Students with Different Coding Experiences
Having a class of students with varying coding and robotics experiences is a challenge. However, we believe it is a situation that more likely occurs as a school begin to develop coding and robotics and will be less of a problem as time goes on. Even within our two year period for our TLLP (Teacher Learner, Leader Program) and now our PKE (Provincial Knowledge Exchange) we have faced this challenge. Last year we could do the same activities for several grades because everyone (including us!) were new to coding. Now, this year, those students have moved up a year and come armed with their coding knowledge. What we did last year we must build on this year. In our school in particular this is a challenge for our Intermediate students and teachers. Our Grade 7 & 8 students are involved in many more activities than our younger students and last year was no exception. Making toy dragsters with our local high school and developing a business plan and producing a product to sell with the university meant we concentrated on our Early Years, Primary, and Junior students for coding and robotics activities.
This year, we are working with two Intermediate teachers. One was looking for ways to engage her students in writing by presenting a “Monday Morning Maker Challenge” and the other was looking to integrate coding with art. Within these classrooms was a wide variety of coding experiences, ranging from students who had never coded, to others who were making their own complex Scratch projects. There was also a feeling amongst the students that they were not artists and that any art work produced was not “good”. So here was the challenge: find Scratch projects that were suitable to a wide variety of coding knowledge that would support positive results artistically and encourage students to respond to their art projects in writing. Here is what we did:
Even though Scratch has an internal search engine that sorts projects by up to three tags I start my search using Google. I find that this not only includes Scratch projects, there are links to ScratchEd and other outside sources. Many times these links provide teaching information or even lesson plans related to a topic.
It ended up that I found Scratch projects that involved circles to create art and some with connections to other subjects such as math and science. As I found a project I would copy the Scratch link and a screen shot of it and compile them in a Word document. I believe that providing teachers with just a series of links is not as inviting as providing the link and a visual of either the book cover or web site home screen or, as in this case, a photo of the project helps others remember them.
Then as the number of projects grew to over a dozen I realized I need to sort them out to help the classroom teacher decide which ones to select. I based the sort on the degree of ‘coding’ required and the degree of ‘artistic skill’ needed in each project. This would help meet the wide coding experiences of the class as well as those who would favour art over coding or coding over art. I also included in the sort the theme of ‘researcher’ that would give the option of producing an informational project, similar to a Power Point Presentation or time line project that would involve very little coding or artistic endeavor.
The file titled All Circle Art Scratch Projects has the Links and screen shots of the ones gathered. The file titled, Maker Monday Art is the worksheet used with the students (thanks to Sharon for giving permission to add to the Weebly). And the files titled Student Art & Poem A, B, & C are three actual students’ work. On the next page of this file is the chart of ideas as a continuum:
Having a class of students with varying coding and robotics experiences is a challenge. However, we believe it is a situation that more likely occurs as a school begin to develop coding and robotics and will be less of a problem as time goes on. Even within our two year period for our TLLP (Teacher Learner, Leader Program) and now our PKE (Provincial Knowledge Exchange) we have faced this challenge. Last year we could do the same activities for several grades because everyone (including us!) were new to coding. Now, this year, those students have moved up a year and come armed with their coding knowledge. What we did last year we must build on this year. In our school in particular this is a challenge for our Intermediate students and teachers. Our Grade 7 & 8 students are involved in many more activities than our younger students and last year was no exception. Making toy dragsters with our local high school and developing a business plan and producing a product to sell with the university meant we concentrated on our Early Years, Primary, and Junior students for coding and robotics activities.
This year, we are working with two Intermediate teachers. One was looking for ways to engage her students in writing by presenting a “Monday Morning Maker Challenge” and the other was looking to integrate coding with art. Within these classrooms was a wide variety of coding experiences, ranging from students who had never coded, to others who were making their own complex Scratch projects. There was also a feeling amongst the students that they were not artists and that any art work produced was not “good”. So here was the challenge: find Scratch projects that were suitable to a wide variety of coding knowledge that would support positive results artistically and encourage students to respond to their art projects in writing. Here is what we did:
Even though Scratch has an internal search engine that sorts projects by up to three tags I start my search using Google. I find that this not only includes Scratch projects, there are links to ScratchEd and other outside sources. Many times these links provide teaching information or even lesson plans related to a topic.
It ended up that I found Scratch projects that involved circles to create art and some with connections to other subjects such as math and science. As I found a project I would copy the Scratch link and a screen shot of it and compile them in a Word document. I believe that providing teachers with just a series of links is not as inviting as providing the link and a visual of either the book cover or web site home screen or, as in this case, a photo of the project helps others remember them.
Then as the number of projects grew to over a dozen I realized I need to sort them out to help the classroom teacher decide which ones to select. I based the sort on the degree of ‘coding’ required and the degree of ‘artistic skill’ needed in each project. This would help meet the wide coding experiences of the class as well as those who would favour art over coding or coding over art. I also included in the sort the theme of ‘researcher’ that would give the option of producing an informational project, similar to a Power Point Presentation or time line project that would involve very little coding or artistic endeavor.
The file titled All Circle Art Scratch Projects has the Links and screen shots of the ones gathered. The file titled, Maker Monday Art is the worksheet used with the students (thanks to Sharon for giving permission to add to the Weebly). And the files titled Student Art & Poem A, B, & C are three actual students’ work. On the next page of this file is the chart of ideas as a continuum:
All Circle Art Scratch Projects
Projects that students can create an art piece and/or code at three different levels.
