CS402 Portfolio - Spring 2018 - Volunteers Lex Olson Jack Ordman Pratham Desai - Van Hise Elementary School
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CS402 Portfolio - Spring 2018 Van Hise Elementary School Coordinator: Heather Gunderson Thursday 3:30pm-4:30pm Volunteers Lex Olson Jack Ordman Pratham Desai
READ THIS FIRST! ● Most Van Hise kids are very enthusiastic and very eager to learn. Based on our discussions with other clubs, we feel that they are definitely more curious about scratch than other clubs. ● We usually have a very high ratio of returning students to new students. It is important that the returning students have challenging work to do during the club. So we would recommend spending sufficient time preparing material for returning students. ● They like unplugged activities. ● The students are really good listeners.
Club History Van Hise Elementary Catapult Club has a great group of amazing and talented kids. They are great listeners and all seem to really enjoy learning Scratch. The handouts and activities align well with the skill sets of both the returning and new students and the addition of challenge activities kept the returning Scratchers thinking about new facets of coding in Scratch.
Week-1: Introduction (8th Feb) Attendance Absent: Emily and Axel Lesson Script - Played an ice breaker - Introduced Scratch - Asked what the students thought computer science meant - Played the build a PB&J game by telling them to give us actions - Let the children explore Scratch - Gave them a “Hello World” activity Link to Scratch Worksheet and possibly the Scratch Project that you used - Description of Unplugged Activity with possible link - Played the build a PB&J game by asking students for step by step actions Each person’s reflection: Jack: Lex: Overall, this week’s club at Van Hise Elementary went well. I was surprised with the amount of information about Scratch some of the returning students knew, particularly a student named Libby, who had already made several projects in her free time. I really enjoyed getting to know the kids and help those who were less skilled in Scratch understand. Our group as a whole were very good listeners and cooperated and followed directions well. There was barely a need for a lesson plan as many of the students enjoyed experimenting with Scratch on their own and using their own creativity to produce new projects. Pratham: This was the first club meeting. We arrived at the school around 3:15pm. The school ends at 3:27pm, and kids eat their snacks after that, so the site-coordinator recommended that it would be better to start the club at around 3:35pm. So, we waited around that time. [ And plan to do the same for the semester. ] What went well? The kids seemed to be attentive and they obeyed most things we asked them to do. The site coordinator is very helpful, and she steps in when it starts getting chaotic. We talked about Computer Science, showed them how basic scratch works and some interesting projects on Scratch. They are curious and eager to learn. What didn’t go well? Nothing in particular. The kids seemed to be having fun, learning to do basic stuff on Scratch and it seems that we can move forward with the next lessons. Specific story: Graham: He is a returning student. I talked to him about what all has he learnt so far, and he showed me his cool projects. There are 17 students in total, and 7-8 of them are returning. So I plan to meet each of the returning students individually next time, and discuss about what all they know in Scratch. Then it will be easier to develop custom content for them.
