Posts Tagged homeschool

STEM Tuesday — Coding– In the Classroom

By STEM Tuesday on December 8, 2020 / Coding, STEM Tuesday

This month we’re focusing on coding. On our booklist, coding includes how to program computers, careers as a coder/programmer, and cryptography or secret codes.

This week is Computer Science Education Week, so it’s a great time to explore ways to incorporate coding ideas into lesson plans, scouting activities, and home learning. (Plus, it’s really fun.)

I tried to read the books like a codes and coding novice. This was a bit of a challenge. Prior to writing children’s books, I spent 15 years programming embedded computers (the microchips that go inside things like phones), often working with elements of cryptography.

Coding Games in Scratch
by Jon Woodcock (2019)
You don’t approach this like a typical book. Rather, you work your way through it, alternating between reading and coding. It’s very easy to follow, providing a great introduction to MIT’s fabulous free coding system, Scratch. This book doesn’t just cover coding, though. It includes ideas behind game design like themes, difficulty, and playability.

Video Game Coding
by Janet Slingerland (2019)
The title of this book may be a little misleading. It doesn’t teach readers how to code video games. Its purpose is to introduce readers to careers in video game coding. It looks at how many people work on a game, what kind of code they use, and a what the general process is.

Can You Crack the Code?: A Fascinating History of Ciphers and Cryptography
by Ella Schwartz, illustrated by Lily Williams (2019)
I love this book. It follows the history of secret codes, from Julius Caesar to modern day internet encryption. I found the explanations easy to understand, and there are lots of examples to put your understanding to the test.

As always, I have way more ideas on this subject than I have time and space to provide them. I’m going to restrain myself and give you a few things to explore and consider here.

For additional resources and ideas, you can check out the coding page on my website (http://janetsbooks.com/my-books/coding) and my STEM for Kids Pinterest board (https://www.pinterest.com/janetslingerlan/stem-for-kids).

Hour of Code

If you’ve never heard of Hour of Code or haven’t taken a closer look, I encourage you to do so. Code.org and HourOfCode.com have resources for students, educators, and more.

Hour of Code activities are generally designed for beginner coders. They cover a variety of coding languages and platforms.

The activities are searchable by many different variables: grade, time to complete, topics (including social studies and language arts), and available technology.

There are even activities that require no computers or other devices, just filter on “No computers or devices”.

If you want to host an Hour of Code event, you can find help to do so here: https://hourofcode.com/us/how-to.

Explore Scratch

Many of the books on this month’s list use Scratch. There are several reasons for this.

Scratch is free language, provided and managed by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). If you need to work offline, you can download a Scratch program. But if you have a reliable internet connection, you can work solely online – no program download needed.

Scratch is a block-coding language. Coders choose blocks of code they customize to create a program. The blocks are designed to fit together like puzzle pieces. This takes away the syntax errors that programmers of text-based languages run into.

It’s designed as a sharing platform, so Scratch coders can learn from and be inspired by other coders. They can also easily share their coded creations with other Scratch users.

Many of the Scratch resources online encourage users to explore Scratch in a freeform manner. This can be rather intimidating for some new coders. Following the projects in one of this month’s books introduces users to Scratch. Once they get comfortable with Scratch, they are more likely to explore new ways of using the platform.

Like Hour of Code, Scratch has project ideas that focus on different areas like art, music, and stories: https://scratch.mit.edu/starter-projects.

Escape Room Challenge

As the current state of things has moved much of our lives online, virtual Escape Rooms have become very popular. There are many escape rooms out there to try. But how about challenging young readers and coders to create their own?

Designing an escape room can put into use computer coding ideas, game design elements, development processes, and cryptography skills. The experience will give young developers a taste of life as a video game designer/coder.

There at least 2 free platforms that could be used to develop an escape room – Google Forms and Scratch. Here are helpful resources for these.
Scratch: http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/pdf-escape-the-room-scratch-draggable-using-lock-button.pdf
Google Form: https://www.bespokeclassroom.com/blog/2019/10/4/how-to-build-a-digital-escape-room-using-google-forms

Developers will follow the basic process described on page 29 of Video Game Coding. They can use the secret codes described in Can You Crack the Code? and consider the game elements discussed in Chapter 1 of Coding Games in Scratch.