One create art with existing coding.
Two remix to change one or several of the properties to create their own version of the art (for example change colour palette or shapes used). The program rolls out automatically.
Three add additional coding to give the user the ability to choose various elements themselves with variable blocks. The program requires user input before it rolls out automatically.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/202104623/
Projects that students can create an art piece and/or code at three different levels.
One create art with existing coding.
Two remix to change one or several of the properties to create their own version of the art (for example change colour palette or shapes used). The program rolls out automatically.
Three add additional coding to give the user the ability to choose various elements themselves with variable blocks. The program requires user input before it rolls out automatically.
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/202104623/
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/46729212/
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1009497/
Mandal Paint project duplicates 5 times as you draw one shape. Task Idea: change the number of repeats, colour
Uses cos & sin and x & y coordinates
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1009497/
Mandal Paint project duplicates 5 times as you draw one shape. Task Idea: change the number of repeats, colour
Uses cos & sin and x & y coordinates
Dot Art has lots of other aminations after dot art that students can consider.
This next one was very popular! https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/113396270/
This next one was very popular! https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/113396270/
Check out remixes – change colours, change shapes, more challenging remixes would be to add variables and make interactive rather than automatic. Good project to have students explain why the coding produces the art work it does. Try with different media, such as paint and pencil. Screen shots at different points along creation as I did with two large shots
These projects have variables already:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/40791994/ Project has variables, so students could remix for different 3D shapes, colour palette, music
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/40791994/ Project has variables, so students could remix for different 3D shapes, colour palette, music
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/27597010/ Project has variables (Settings) so remix other aspects
Task Ideas: Students can draw an original piece of art work or remix coding to make their own interactive dreamcatcher (this will involve some artistic drawing on their own such as centre design, feather…). As a follow-up write a story involving a Dream catcher and story board it in Scratch)
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/76524172/ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/119186911/
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/76524172/ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/119186911/
Three levels of use. Students complete art work (1) “as is” or (2) remix coding or (3) add variables to give audience choices to change from automatic to interactive.
Maker Monday Art
I looked at the following projects:
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11641125/ Spiral Maker
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11272551/ Omnipen
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2042075/ Circle Square Challenge
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/3040023/ Mandala
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/149839739/ Flowers 2
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10680842/ Flower creator
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1009497/ Mandala Paint
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11336288/ Pop Art Creator
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/20910042/ Arrow Key Art
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/15008960/ Draw a snowflake
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/40791994/ Block Art
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/27597010/ Grow – Generative Art
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/113396270/ Circle Art 1
Other:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______ I completed art work as designed by the original coder using ______________________
______ I tried a remix using _________________________________________
______ I completed and saved a remix using _________________________________________
______ I added variables to give audience choices using ________________________________
I looked at the following projects:
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11641125/ Spiral Maker
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11272551/ Omnipen
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/2042075/ Circle Square Challenge
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/3040023/ Mandala
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/149839739/ Flowers 2
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10680842/ Flower creator
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1009497/ Mandala Paint
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11336288/ Pop Art Creator
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/20910042/ Arrow Key Art
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/15008960/ Draw a snowflake
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/40791994/ Block Art
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/27597010/ Grow – Generative Art
_____ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/113396270/ Circle Art 1
Other:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______ I completed art work as designed by the original coder using ______________________
______ I tried a remix using _________________________________________
______ I completed and saved a remix using _________________________________________
______ I added variables to give audience choices using ________________________________
We are all different flowers from the same garden
We were all raised the same
Same amount of water
Same amount of sun
So how did we turn out so differently?
Different shades of blue
Different shades of red
Once was a family
There was no difference
Now each one stands out individually
Bright colours
Dark colours
Couldn’t even tell they were related
We were all raised the same
Same amount of water
Same amount of sun
So how did we turn out so differently?
Different shades of blue
Different shades of red
Once was a family
There was no difference
Now each one stands out individually
Bright colours
Dark colours
Couldn’t even tell they were related
Warm and cool colours
Spinning around
With thousands of lines
Confusing the mind
With the advantage
For those who tell lies
No longer a problem
To hypnotize
What's in the middle?
Oh, so hollow and small
Don’t get distracted
By the hole in the dark
Stare way too long
And you'll be misplaced
Thanks to the black hole you see in space
Spinning around
With thousands of lines
Confusing the mind
With the advantage
For those who tell lies
No longer a problem
To hypnotize
What's in the middle?
Oh, so hollow and small
Don’t get distracted
By the hole in the dark
Stare way too long
And you'll be misplaced
Thanks to the black hole you see in space
Student Art Poem C
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/113396270/
POP!
POP!
POP!
Balloons?
Why balloons, why so dark, why so big and why so small?
Aren't they just circles?
"Yes"
What is this, why is this?
Don’t ask, don't think... Just
L
O
O
K
Okay?
Certain questions, don't need answers.
But they all have answers
Can I at least ask this?
What
Who are you?
….......
I am, what you seek
I am
You see me
BUt yOu Do not BeLieve me
You are what I Seek
POP!
POP!
POP!
Balloons?
Why balloons, why so dark, why so big and why so small?
Aren't they just circles?
"Yes"
What is this, why is this?
Don’t ask, don't think... Just
L
O
O
K
Okay?
Certain questions, don't need answers.
But they all have answers
Can I at least ask this?
What
Who are you?
….......
I am, what you seek
I am
You see me
BUt yOu Do not BeLieve me
You are what I Seek