Scratch – ECOO

Grade 5-8: Coding Through Game Design

Educational Computing Organization of Ontario coding, Game Design, Logics Academy, Scratch, ssWinter2021, Support Series, Winter2021

4 Sessions: (Thursdays: Feb 11th, 18th, 25th, March 4th) 5:45-6:45 ET

Logics Academy will help participants of ECOO Winter Support Series to learn how to use Scratch 3.0 as it provides an interactive environment to create and explore while building coding literacy in a block-based coding platform. Participants will create their own video games in many unique ways by completing coding challenges, tutorials and various starter projects as they build their coding skills. Participants will also provide coding instructions for potential users of their games. In between sessions, participants will have the opportunity to integrate what they’ve learned at the end of each session into their classrooms with their own students. Finally, participants may present their video games through a Virtual Showcase by sharing pre-recorded videos on Flipgrid and playing each other’s video games in a Scratch studio.

Session Dates: This is a four part series. Register once to attend all four sessions)

~~Thursday, February 11th, 2021. 5:45-6:45 pm~~ (session recording available below)
~~Thursday, February 18th, 2021. 5:45-6:45 pm~~ (session recording available below)
~~Thursday, February 25th, 2021. 5:45-6:45 pm~~ (session recording available below)
Thursday, March 4th, 2021. 5:45-6:45 pm

Session Recordings:

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Special Event: Computational Thinking Superpanel

Educational Computing Organization of Ontario Coding, ECOO News, Learning Event, Learning Opportunity Artemis Papert, Brenda Sherry, Brian Silverman, CanCodetoLearn, Computational Thinking, Cynthia Solomon, door prizes, front, Lego Logo, Logo, Lynda Colgan, LynxCoding, Peter Skillen, Queen's University, Scratch, Seymour Papert, Special Event, The Exploratorium, TurtleArt

Computational Thinking: What is it Really and Why Should We Care?

Panelists: Artemis Papert, Brian Silverman, Cynthia Solomon, Lynda Colgan
Moderators: Brenda Sherry, Peter Skillen

We’re hearing a lot about computational thinking. What is it exactly? Where did it come from? How might it be different from other kinds of thinking? Why should we care? Reflect on the origins of this work along with pioneers in the field: Dr. Cynthia Solomon—the co-creator of LOGO (the first programming language developed for children); Artemis Papert—artist and co-creator of Turtle Art; Brian Silverman—computer scientist and ‘coder’ of many of the world’s most famous versions of LOGO; Dr. Lynda Colgan—mathematics professor at Queen’s University and a LOGO programming trailblazer.

Speaker bios for the 4 panelists and 2 moderators are provided in the slider below:

Artemis Papert

Artemis Papert is an artist creating art in both traditional, mainly acrylic and pastel, and digital media, using code as the medium. After a first career as a research biologist she retrained in the healing art of shiatsu. With an interest in dream and fairy tale interpretation and as a lifelong learner, she is currently training to become a Jungian psychoanalyst. Artemis has led TurtleArt workshops for a wide variety of groups in many countries.

Brian Silverman

Since the late 1970s, Brian Silverman has been involved in the invention of learning environments for children. His work includes dozens of LOGO versions (including LogoWriter & MicroWorlds), Scratch, LEGO® robotics,TurtleArt, the PicoCricket, and the Phantom Fish Tank. Brian has been a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, enjoys recreational math, and is a computer scientist and master tinkerer. He once even built a tic-tac-toe playing computer out of TinkerToys.

Lynda Colgan

Dr. Lynda Colgan has been a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educator for almost four decades, and is in the unique position of having taught STEM subjects formally in all panels: Elementary (Kindergarten to Grade 6), Middle School (Grades 7 – 8), Secondary (Grades 9 – 12) and Post-Secondary (Undergraduate and Graduate), and informally through the worldwide web, television, children’s literature and public education events.

Her research over the last 22 years has been in STEM knowledge mobilization: supporting pre-service, in-service teachers and administrators in their efforts to implement mathematics curriculum through front-line mentoring, the development of shared on-line repositories, and extensive resource development. Her most recent project is called The Roots of Coding—a collection of sensorimotor tasks to promote computational thinking in K-Gr 1 children. The activities are designed to nurture children’s learning through their senses (e.g., touching the faces of a rectangular prism) and actions (e.g., filling in shape outlines with pattern blocks). The activities encourage children to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and why. Children are asked to produce drawings and diagrams as they work to record these tasks, and teachers are urged to use the children’s artifacts to engage them in discussions about their thinking processes and procedural strategies.

Cynthia Solomon

Cynthia Solomon is an American computer scientist known for her work in artificial intelligence and popularizing computer science for students. She is a pioneer in the fields of artificial intelligence, computer science, and educational computing.