Week-2 Coordinate System (15th Feb) Attendance - The club coordinator informed us that from now on, there will be 18 kids. 16 of them were present. - Absent: Josh and Ethan Lesson Script - Introducing XY coordinate system to students, with unplugged activity 1. - Working with XY grid in Scratch, using unplugged activity 2. - Show kids a demo of drawing an animal on scratch grid. - Ask kids to draw their favorite animal on scratch. Link to Scratch Worksheet and possibly the Scratch Project that you used - Link to the project for unplugged activity 2: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/202664479/ - Handout given to the kids: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EhdH0xr9bQaoJi-tbKnomrazw9f1y4Co/view?usp=sharin g - Drawing a dog: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/204168571/ - xy grid: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1plZbOPBFsfPkob9gyNK84LeTTfsUDakg/view?usp=shari ng Description of Unplugged Activity with possible link ● Activity 1: - One of us was acting like a robot. The mission was to draw a square on the XY-grid projected on screen using the prometheus pen. The kids were giving “commands” to the “robot”. ● Activity 2: - Kids were given printed XY-grid of scratch. We pulled up this project on scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/202664479/ . The program drew certain objects on the scratch screen. The kids did the same on their paper using markers. Each person’s reflection Jack: Lex: Today we met two new members of our club Emily and Axel who were not present on the first day. The students seemed to be more comfortable with us and felt more inclined to ask questions if they were confused. Some were still a little timid but when asked if they needed help they were confident enough to say yes, such as Lily and Colin. Our group started club with
a coordinates lesson which may have lasted a little too long for their attention span but the children all did a great job of listening and being respectful. Based on my experience today I feel that I will need to further familiarize myself with Scratch in order to be more prepared to answer questions because many of the students are returning and have built fairly advanced programs. Pratham: What went well? I believe that the explanation of XY coordinate system went well. We opened scratch on the projector, and made a sprite draw some things using a script. We also gave printed XY coordinate sheets to every kid, and asked them to draw the same thing on it using markers. So we are positive that the kids got a good idea of what they are doing. What did not go well? Why not? When we are explaining concepts to students, we usually try to make it interactive. We ask them questions. Since this class has 7 returning students out of 17, it so happens that the returning kids keep answering questions. So I am a bit concerned about the new kids, who are doing scratch for the first time. What will you do next time based on your experiences today? We need to make sure that new kids are picking up the concepts. For that, I plan to keep in mind who the new kids are, and encourage them to answer the questions. Share a story about one or more students. Faith: she is quiet, doesn’t participate much in the class. But she is very creative! :)
Week-3 Loops (22 Feb) Attendance: - Two children were absent, 16 students were present Lesson Script: - Goal: teach loops and random numbers - Explain loop blocks - repeat until, forever, repeat - Loops first - unplugged activity get loopy - Stamp loops on Scratch - Random numbers - Show on scratch - Have them practice on computers - Returning: star stamping activity - Non-returning: bat stamping activity Link to Scratch Worksheet and possibly the Scratch Project that you used Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jVGaQEFiUpU9G-Y250DHYzUb2nwFDCylfmH8Kg1nPhs /edit Project-1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/205627763/ Challenge: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/205651532/ Description of Unplugged Activity - Played Get Loopy https://code.org/curriculum/course2/5/Teacher.pdf - Die: http://a.teall.info/dice/ Each person’s reflection: Pratham: What went well? I believe that the explanation of loops + random numbers went well. We had fun unplugged activities for both these concepts. I felt that unplugged activities are absolutely necessary for conveying concepts effectively. The kids are really attentive and enthusiastic. What did not go well? Why not? I believe that it may be better to spend some more time doing “demo” of things on scratch. Students sometimes get confused about where to find the blocks, what are the parameters, what they do etc. One shouldn’t expect that they remember everything on the first go. What will you do next time based on your experiences today? The returning students really liked the challenge. We asked new students to do all the questions on the worksheet and returning students to only do the challenge. This gave them a good revision of the concept, and gave them extra time to work on their own projects. Will spend more time on creating good challenges from next time. Share a story about one or more students. Josh was here for the first time. He did not come to the last class, so he didn’t have an idea about the coordinate system. So he was having some difficulty with “the stamping randomly on the screen” question. I explained the coordinate system to him and pointed him to the previous week’s worksheet to get him up to speed.
