FPP - Bee bots in maths

We used bee bots for a maths lesson on quarter turns and half turns. Bee bots were used to explore how many quarter turns are needed to face a certain direction, and other commands that are needed to reach a certain destination.

Using bee bots helped children visualise what quarter turns and half turns are whilst also enhancing their computing abilities. The work on bee bots can then be consolidated using worksheets in which children follow certain instructions (e.g. make a quarter turn to the right and move forward 5) on a treasure map to find different treasures.

Bee-bots

During my GPP, I did not use bee-bots as I felt that they were too childish for my year 5 class. For my final placement, I will be teaching year 1 and I am looking forward to use this opportunity to incorporate bee-bots into my lessons.

BareFoot Computing has a lesson plan for an introduction to programming using bee-bots that I might try to incorporate in my maths lessons.

The lesson feeds into computing and maths in the following ways:

computing

- algorithms - understand how programs execute by following precise and unambiguous instructions

maths

- geometry: describe position and direction 

- fractions: understand whole, half, quarter and three-quarter turns 

The lesson: 

Pupils create sequences of instructions to enable the Bee-Bot to navigate a route tracing out the shape of numeral e.g. 3.

 The children can also try to record their instructions using simple drawings of the commands before executing the commands.  

The task is more difficult than it sounds and the initial algorithm that the students come up with may not do anything close to what they'd like the bee-bot to do.

For example, for the numeral 2, children may start with the following: 

This gives an opportunity to talk about turns (half turns). Scaffolding should eventually help students understand that an appropriate algorithm would look like this:

The activity will allow students to learn about programming, debugging and algorithms.

EPP - Editing photos and writing instructions

In the computing lesson, the year 3 class used their iPads to take a photo and edit them using an editing app. The teacher started by discussing how to hold an iPad safely.

Even if children nowadays are digital natives, they need to be reminded of how to use hardware safely. Children might be able to hold an iPad or laptop with just one hand but it is always safer to hold things with both hands to prevent them from dropping expensive school equipment. There may also be children with certain backgrounds who do not have iPads, laptops and other mobile devices at home. It is thus important as teachers to ensure that children are aware of the basics of handling ICT equipment.

After the pupils took a photo and edited them, they then moved on to the main task. Their main task was to write an instruction on how to take a photo with an iPad. At this school, most tasks are differentiated in 3 levels: good, great and super. The computing tasks were differentiated with more challenging computing skills required.

Good
- Type instructions for taking photos
- Insert photos

Great
- Explain why photos are edited
- Change the next size or colour

Super
- Type handy hints to follow
- Change the page background

Sometimes we forget to differentiate tasks in subjects other than English and Maths but today's lesson made it clear that their is a big difference between children who frequently use computers and tablets at home and children who do not have much access to these equipment. Thus, its important to differentiate computing tasks and allow children to do tasks that are appropriately challenging.

The main task in this lesson could also be computing unplugged task where students need to create concise instructions which outline ALL the necessary steps. The importance of outlining all the steps can be emphasised through scenarios such as :"If it doesn't say I need to hold the iPad firmly, I might drop it!", "if you don't tell me to save it, I might lose all my work."

GREAT RESOURCES

My enquiry placement school has an IT specialist who was extremely kind and shared us his website which has some great resources including lesson plans for teaching computing.

His website is full of resources for e-safety, mechanisms of different software / hardware, using programming applications such as Move the Turtle & Rapid Router, algorithms etc. This website is immediately going to my bookmarks bar since it has the resources used for his computing lessons.

There are easy-to-understand objectives that teachers can use to plan their lessons. It clearly specifies the skills that the pupils need to achieve and both parents and children can easily understand what the objectives are. 

EPP - Move the Turtle

Move the Turtle is an app on the iPad and iPhone that allows children to learn the basics of programming, using intuitive commands. It familiarises the user with loops, procedures, variables and conditional instructions. The display above is from a computing suite in my enquiry placement school.

The video tutorial shows the app being used. The main goal is to command the turtle to go to reach the diamond. The task gets progressively more difficult as it demands more complicated instructions. The age-range for the app is 6-12 and the increasing difficulty of the tasks make it a suitable app for teaching coding throughout primary.





The app can also be used to explore patterns and create geometrical shapes as shown in the display above. It allows cross-curricular links between maths and ICT, where a coding software can be used to explore the properties of shapes.

