modifying virtual worlds. Whilst doing things that they consider to be entertainment they are inadvertently learning key computational thinking skills.
Screen Shot 2016-08-07 at 7.52.09 PM

 

What is Computational Thinking?

“Computational thinking is a way humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers. Computers are dull and boring; humans are clever and imaginative. We humans make computers exciting. Equipped with computing devices, we use our cleverness to tackle problems we would not dare take on before the age of computing and build systems with functionality limited only by our imaginations; ” Jeanette M Wing

Minecraft happens to be a fantastic sandbox game to explore computational thinking. Minecraft provides a platform in which 21st century literacy skills can be explored and developed to cater for the learning objectives in the Australian Technology Curriculum. Educators have the option to utilise the existing user interface or subscribe to the new and improved Minecraft:Education Edition which makes implementing this amazing learning tool into your existing curriculum as easy as clicking on a mouse.

Using Minecraft as an Educational Tool 

 Read on further to discover how Minecraft can address the four cornerstones of computation thinking and the lesson plans offered in the Minecraft: Education Edition!

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Osmo Coding

Subject – Digital Technologies

Osmo Codingpreview-osmo-coding

Year level band: F-2

Sub-strand:

Producing and Implementing

Use given components and equipment to safely make simple solutions

Evaluating

Use personal preferences to evaluate the success of simple solutions

Link to Resource: https://www.PlayOsmo.com.

Cross curricular priorities and general capabilities:

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability

Critical and creative thinking

Personal and social capability

Ethical understanding

Literacy

Links to other learning areas:

English

Mathematics

A classroom activity using this resource:

Students will be given their iPads and the coding tools to manipulate. Students will be given the task of feeding their character. Each child will make their own character, put together the directions in front of their iPad and press play. The aim of this task is for students to lay their directions on the table before moving their character. This will introduce the students into forward thinking as they have to solve the problem before their character moves. When their character moves it must grab all the food before reaching the end. This task will involve maths when students count the steps and getting to know directions. 

How to use this resource:

The aim is for students to guide their character to eat all of the apples. If students do this successfully they will then move on to the next level. In doing this activity students will learn how to count and estimate how far their character needs to travel and in what direction. This activity requiring thinking in advance allows students to develop the skill of computational thinking and is a simple and easy way to introduce students to coding. This resource is different to others as it allows students to be hands on whilst also using an electronic screen to visualise their movements.

Crescendo: Digital technologies

crescendo

 

 

Website: Crescendo

 

Year level:

  • 5

Strand and Content descriptor:

  • Processes and production skills
  • Implement and use simple programming environments that include branching (decisions) and iteration (repetition) (ACTDIP020)

Links to other learning areas:

  • Music- Recording of ideas with symbols and/or standard notation and terminology (ACAMUM090)
  • Development of aural and theory skills, including: rhythm, tempo, pitch, dynamics, form, timbre, texture (ACAMUM088)

Cross curriculum priorities and general capabilities:

  • ICT
  • Critical and Creative Thinking

 

How to use Crescendo when teaching computational thinking in Technologies:

Crescendo is a program used to create and experiment music. It allows the user create sheet music and then playback their songs to evaluate whether their written notation matches what they want to make. It involves a large range of symbols, key signatures, time signatures, instruments, etc. and is also easy to edit and experiment with. This enables critical and creative thinking, as well as problem solving using patterns and models (as outlined in the Computational Thinking section of SCASA).

Crescendo has many in-class applications for teaching and learning. For example, students could be set the task of creating a soundtrack to a short story they have read or created. They will need to experiment with sounds, volumes, tempo, etc. in order to compose music that relays a certain message, atmosphere or mood. These songs can be saved and submitted as part of a music/media assessment.

This program also has real-life applications, especially for students who are passionate about music and wish to pursue it in the future. It is an extremely open-ended program that allows students to be actively involved in the design and evaluation process.

Discoveryeducation

Here are a couple websites that I have actually used in a year 5 class last year during my practicum. I found them very useful and makes planning a lesson much easier. I would suggest that these resources be used for upper primary years.

http://www.discoveryeducation.com – I love this website and everything in it. I used it almost for all of my lessons on technology and science. It lets you create puzzles for those that require more challenges, gives you access to hundreds of worksheets and new and exciting games. Due to it being an international website, you get lessons from around the world.

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk – My mentor teacher was originally from the UK and used sparkle box a lot. It really makes what the objective is clear and concise. It also inspired me on lessons and activities that the students would like.

