Sometimes we imagine barriers that don't exist when it comes to introducing a new concept, resource and device. For quite a while I thought that scratch programming and using Makey Makey's would be too tricky for some of my students. My plan was to introduce these tools in a very deliberate and structured way. For quite a whole I nibbled around the edges here. During free time I got a few of my more self-directed learners to try out scratch or Makey Makey but for a long time we didn't dive in.
Recently, while my grade sevens were doing some testing, I had an opportunity work with a fairly small group of grade six students and my impatience took over. Fortunately, it turns out that my students barely needed me at all to dive in with Makey Makey and Scratch.
The teaching portion of this design challenge was really simple. I plugged in a Makey Makey and showed students the basics of how to set it up. I opened up scratch and showed students that buttons on the Makey Makey could be used to execute pieces of code in Scratch. Then I framed their design challenge with a scenario,
You and your team have been tasked with developing the next console for Playstation. Your boss is expecting you to develop a groundbreaking new controller for this system . You also need to design the next blockbuster new game that will encourage customers to buy your system. You are competing against other development teams and you will be pitching your idea by filming a short (less than one minute) commercial showcasing your game and controller.
Because the tools available and the design challenge were naturally engaging for most students even students who typically needed a lot of support were able to direct their own learning. Even more impressively, students engaged in the design process naturally, with little direction of what steps to take. As the activity progressed I noticed many students build successive prototypes for their controller making increasingly deliberate design decisions as they discovered what worked well and what didn't.
In the end, this activity required a hefty time commitment but I was happy to make room for it in our schedule because students were learning lessons about the design process that can only be learned through tinkering and tinkering takes time. Most groups ended up with usable, albeit rudimentary controllers and games, which impressed me considering that they had sparse background knowledge about coding, circuits and game design.
Recently, while my grade sevens were doing some testing, I had an opportunity work with a fairly small group of grade six students and my impatience took over. Fortunately, it turns out that my students barely needed me at all to dive in with Makey Makey and Scratch.
The teaching portion of this design challenge was really simple. I plugged in a Makey Makey and showed students the basics of how to set it up. I opened up scratch and showed students that buttons on the Makey Makey could be used to execute pieces of code in Scratch. Then I framed their design challenge with a scenario,
You and your team have been tasked with developing the next console for Playstation. Your boss is expecting you to develop a groundbreaking new controller for this system . You also need to design the next blockbuster new game that will encourage customers to buy your system. You are competing against other development teams and you will be pitching your idea by filming a short (less than one minute) commercial showcasing your game and controller.
Because the tools available and the design challenge were naturally engaging for most students even students who typically needed a lot of support were able to direct their own learning. Even more impressively, students engaged in the design process naturally, with little direction of what steps to take. As the activity progressed I noticed many students build successive prototypes for their controller making increasingly deliberate design decisions as they discovered what worked well and what didn't.
In the end, this activity required a hefty time commitment but I was happy to make room for it in our schedule because students were learning lessons about the design process that can only be learned through tinkering and tinkering takes time. Most groups ended up with usable, albeit rudimentary controllers and games, which impressed me considering that they had sparse background knowledge about coding, circuits and game design.