E.g.
In a square, there are four 90 degree angles.
forward 10 steps --> 90 degree turn to the right --> forward 10 steps  --> 90 degree turn to the right   --> forward 10 steps --> 90 degree turn to the right --> forward 10 steps

Making games on scratch

To build my confidence in teaching computing using Scratch, I created a simple game after watching a tutorial.

The aim of the game is for the dog to touch the key without touching the bat. The bat moves up and down to guard the key. 

1. The bat needs to move up and down

Needed to do change some of the values so that the bat moved vertically. 

 2. The dog needs to move according to the arrow keys

3. The game needs to stop when the dog touches the bat

4. The game needs to finish when the dog gets the key. 

Although I watched a tutorial, I tried to figure out the instructions myself. I did end up using the tutorial to help me out with how to finish the game.  Using Scratch is a great way to get children to problem solve and figure out ALL the steps necessary. It's quite challenging but can be quite rewarding when sprites finally do what you want them to do!

Creating a game on scratch is best used as project at the end of a half-term in which students demonstrate the skills they have learnt. An interesting game on Scratch requires the students to understand the concept of variables, sequencing, repeating events and conditional events and be able to use the appropriate instructions. 

KS3 - Creating games

I observed a computing lesson in KS3 which discussed about how to create a game using a computer programme.

Pupils watched a video about a game developer discussing what the process of game making and the elements of a good computer game. The students then discussed about other elements of a good computer game such as good characters, gameplay, sound effects and etc.

The students then played flappy bird and discussed the following questions.
a. What is the purpose of the game?
b. What objects did you have to use? (e.g. computer mouse)
c. What were the sound effects?
d. What was the background?
e. Who is the targeted audience
f. Was the game appropriately challenging?

The students were then told that they would be creating their own simple game using Scratch.

Although this was a KS3 lesson that I observed, it can be easily adapted to a KS2 lesson. Children can play a simple game and discuss what they need to think about when creating a game. Students need to be aware the games need a targeted audience and purpose.

GPP - Rapid Router

In the ICT lesson, students were using Rapid Router to learn how to write algorithm using the basic principles of programming. It is built on 'Blockly', a visual programming language. The aim is to get the truck to reach the destination using the most efficient algorithm.

 It was a fun way to get children to understand repetition (repeat until) and selection (if___, do___).

If the child reaches the destination, they get 10/10 for route score. However, their algorithm needs to be the most simplest way possible to get 10/10. For example, I can reach the destination by doing move forward, move forward, move forward, turn left... and so on but I won't get a good score for my algorithm score. In the class, students were willing to get full marks so even when they managed to reach the destination, they examined their algorithm to find out how they can make it simpler.

Computing Pick 'n' Mix #4

I finally got round to completing the Computing Pick 'n' Mix #4. I found it really helpful since it gave me a good understanding of what the children are required to do, and a good idea of what the different programming applications are for. My initial fear / anxiety about teaching ICT has definitely been somewhat alleviated.  Teaching about not only HOW TO USE COMPUTERS computers but HOW COMPUTERS WORK doesn't seem too daunting anymore. 

I particularly found the video about computing across the curriculum interesting and it made me think of ways that I can incorporate ICT across the curriculum. 

• Beebot for geography exercises using a world map / UK map...
• Logo for making graphs and charts for results obtained from science experiments...
• Scratch for creating an interactive story and then writing a narration for English...

However, I'll need to try experimenting with these programs so that I get a real grasp of how easy the programs are to use.

I've made some notes about each of the programming applications so that I can come back to it and figure out which application would work best for particular activities and learning objectives. 

• Daisy the Dinosaur
• Children makes green dinosaur move at their command
• Gives taste of programming and encourages analytical thinking

• Logo
• Gives introduction to programming
• Graphs and charts are main applications but can also be used to create games and programs 

• Scratch
• Children can program own stories, games and animations
• Encourages creative thinking and systematic reasoning 
• Designed especially for ages 8 to 16

• Raspberry Pi
• Credit-card size computer that plugs into computer monitor or TV and used standard keyboard and mouse 

• Python
• General purpose programming language 

References 
Mind Leap. (2015). Daisy the Dinosaur. Available: 
   http://www.mindleaptech.com/apps/daisy-the-dinosaur/. [Last accessed 8th Oct 2015.]

Python Software Foundation. About Python. Available: 
https://www.python.org/.  [Last accessed 8th Oct 2015.]

Raspberry Pi Foundation. What is a Raspberry Pi?. Available: https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/what-is-a-raspberry-pi/. [Last accessed 8th Oct 2015.]