Apart from these websites I also used the Australian Curriculum to create my own worksheets and resources which were adapted to the students needs and demands.

Here is a lessons that I used to introduce the topic to my class by using one of the websites.

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/technology-at-work.cfm

Year Level: 5

Time: 45 minutes

Materials:

  • A3 paper for each group.
  • blackboard/whiteboard
  • blutak

We had started looking at space, the planets and rockets. The year 9’s at the same school had just made rockets and we had watched them launch them. I was going to follow up this lesson by getting them thinking about what you may need to build a rocket and how they may build one out of the materials we had (cardboard, tape, newspaper, etc.) and follow that up with actually building them. However, I firstly needed them to think of technology and what that means.

Like the lesson on the website, I divided the class into their table groups and got them to think of ten modern technologies and write them down, I had given them 5 minutes. The then had 10 minutes to research them. (each student had their own Ipad from home, if they didn’t, there was a set of about 10 class Ipads). They also had to write a short description, cut out their blurb and sort them into chronological order.

After that we came back as a class and decided which ones were going onto our class timeline on the board. Together the class then was able to notice how far technology has come.

Students found it very exciting to think of technologies that their peers wouldn’t think off and were eager to learn about different technologies and who created them and when they were invented. Students were also taking the initiative to actually see how they worked. This allowed students to also realised how and why technology work and how it is incorporated into our everyday lives.

 

Planet Green Live

http://http://www.planitgreenlive.com/en/build-your-own-city

Subject: Design and technologies processes

Year level: F-2

Strand: Design and Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Content Description: Use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions

Elaboration: learning and safely practising a range of technical skills using tools and equipment, for example joining techniques when making products, watering and mulching gardens, preparing food, using software to design an environment

Cross curricular and general capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, numeracy, Literacy and sustainability

Cross-curricular links: This could be linked to history of what old towns and cities looked like, Geography about creating the town they live in/want to live in. Literacy and Numeracy

Classroom Activity using this resource:
Children can attempt to recreate a current city they are living in or create a more sustainable city to help fix some of the environmental problems we face today. This can also lead to them building a city our of recyclable products. This can be used as an individual task or group/collaborative work.

How to use this resource.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ym8_9I0yjM

This shows step by step instructions about how students can build their own sustainable city. This is an educational app that allows student to play a game while also educated themselves on how to improve our city and infrastructures.

 

Energy Efficient House

Resource: Energy Efficient House

Link: http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/viewing/L1150/index.html

Year level: Years 5 and 6

Subject: Technologies

Strand: Design and Technologies

Sub-strand: Design and Technologies Knowledge and Understanding

Content descriptor: Investigate how people in design and technologies occupations address competing considerations, including sustainability in the design of products, services and environments for current and future use (ACTDEK019)

Cross-curricular priorities: Sustainability

General capabilities:

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Information and communication technology capability
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Personal and social capability

Links to other learning areas:

  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Science

Resource Description:

This is an interactive resource that allows students to investigate the ways in which houses lose heat in winter and gain heat in summer. Students also explore how the use of different materials in the design of a house affects the inside temperature. Using this knowledge, students then design a house with maximum energy efficiency by changing variables such as insulation materials, window coverings and window directions to suit the given climate.

This online resource allows students to investigate how architects address the issue of heat loss and gain, when designing houses to build a product that suits the environment and the people living in it. As this is an interactive resource, it allows students to click on aspects of the house and investigate its affect on the temperature and is an engaging way for students to explore designing a maximum energy efficient house.

Engquest

A resource I like to use is EngQuest. You must be registered to access resources as a teacher, but it is free and full of whole class activities to do for design technology. You must be able to provide a school address.

link: http://www.engquest.org.au/

It gets students to think like an engineer and design and build constructions that work. They can then test to see whether their product is reliable.

I used it in class to build a catapult and students had fun testing theirs with marshmallows! it can lead you to amazing lessons.

content descriptions: 

Knowledge and understanding– Students can relate the activities to the designs and constructions of historical and modern day types of buildings. for e.g. one activity gets students to build a bridge that allows a certain amount of weight. students could research different types of bridges and their weight.

Processes and production skills– students go through the process of investigating and researching designs to designing their own type of construction. Then they use their designs and various materials to build their construction. They evaluate through testing.

 

The website can also be used for children to explore. It includes various levels of learning and different activities for each level; quizzes and animations; information about being an engineer and photo galleries where different schools can share their ideas.

Here is a link to show curriculum understanding based on this resource: https://www.mindmeister.com/568772875/engquest