Hour of Code

Resource: Hour of Code

15 Million Students worldwide have learned an Hour of Code.

Link: https://code.org/educate

Subject: Technologies

Year level: K-12 (This program offers a range of activities and you will choose activities based on the capabilities of your students)

Strand: Digital Technologies

Substrand:

  • Knowledge and understanding (how data are represented and structured symbolically).
  • Processes and Production skills (defining problems and specifying and implementing their solutions).

Content Descriptor:

Cross curricular priorities:

  • Literacy
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Information and Communication Technology
  • Critical and Creative Thinking

Description:
Hour of Code is a worldwide application that introduces students to coding. It has a wide range of hour long tutorials at various age and stage ranges. The activities range from creating an interactive greeting card to creating java script.

These hour long tutorials can be implemented on computers, tablet or smart phones and can be worked on either collaboratively or individually. There is also the opportunity to teach “unplugged” sessions where computers are not required but students’ engage in activities designed to develop their computational thinking.

This application comes with detailed instructions for teachers and requires no previous computer knowledge for either the teacher or the students. A short film is available to demonstrate how to implement the program in your school.

Activities:
There are a range of activities that can be implemented alongside the hour long tutorials, these include the “unplugged” sessions where students work on their critical thinking skills, and handout sheets are available from the website.

Mind Mapping with Popplet

Year level: F – 2

Strand: Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Collect, explore and sort data, and use digital systems to present the data creatively (ACTDIP003)

Link to resource: http://popplet.com/

Cross-Curriculum Priorities and General Capabilities:

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

Classroom Activity: This interactive and engaging software is a great resource for modern classrooms. Students can work independently or in small groups to create mind maps on a given topic and then submit their work via Popplet.

Popplet is great for group work as teachers are able to click on the ideas listed in order to identify the contributions that students have made.

 

By: Jessica Owsiak

iMotion- Stop Motion Application

iMotion- Stop Motion Application

Name: iMotion by Fingerlab

Link to resource:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/imotion/id421365625?mt=8

Description of resource:
This application allows students to take photos and put them together to form a video. It has the capability for manual or automatic photo capture, a grid so that objects in shot are placed appropriately and videos can be shared with social media or with online websites as well as onto the devices photo folder.

Video: This video explains the concept and shows the features of the app in an example stop motion video.

Year level/band level: all band levels F-2, 3-4, 5-6

Subject: Design Technology
Strand: Processes and Production Skills
Sub-strands and Content Descriptors: Generating and Producing

  • 2.6 Visualise, generate, develop and communicate design ideas through describing, drawing and modeling
  • 2.7 Use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions

Subject: Digital Technologies
Strand: Knowledge and Understanding
Sub-strands and Content Descriptors:Digital Systems

  • 2.1 Identify and use digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose)

Strand: Processes and Production Skills
Sub-strands and Content Descriptors: Collaborating and managing

  • 2.6 Work with others to create and organise ideas and information using information systems, and share these in safe online environments

Cross Curricular Priorities and General Capabilities:
This technology encourages students to learn about and use information and communication technology (ICT) as well as other general capabilities. Specifically this technology encourages Critical and Creating Thinking as well as Personal and Social Capability.

Using stop motion videos to convey ideas, explain concepts, show understanding and communicate ideas to problems encourages students act in ways that contribute to a sustainable future. In creating these videos, students are contributing to the wealth of knowledge and passing on information for future students to use.

Links to other learning areas:
English

  • Animating a story e.g. animating student’s own narrative writing, retelling a section from a novel, creating vidual representations of poetry etc.
  • Creating an instructional video- visualising a procedural text

Maths

  • Creating ‘How To’ videos to explain students own knowledge of a maths concept

Science

  • Explain a concept or illustrating a theory, such as how electricity works in a circuit or demonstrating the change of state when a liquid changes to a gas.

How it is useful to classroom:
In the past stop motion capture and production was too impractical for a classroom and educational context, however with free apps like this stop motion one, it now very easy for students in the classroom to create their own photos and videos on a mobile device

Exciting way for students to engage with different learning areas and learn about the technology they are using to convey ideas and solutions to problems.
Teachers use this application as a helpful assessment tool when seeing how students are progressing through ideas. Once the video is made, teachers can go back and video the video again for assessment purposes.