Pre-Production

Plan out the stages of the escape room, including the puzzles and/or challenges players will face. This is the pre-production or design stage of video game coding. The platform will determine the level of design required.

The first decision is what theme to use. The escape room could be based on a favorite book, character, or fictional world – like Harry Potter, Pete the Cat, or Star Wars. This could also be an opportunity to create new characters, stories, and worlds.

How many levels will there be? What are the challenges players will face? Make sure each challenge makes sense to get the player from one level to the next.

This is a creative process that mirrors fictional story writing. Characters need to be developed and worlds built. The progression through the levels is the plot. Challenges should work with the chosen world, character(s), and plot.

How are players working through the escape room – individually or in teams? Does that change what the challenges look like?

If coding in Scratch, are players represented on the screen? If so, what do they look like and what are they able to do?

Production

Once the overall story and challenges are planned out, it’s time to move on to the production stage. This is where designers create the art, puzzles, and code needed to turn the escape room into reality.

In Coding Games in Scratch, readers learn to code a little then test a little. Build a part of the game, then try it out to make sure it works correctly. This is a great way to develop a game or program. It helps identify where problems are by keeping the testing area small. It also helps ensure programmers don’t incorrectly use a coding element throughout an entire program.

Post-Production

Once the initial escape room is put together, it’s time to move on to the post-production phase.

The escape room needs to be tested. Each path through needs to be checked for errors. This is often one of the most tedious portions of coding and game development. Once the designers have done their testing, it’s time to get a beta tester.

Beta testers are new to the game. Can they understand how to start and how to progress through the challenges? If not, the designers may need to add additional instructions or learning steps.

Beta testers may move through the escape room in a way the designers didn’t anticipate. This can highlight other errors or omissions that need to be corrected.

Each time a designer makes a change, they’ll need to test out everything to make sure they’ve solved the problem without introducing any new ones.

Release

Once designers are confident their escape room is working the way they want, it’s time to release it to a broader audience. Invite classmates, friends, and family to try out them out.

This would be an excellent time to have a celebration. Developing something like this is a lot more work than people realize. Finishing is a huge accomplishment.

Explore More

I hope this has given you some ideas for exploring coding. There are so many more out there. I hope you take the time to explore and code.

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Janet Slingerland in London Janet Slingerland has written more than 20 books for children, including several about coding. To find out more about Janet and her books, check out her website – http://janetsbooks.com – or visit her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Mini-Museums for Middle Grade Favorites

By Jenn Brisendine on November 20, 2020 / Articles

Hello, fans of Middle Grade! I hope the school year is running smoothly for your students, your readers, or your own kids, whether they are learning in-person, remotely, independently, or in a hybrid or homeschool environment. While online learning and the use of technology are certainly helpful in this time of Covid, I know my own kids sometimes grow weary of screens and keyboards in their current environments. So I wanted to share a fun and engaging reading activity that can work equally well in both the home and classroom: A Mini-Museum display based on a great Middle Grade read.

As a teacher, librarian, or homeschooling parent, you can pose this idea before readers start or finish a book, or encourage readers to choose a favorite story with which they are already familiar. The Mini-Museum employs reading, writing, and creative/critical thinking skills, and culminates in a hands-on and 3-D product. You can include teamwork and presentation/delivery skills if you choose. The steps are simple and the supplies minimal—and the search for objects gets a reader out of his or her chair and away from the screen.

Step One – After (or while) reading a novel, the reader lists notable and important physical objects mentioned in the book that have some significant relevance and/or symbolic value to the plot, characters, theme, point-of-view, or setting. Eight to ten objects make a nice-sized museum collection, but the suggested or required number would be determined by your readers’ abilities, your environment, your time, and the book choice.

Step Two – Readers gather household, three-dimensional objects that are the real thing, a replica, or a constructed facsimile of each object on his or her list.

Step Three – Readers choose and prepare a display space. This can be a shelf, tabletop, or windowsill in the classroom, or a table or empty corner at home. Use cardboard boxes, recyclables, or piles of books to create museum stands and exhibit spaces. A variety of sizes and levels makes the overall look of the display more interesting and easier to see. Readers can cover these items with plain fabric or paper for a clean “museum look.”

Step Four – Readers fill the museum with their objects. Objects of greatest significance get the choicest spots in the display.