Lex: My site is Van Hise Elementary and we meet on Thursday afternoon. This week we were teaching a lesson on loops and random numbers and began by introducing loop blocks and then playing the get loopy game. We then used a random dice roller to explain random numbers. Overall, this week went better than last week, unfortunately Jack was sick but Pratham and I ran the lesson well together. One of our students, Josh, was being quite negative about the assignments and the activities and has a bit of a sarcastic personality but thankfully the other children did not follow in his suit. The problem was resolved fairly quickly when Josh realized the quality of the projects he could make when he worked through the handout. The kids had a lot of fun with the unplugged activity, get loopy, and I think next time we will try to implement something active like that next time. Jack:
Week-4 Broadcast and Receive (1 March) Attendance - Two children were absent, 16 students were present Lesson Script - Unplugged activity: students were given a piece of paper: “When I receive … I do…”. - Explained broadcast and receive in Scratch - Show them the story project in scratch - Short explanation about the challenge - screen time Link to Scratch Worksheet and possibly the Scratch Project that you used - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jTzfR-bwpCNqb9bNJr_Ur7PgiRRQIjPMY8nr WyD1u-g/edit - Basic: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/206956210/ - Challenge: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/206940851/ Description of Unplugged Activity with possible link - We provided all new students with pieces of paper, and had some things mentioned on them. For example, “When I hear X, I do y.” and then it would trigger a chain of events. Each person’s reflection Pratham: What went well? the explanation of broadcast and receive went well. We started with a fun unplugged activity, for which we chose all “new” (non-returning) students as volunteers. They picked it up well. The challenge was a bit difficult this time. Returning students indeed learnt something. What did not go well? Why not? Some returning students found the challenge difficult. Instead of working on it to learn a new concept, they just wanted to work on their “cool” projects. What will you do next time based on your experiences today? I plan to talk briefly about why CS is also about understanding and applying complex concepts, and not just making “cool” games Share a story about one or more students. Peter is a returning student, but he is always keen to work on the problems that we provide. He tries things himself and asks for help when required. He is one of those students who wants to learn and knows how to learn. Lex: My site is Van Hise Elementary and we meet on Thursday afternoons. This week our unplugged activity went pretty well. Jack handed out note cards with directions on them that were signaled by directions on other students note cards in order to demonstrate the broadcast command. The students had fun following the instructions on the note cards and were excited to participate in the activity. Our challenge activity did not go very well for several students because many were very stressed out and confused. Luca began to cry because he felt he was the only one that didn't understand the topic but the situation was resolved when I pretended to not understand the topic as well and had Jack explain it to both of us. Based on our experiences I would probably
ensure that the challenge activity is well explain in the handout and in our presentation prior to sending them to computers. Jack: Week-5 Variables (8 March) Attendance - Two absent students. Lesson Script - Started with the unplugged activity - Explained variables in scratch - Clicking game introduced - Sent kids to computers Link to Scratch Worksheet and possibly the Scratch Project that you used - Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tp2ktQ37XIGzB1U2kTOH7zXb77K9K4r5QwRlHu LmD_M/edit - Basic: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/208738797/#player - Challenge: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/208507099/#editor Description of Unplugged Activity with possible link - Our unplugged activity included giving four students different job titles, firefighter, movie star, sports star, and president to represent a variable. The kids were then given different commands to add or subtract individuals from each job but the student holding the sign stayed the same throughout. The student with the job sign was the variable and the students switching in and out of jobs were the values being changed. Each person’s reflection Pratham: What went well? This week we taught “variables” to the kids. We started with an unplugged activity that went well. The student got an idea of how to add/change variables. We then explained the same thing on Scratch. And the asked them to make a click-game with scores. What did not go well? Why not? I felt that the session was well-balanced for new and returning students. I noticed that students don’t use the worksheet that much. Should do something about it. What will you do next time based on your experiences today? May be put some blanks to fill on the worksheet. Share a story about one or more students. Peter: as always, he understood the challenge, tried to understand the working of all the necessary blocks he needed and proceeded methodically to program a solution. I really like his problem-solving approach. Lex: My site is Van Hise Elementary and we meet Thursday afternoon. This week our unplugged activity went particularly well. We used signs to label four children as different dream jobs like firefighter, movie star, sports star, and president. The kids had fun switching from one job, or variable, to another and were able to conceptualize the