While working as a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cynthia took it upon herself to understand and program in the programming language Lisp. As she began learning this language she realized the need for a programming language that was more accessible and understandable for children. Throughout her research studies in education, Dr. Solomon worked full-time as a computer teacher in elementary and secondary schools. Her work has mainly focused on research on human-computer interaction and children as designers. She created the first programming language for children, Logo, along with Wally Feurzeig and Seymour Papert. Logo was created to teach concepts of programming related to Lisp.

Cynthia worked on the program committee of Constructing Modern Knowledge and the Marvin Minsky Institute on Artificial Intelligence in 2016. She has published many writings based on research in the field of child education and technology in the classroom, and has conducted workshops on Academic research and writing at all levels of education. She continues to contribute to the field by speaking at conferences and working with the One Laptop Per Child Foundation.

Brenda Sherry

Brenda is an Ontario educator interested in engaging and empowering students using constructivist learning environments that bring learning and technology together in powerful ways. She has 32 years experience in public education as a teacher, instructional coach, vice-principal and Education Officer with the Ontario Ministry of Education’s 21st Century Learning Unit.

Brenda serves a global community through educational consulting with organizations in need of coaching, facilitated professional learning, learner-focused curricular programming, instructional design, and strategic planning. Her most recent projects include working with Taking IT Global in the federally funded CanCode Code To Learn Project, as well as Connected North and Girls Who Game, a Minecraft partnership between Microsoft, Dell and Advanced Learning Partnership that empowers girls to explore STEM activities and the possibilities of careers in STEM.

Website: brendasherry.com Twitter: @brendasherry

Peter Skillen

Peter Skillen is currently Curriculum & Project Leader for CanCodeToLearn—a federally funded Taking IT Global project that introduces computational thinking and coding to educators and students Canada-wide. His particular passion is to ‘draw’ students into ‘being mathematicians’ through the use of turtle graphics—an artistic aspect of the coding platform he has helped develop. He is a member of the Lynx Coding design team. He has been coding with kids and teachers since 1977.

Peter, an Ontario educator, has been involved in technology supported, project-based learning since the late 1970s, has traveled and spoken extensively in many countries and continues to explore and support knowledge-building environments for students and teachers.

A longtime member of the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO), Peter has served in many leadership roles since 1980. He has received two awards from ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)—the more recent being the Making IT Happen award.

Website & Blog – peterskillen.org Twitter – @peterskillen

Session Recording:

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#HourOfCode and Coding Buddies

Educational Computing Organization of Ontario ECOO News @adeletweets, #ECOOcodes, #HourOfCode, 2017, Adele Stanfield, coding buddies, Hopscotch, Hour of Code, Scratch

During the Hour of Code, my students had opportunity to explore two apps: Scratch Jr and Hopscotch. They had never coded before in school, and most had never coded outside of school either. I encouraged them to self-regulate by choosing which app would be the best for them, and they got started. They were very excited and engaged throughout this free exploration, and we shared what we had created, which was the cherry on top of this coding cupcake!

So, what to do next? I had related details about the Hour of Code in our staff meeting and offered to send along resources if any colleagues wanted to participate. I got a few nibbles, but no commitments. I understood where they were coming from; learning another language or even a new app, can be intimidating. I find coding overwhelming at times, I imagine others do as well. Why would an educator want to jump in?

I figured that having students teach other students would take the teacher anxiety out of the mix. My class already had kindergarten Reading Buddies, so it was an easy leap to do Coding Buddies during Hour of Code week using Scratch Jr. We have since done 3 more sessions of Coding Buddies, with 2 more on the way. Five other classes are now coding!

This is what I learned through Coding Buddies:

The sessions were engaging for both the learner buddies and my teacher buddies. While showing the learners how to use the app, my students inevitably found something new, which kept them motivated. The learners were focused and incredibly proud of their animations.
My teacher buddies felt empowered. This mentoring relationship built capacity within our school, yes, but it also built social connections, empathy, patience and confidence. My students are better people having had this experience.
It took the stress off the teachers. Because I promised the teachers they did not need to know how to use the app, the intimidation aspect diminished. And once they saw how engaged their students were, they started asking questions. “How can I use this regularly in my classroom?” “Can I assess this?” “Will they be able to use it independently?” It opened the door in an informal, low-anxiety way.
Learner buddies showed their teachers what they had created and showed their teachers how they created it. Educators learning alongside their students. Teachers understanding that they are not the experts, and becoming comfortable with that. Powerful stuff.

My next steps are to offer continued mentoring support, and asking my students if they want to continue mentoring as well. We are learning coding through other apps that we can easily teach others how to use. Now that the door has been opened, I can refer them to the variety of resources available, including ECOO’s #ECOOcodes page.

How are you building capacity, sharing your learning in coding? What are your go-to resources coding resources?