Step Five – Readers write brief descriptive captions to display near each object, like you’d see in a real museum. These can include the object name, the date of use (setting of book), the materials that form the object, and a few sentences on the object’s significance to one or more story elements in the book. Mount the typed and printed (or handwritten) captions on folded index cards and place each free-standing description near its object.

Step Six –Optional share and tell with the class! Thanks to smart phones and cameras, most readers can find a way to show their display distantly to their teacher and classmates.

If you’ve read or taught the excellent Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper, you’ll recognize how these real objects make great representations of the novel’s important character and plot points:

Notebook (Stella uses one to practice writing late at night.)
Cigar box (Stella keeps her collection of inspirational newspaper articles in one.)
An edition of the Star Sentinel (This is the newspaper Stella creates.)
Small, unmarked bottle (Stella buys medicine for her sick brother Jojo.)
Clean rags torn into strips (Stella tends to her mother’s snakebite.)

Students can manufacture some objects when necessary, like Stella’s original newspaper the Star Sentinel, which she types on a donated typewriter. A description for the torn rags might be something like: “Extra wound dressings, circa early 1930s; wool and cotton. Stella uses dressings like these to help treat her mother’s snakebite. When she finds Mama unconscious in the woods, Stella brings water, whiskey, and dressings to clean and wrap the wound. Mama survives in part due to Stella’s quick actions.”

Benefits of a Mini-Museum Display:

It’s highly flexible with strong potential for individualization.
Visual-spatial learners will enjoy creating the display space.
Readers can work in groups or independently, depending on their situation and capabilities.

Thanks for reading and sharing this idea! Enjoy the holidays, keep safe, and stay well.

STEM Tuesday – Diseases and Pandemics — Book List

By STEM Tuesday on November 3, 2020 / Diseases and Pandemics, STEM Tuesday

From the first sneeze to the last wheeze, these books explore diseases and the scientists who study them.

All in a Drop: How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World by Lori Alexander; illus by Vivien Mildenberger

When Antony van Leeuwenhoek read a book showing plants and insects as seen through a microscope, he decided to build his own. Antony is considered the “father of microbiology” and his work with microscopes laid the foundation for (100 years later) understanding that microscopic germs were responsible for disease.

Science Comics: Plagues: The Microscopic Battlefield by Falynn Koch

Imagine Jules Verne meets Miss Frizzle. In this book, a scientist uses interactive technology to communicate with bubonic plague and yellow fever germs. Readers learn how bacteria and viruses invade our bodies, elude our defenses, and how immunity works. There’s a good explanation of vaccinations and virus mutation (why we need a flu shot every year…).

Outbreak: Disease Detectives at Work by Mark P. Friedlander, Jr.

What happens when a strange new illness affects entire swaths of people all at once? You call on the “disease detectives” – epidemiologists – to investigate. In this book you’ll learn about the history of plagues, ancient and modern, as well as how epidemiologists study diseases such as Lyme disease, SARS, and AIDS. This book has already been updated twice; I predict in another couple years we’ll see a newer edition that includes Covid-19.

Outbreak! Plagues That Changed History by Bryn Barnard

Here’s an extensive evaluation of the causes and human reactions and interactions (from the 1300’s to the present) to bubonic plague, smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, tuberculosis, and the 1918 influenza pandemic. This book examines how these diseases changed societies and what it will ultimately take to eliminate cholera worldwide. It also looks at how wealth, bias, and prejudice continue to affect governmental reactions to microbial evolution.

Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence by Richard Platt, illus by John Kelly

In an ironic twist, a lab-coated rat, Professor Ratticus, and his cockroach and mosquito assistants lead the reader through a comprehensive look at diseases and epidemics. Comic-like illustrations (like war rooms mapping the spread of germs) and a browseable nonfiction format combine with entertaining graphics, facts, and history to provide a great overview of the world’s worst epidemics and illnesses.

Bubonic Plague & Yellow Fever

The Horror of the Bubonic Plague (Deadly History series) by Claire Throp

This book provides a concise overview of the history of bubonic plague from the Sixth century to present. Readers learn about causes and cures and some historical context. Some things will sound familiar: the use of quarantine and lockdowns, wearing masks and protective clothing, peddling fake cures, and suffering economic losses. It ends with mention of where plague still exists, but forgets to include the U.S.