game and the idea of adding values to variables. The kids were excessively hyper today which was fine until we had to work on Scratch where several students refused to do the activities on our handouts. This week Olivia, who is very interested in adding sounds to her project, taught Lily how to record her voice and use it in her stories. Based on my experience today I think we will try some more step-by-step handouts for next time so it is easier for the non-returning students to comprehend and understand. Jack:
Week-6 IF blocks (15 March) Attendance - 3 kids absent Lesson Script - Dancing Game to introduce basic if statements - Explain if statements on Scratch - Basic number guessing game to intro project motivation - Step by Step implementation in worksheet Steps: (1) Pick a random number and store in a variable (meaningful name) (2) Ask for the guess, get answer, Store in different variable (with a meaningful name) (3) Handle these 3 cases: - if too high / If too low / If correct (4) repeat until the number is correct (may get a bug with “answer”) (5) count the number of guesses and show on the screen (6) stop the game when the user gets it correct (7) say the number of guesses it took using “join” (8) end the game if too many guesses…..say “you lose, you had more than ___ guesses” Link to Scratch Worksheet and possibly the Scratch Project that you used - Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gAOoFYNbJO0ddefufokCtuyy-afB6jc9IQMxm46P qGY/edit - Basic: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/25337297/#player - Challenge: reverse-number guessing Description of Unplugged Activity with possible link We have two. One is a quick game where each student gets a card with a if statement and instructions. One of us will dance and if it contains the statement on their card, they will do something. The basic number guessing game will have the students try to guess a number and we'll tell them too high or too low for each guess. This will serve as motivation behind their activities and we can also have them consider what the best guess is and why. Each person’s reflection Pratham: What went well? This week we taught “if-else” blocks to kids. We were able to teach the concept well. We had an unplugged activity to introduce the concept, and then we showed them how to use these blocks in Scratch. What did not go well? Why not? Some returning students are very enthusiastic. Sometimes, they are extremely excited during “teaching time”. When I was speaking, one of the kids asked me if he could show something to the class on Scratch. And I couldn’t deny him given his enthusiasm levels. And it kind of disrupted my flow.
What will you do next time based on your experiences today? Figure out a way to continue my talk even when this (mentioned above) happens, without discouraging the student. Share a story about one or more students. we had a simple version of binary search as our challenge this time, and some returning students were attempting it. Axel was one of them. He was thinking about the problem, discussing with me and Jack, proceeding well. But then he felt that he is not able to figure this out, and was too frustrated, almost started crying. Lex: Not in club. Had a midterm. Jack:
Week 7 (22 March) Attendance: - 2 students absent Lesson Script: - Catch up day - Students just had the day to work on old projects and ask questions Reflections: Pratham: Didn't go to the club because had a midterm. Lex: My site is Van Hise elementary on Thursday afternoons. Today we just let the kids work on old projects to make sure that the non-returning students were moving at similar pace as the returning ones. Today’s club overall went really well and the kids enjoyed just having time to work on old projects or practice new things on Scratch. Today Colin was really curious as to how to make stamps and had a lot of questions for us. I think next time we will have some check-ins with the students sooner rather than this late in the semester because a few were very confused on previous projects but were too nervous to speak up when we taught the concepts the first time. Jack:
