Metro Reflection

 

    The drone and Lego activity at Metro Elementary was a great experience and a great way to allow students to see the complexity of technology. Teaching students about computational thinking skills is incredibly important in the current digital age. They were able to practice problem solving and an understanding of computer language. These activities foster CT and CS skills at an early age which gives students confidence and encourage creativity and their ability to problem solve in a technology driven world. It was interesting to watch them experiment with coding with only the brief google slides we discussed for vocabulary purposes. The students picked up on it much quicker than we anticipated. They were eager to practice coding on the drone simulator after experiencing the drone fly with a simple directed command that we came up with as a group. The simulator was a great tool to provide students with an experience they could manipulate without adult interference. I think the free range was a little frustrating at first for them, but after some support and encouragement that they could just reset the mission, they immediately became enthusiastic to attempt as many coded missions as possible.

    Some of the things I specifically enjoyed with this field experience was having the opportunity to work with students to relate these educational activities to real-world situations. I liked that we chose the rover as our Lego robot because it correlates with the drone in terms of how people might use these different types of robots for different careers or situations. We were able to discuss how we have had real rovers on Mars and then in the simulator they did an air mission with the drone on Mars. So different robots can be used in real life situations or events that are not realistic or ideal for humans to encounter for safety reasons. I think being able to relate the knowledge they are presented with for a real purpose is important in fueling their curiosity and encouraging interest for these fields of study.

Google Slide Team Teach:

WeDo2.0 Lego Activity:

Drone Coding Activity:

Standards Reflection-

Designer:

4d: Create CS and CT learning environments that value and encourage varied viewpoints, student agency, creativity, engagement, joy and fun.

Having differing viewpoints from a group of students allowed my partner and I to create an engaging environment for both the Lego and drone activity. We had two boys and one girl in our student group. The boys provided energetic over-the-top ideas for both the Lego rover and the drone. Whereas the girl student was calmer and more structured with her thoughts on how to go about both activities. The differing engagement provided a fun and interesting take on how to go about practicing coding.

Leader:

2a: Nurture a confident, competent, and positive identity around computing for every student.

Because both of our activities utilized a hands-on approach and inquiry based learned environment, I found my partner and I constantly reassuring students with affirmations. Trial and error learning can be frustrating for some students because they don’t like to be wrong and take failure harder than others. But encouraging them to continue trying and that failure is just another way to learn and grow it built their confidence to eventually come up with a code that established the command they were attempting to accomplish.

 

Facilitator:

5c: Use a variety of instructional approaches to help students frame problems in ways that can be represented as computational steps or algorithms to be performed by a computer.

By utilizing two different types of technology to teach coding it provided them opportunities to see coding in two different ways. One was a quickly built rover from Legos that could be instructed to travel on wheels with limited variability but was still mobile. The drone provided a more complex perspective of coding that allowed more difficult maneuvers and could tackle commands by air. We were able to discuss the different problems students might face that would be more beneficial for a rover on land or a drone in air.