The Plague (Deadliest Diseases of All Time) by Lawrence Andrews

Andrews provides a straightforward examination of the origin of the bubonic plague, methods of transmission, historic effect around the world, and its continued existence. He explains why the plague still affects 1,000 to 2,000 people a year, including within the U.S., and the race to limit its spread and find a way to eliminate the disease.

Bubonic Panic: When Plague Invaded America by Gail Jarrow

Written as a gripping medical “who-done-it,” this book introduces the ‘phantom killer” and explores the earliest plague pandemics through 1722. When this menace resurfaces in China, India, and Honolulu in the late 1890’s and then San Francisco in 1900, scientists scramble to identify the cause and find a cure, public health officials fight to finish it, and politicians hurry to hide it. This fascinating tale of how the plague settled into American and continues to infect a handful of people each year, includes a “frequently asked questions” section, timeline, and author’s note.

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy

This book dramatically examines another “invisible stalker.” Using both first-hand witness and medical accounts, newspaper clippings, and contemporary images, it follows yellow fever’s arrival and spread throughout Philadelphia. Detailing the social, political, and medical conditions and struggles to combat this disease, this book examines the changes that the plague brought to modern medicine and the fear that it could reappear.

Typhoid Fever

Terrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

This book is not for the squeamish – but if you don’t wash your hands after using the toilet and eat cookies that fell to the floor (5-second rule!) then you should be OK. Mary Mallon cooked for some of the wealthiest families in New York and was well- known for her hand-cranked ice cream topped with fresh fruit. Somehow, her families came down with typhoid fever. George Soper was the epidemic detective on the hunt to find the person making people sick. At the center of it all the question of civil rights and asymptomatic carriers.

Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary, by Gail Jarrow

When typhoid fever breaks out in New York, medical detective George Soper traces the outbreak to Mary Mallon. His job: to prevent her from infecting others. But Mary refuses to comply with quarantine and other medical directives. After all, she isn’t sick. So she continues cooking and passing on the disease. Questions of personal freedom versus public health are once again relevant as we deliberate quarantines, lockdowns, and contact tracing.

Flu Pandemic

Influenza: How the Flu Changed History, by Barbara Krasner

In 1918, people didn’t know the exact cause of the flu. But they knew the germs spread through the air. Some families sealed up their windows, and public health officials ordered people to wear masks. From initial outbreak to development of a vaccine to future epidemics, this book provides a good overview of the flu.

The 1918 Flu Pandemic: Core Events of a Worldwide Outbreak (What Went Wrong?) by John Joseph Micklos Jr.

Tracking the spread and undulation of the three waves of the 1918 Flu, from March 1918 to June 1919, this book explores the potential causes, actions that facilitated its expansion (such as WWI, armistice celebrations, and soldier’s returns), and lack of a cure that resulted in over 40 million deaths worldwide. Published in 2016, one of the critical thinking questions at the end asks how well the world may be prepared for another flu pandemic.

Fever Year- The Killer Flu of 1918 : A Tragedy in Three Acts by Brown, Don

Presented in a graphic novel format, this book tracks the course of the 1918 flu from Camp Funston, Kansas around the world. Many images look eerily familiar – empty streets and masks. A very accessible examination of the politics and science involved in battling the spread and ultimate containment of this flu. Additionally, it comments on current scientist’s desire to discover why this flu was so deadly, by recreating it.

STEM Tuesday book list prepared by:

Sue Heavenrich writes about science for children and their families, from space to backyard ecology. A long line of ants marching across the kitchen counter inspired her first article for kids. When not writing, she’s committing acts of citizen science in the garden. She blogs about science for kids and families at archimedesnotebook.blogspot.com.

Maria Marshall is a children’s author, blogger, and poet passionate about making nature and reading fun for children. She’s been a judge for the Cybils Awards from 2017 to present. Her poems are published in The Best Of Today’s Little Ditty 2017-2018, 2016, and 2014-2015 anthologies. When not writing, critiquing, or reading, she bird watches, travels the world, bakes, and hikes. Visit her at www.mariacmarshall.com/blog.

Posts Tagged homeschool

STEM Tuesday — Coding– In the Classroom

Hour of Code

Explore Scratch