Flexible and engaging for students to represent what they know- especially for students who are weaker in written or oral language or who are learning English as another language or dialect, they can show their knowledge and skills through the use of this technology and collaboration with others.

This application enables students to work together on their videos as a collaborative task – someone captures pictures while others plan future photos or move objects for the next photo as well as previous steps in the design process such as designing props or a storyboard.
It is easy to share videos safely online or onto a mobile device for sharing with the community. If parents, other classrooms or schools are connected by class blogs, videos can be posed online so students learning and creations can be viewed.

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All Photos and Video are property of Finger Labs 2012

Innovation Game: PotBiz = Powerhouse Museum

Innovation Game: PotBiz = Powerhouse Museum
Game credits
Game concept, script, and scoring: Rob Renew
Design and animation: Richard Byers and Camela Cheng
Programming: Andrew Lawrence and Mike Sheetal
Producer: Seb Chan

Subject: Digital Technologies

Year Level: 7-8

Strand: Design and Technologies Knowledge and Understanding

Sub strand: Design and Technologies processes and production skills

Content descriptor:
Critique needs or opportunities for designing and investigate, analyse and select from a range of materials, components, tools, equipment and processes to develop design ideas.

Link to the resource:
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/innovationgame/game.html

Cross curriculum priorities: Sustainability

General capabilities:
Literacy
Critical and creative thinking

Links to other learning areas:
Mathematics- budgeting and material costs etc.
Science- soil quality and sunlight etc.

A classroom activity using this resource:
This game can be used to as an introduction to a hands on rich task. The game will elicit critical and creative thinking developing prior knowledge. Schools often have Design and Technology days where each class is to design and create a product to sell. The rich task would be to design and produce pot plants, choosing all appropriate materials, components, tools and equipment as a class. The students would have to calculate a selling price.

How to use this resource:
Potbiz can be accessed on a PC computer or Ipad. Enter the link into the URL and press play. The game can be played as a once off or continued. Students can also experiment with different designs to analyse and create the best design.

Task 2: Design your own App!

Resource: Design your own App!

Description:
In this activity, students are able to create their own app. The project is accessed through a Weebly. It is open-ended and differentiates for all the students. It is student-paced and allows students to work through it at their own speed. After completing the project, students present their new app to the class. A marking rubric is used to formally assess students and anecdotal notes can be made along the way to monitor learning.

Year Level: 5/6

Curriculum Links:

  • 6.4 Acquire, store and validate different types of data, and interpret and visualise data in context to create information
  • 6.6 Follow, modify and describe simple algorithms involving sequence of steps, decisions, and repetitions that are represented diagrammatically and in plain English
  • 6.8 Use a range of communication tools and agreed social protocols when collaborating on projects and creating, communicating and sharing ideas and information online

Link: http://www.weebly.com/

Cross Curricular Priorities:
English
Any topic or subject focussed for the App.

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Task 3 – Lesson 2 in designing an eco-friendly home

Here is a mind map of lesson 2 of my 5 lesson plans. The students have been introduced to eco-friendly homes and features in lessson 1. So in lesson 2 they are beginning the designing process to design their own eco-friendly homes with sustainability and the environment in mind. They are considering themselves and future generations in their designs.

https://www.mindmeister.com/502665431

example design home

Interactive Lesson Plan

 Toys – Lets Get Designing

Design_and_Technologies_-_Toys_(Year_2_-_Lesson_2)_

https://www.mindmeister.com/503531331#

This lesson is appropriate for a year 2 class studying design and technology. It is interactive and hands on making it appropriate for the age level. It can easily be linked in with the year 2 history curriculum. The lesson is inclusive and easily adaptable for students with learning difficulties and other needs. There is not a high element of risk involved so no other safety or risk management considerations need to be put in place. Assessment is done through a rating scale and by observing the child work. Observation and information can also be gathered from class discussions.