Week 8 (5 April) Attendance: - 2 students were absent Lesson Script: - Introduce Artificial Intelligence - Unplugged Activity: made Akinator.com guess Spongebob squarepants - Unplugged Activity: play rock-paper scissors - Showed them “cheat version of Rock-paper scissors” - Computer time: they made rock paper scissors on scratch - show trivia game Link to Scratch Worksheet and possibly the Scratch Project that you used - Rock paper scissors: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/214174652/ - www.akinator.com - handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O8SbfQEwPlZLbd4YUR3T_4S9m8S3RpjLTd6S-7 disEg/edit?usp=sharing Reflections: Pratham: What went well? We discussed artificial intelligence this time. We explained briefly some important points about AI, and discussed games like Akinator and rock-paper-scissors. I feel that it motivated students to learn more about AI. What did not go well? Why not? It felt like a well-balance lecture, a good mix of theory and practical. I was really happy with it. In the last 10 minutes though, the Scratch website was having problems, which was unfortunate. What will you do next time based on your experiences today? Think of a fun activity for times like these when scratch stops working. Share a story about one or more students. Josh: He usually doesn’t want to work, and says mean things if someone forces him too. I spent some more time with him today and encouraged him to make a “trivia game” on scratch step-by-step. I feel that he accomplished more than he usually does. Lex: My site is Van Hise elementary on Thursday afternoons. Today we went over artificial intelligence. The students like playing the game Akinator and we also showed them a rock, paper, scissors game. The lecture was overall well structured today and we kept the kids attention really well. Unfortunately, Scratch was glitching and having trouble saving the projects, which the kids were really upset about after working all afternoon. I think next time we should maybe have a back up plan incase Scratch does crash again or maybe even a way to save the projects. Today Emily had a lot of questions how to make her trivia game and how to add new sprites to say different questions. The kids had a good time just catching up on projects and experimenting with Scratch. Jack:
Week 9 (19 April) Attendance: - 1 student was absent Lesson Script: - Introduced final projects - Showed an example final project - Handed out papers for students to explain to us what their final projects were Links: - handout: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sjMNf_95ei95rAdVP7MTSHSLN2C79PFE2jL-v5o 8Y4M/edit?usp=sharing - project: Reflections: Pratham: What went well? This week we started the kids off with the project. We showed them a basic example project and talked to them briefly about what they can make. I mainly dealt with kept the two students who are not active enough in the club, and made sure that they made enough progress with their project. What did not go well? Why not? We also had them write and draw their project ideas on a sheet. Not everyone did that well. What will you do next time based on your experiences today? We would ask students to write something meaningful about their project on the same sheet, if they haven’t done it already. Share a story about one or more students. Faith: She has been giving up on the worksheets very quickly, so I spent significant time with her, and helped her start off with the project. At the end, she had a sprite moving and jumping around, which was good to see. Lex: My site is Van Hise Elementary we meet on Thursday afternoons. Today we began the final projects. Our demonstration of Pratham's project went well and the students were very excited about it. It helped the students see what they could make on Scratch and they were eager to begin on their own. There were a few students who were not incredibly motivated to begin a final project but once we mentioned there might be a competition at the end and winners would receive candy the kids were much more motivated. One of our students, Josh, previously showed very little interest in Scratch but today he seemed incredibly interested and had a lot of questions on how to get his final project started. Next time I think we will begin with another example project to help students think of ways to add to their own or figure out different projects they may not have considered but might want to attempt. Jack:
Week 10 (26 April) Attendance: - 2 students absent Lesson Script: - Let students work on their projects - Show a ping-pong game made by Lex Reflections: Pratham: Kids continued to work on the projects. I mainly helped Josh, Colin and Faith, who usually lag behind in classes. It seems that they are very excited about finishing their project. Lex: My site is Van Hise Elementary on Thursday afternoons. Today we continued to work on final projects and showed the students an example of a pong project I created. The students responded really well to the example program and were eager to get to their computers and attempt it themselves. Colin was trying to attempt to make a Mario-like program, which was advanced for him but he was determined to figure it out before final project presentations. There were no problems in club today and the students really enjoyed having the freedom to create what they wanted. If we could have done something differently we might have shown my project example a week sooner. Jack:
Week 11 (3 May) Attendance: - Three students absent Lesson Script: - Final project presentations - Gave kids 15-20 minutes for last minute touches to the projects - Gallery style: half the class shared their project first, the other half walked around and look at others projects and then we switched. Parents were also invited. - we distributed certificates and oreo-cookies. :D Reflections: Pratham: It was a very pleasant ending to the club. Everyone showed off their projects. Great work with the Certificates by Lex! :) Check it out below. Lex: Awesome club end the parents all came and the kids were super excited to show their projects! Jack:
Midterm evaluation: Strengths and Area of Improvement Pratham: Our strengths: - In my opinion, we have been able to do well with the explanation of content. - The unplugged activities seem to be interesting for students. - The challenges seem to be at the correct difficulty level for returning students Areas to improve: - some kids seem disinterested, and don’t work on the given scratch assignment. We can do something about that. Lex: Our strengths: - Our unplugged time seems to be going really well. The kids are really great listeners and enjoy learning about the ways we can apply computer science aside from just coding on computers. - I feel that the kids are actually learning the weekly lessons and understanding concepts like variables, loops, and if statements. - Our students enjoy having the directions given in the handout and I feel that requiring the children to finish the handout activity first keeps the new students in pace with the returning ones. Areas to improve: - Some children get overwhelmed by our challenge activities so we could improve by better explaining those before sending the students to computers. - Also, some students are less interested in learning Scratch and more interested in playing games on Scratch so we need to work on a way to get them to create their own Scratch projects instead of just playing games. Formative Assessment: - Our team conducted brief student interviews to understand aspects of the club that the students were understanding and what they enjoyed about the club. It allowed us to recognize our strengths and what we should continue doing with our club, along with our areas in need of improvement. Our students retention of the topics was generally good from not only returning students but also new kids. I feel that this truly helped us better understand our club. Student Evaluations: Lex: Olivia: Olivia is a returning student and is very interested in making story games. She loves to add sounds to her programs and has even learned how to make sounds happen when different
keys are hit. She is energetic and loves to share her programs with anyone who is willing to take the time to watch them. Lily: Lily is a new student but is picking up on Scratch quickly. She likes to make stories and use the sprites to draw pictures. Lily also likes to record and add her own sounds into her art stories to give them more life. Josh: Josh is a new student and is not very motivated to learn Scratch. He has basic knowledge of simple commands but lacks the discipline and interest to go into greater depth with his programs. He barely completes the bare minimum of projects and is more interested in pre-made Scratch games rather than his own code. Mary N.: Mary N. is a new student and seems to be picking up on Scratch very quickly. She has even gone out of her way to help her friends figure out their projects. Mary is enthusiastic about learning and likes to make games and stories to share with others. Sam: Sam is a returning student that has extensive knowledge of Scratch. He has been working on games that use multiple advanced commands and is even teaching others how to do the same. Even though Sam is returning he is not afraid to ask for help if a command in Scratch is not working as he intended it to. Ethan: Ethan is a new student and does not seem incredibly motivated to learn the given Scratch material. He knows simple commands and has completed a few of the assigned programs but his time has been primarily spent playing other games on Scratch rather than attempting to figure out how to make some of his own programs. Pratham: Axel: Axel is always very keen and ser completing the challenges. So much that he gets frustrated if he can’t get it. Usually he finishes them on time, but he had hard time with the binary search problem (reverse number guessing game), and got very emotional. I will make sure in the coming lessons that he doesn’t get discouraged by this small hiccup and continues to be interested in programming. Peter: Peter has done Scratch before and it shows in the way he addresses problems. He is good at programming, especially debugging. I look forward to seeing his final project. Graham: an enthusiastic kid. He actively takes part in floor activities. While one of us is explaining stuff to kids, he asks if he could show a small example of that concept on Scratch to the class. He is usually very eager to work on his own thing. But since last 3-4 classes, he started taking the challenge seriously. Luca: Actively participates in class, and takes the problem sheet seriously. Tries to do everything in a creative way. He likes to show off his projects, and also likes helping others with their assignments. Kelly: He is enthusiastic about learning scratch, but but seems to lack attention at times. He usually starts working on the challenge seriously, but then gets distracted and starts playing games or doing silly stuff on Scratch. Mary S.: She doesn’t speak much in the class, but seems to be always attentive, with very good grasping. She usually finishes all the assignments with no or little help from one of us. I believe that she could easily pick up on the challenges too, so plan to encourage her in that direction in the upcoming sessions.
Jack: Colin: Evan: Emily: Faith: Libby: Jaemin: Certificate of Completion:
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