Hour of Code 2015!

The time is here!

Last year students were introduced to a computer programming curriculum throughout the year.

Computer Programming Vocabulary they learned:

• Algorithm-- a set of instructions
• Macro-- a computer program. The algorithm creates a macro.
• RBG- Red, Blue, Green Channels
• Loop--to repeat from the beginning (any algorithm inside the loop)
• Degrees-- angles that tell robots which way to set their directions

Students learned to manuever Sphero Robots and created several macros (computer programs) using those robots throughout the year.

They participated in The Hour Of Code. 

Each individual student was given code.org accounts and has had access to their account (in and out of school) since.

A year from this point we are back at THE HOUR OF CODE!
It has been such a blessing to our curriculum. I have noticed many advantages of teaching coding. First, and foremost-- it has created a growth mindset in my students. When we first began, students were easily frustrated and wanted to quit when they didn't know the exact answers in the lines of code they were creating. Now, it is amazing to see them work through challenges which sometimes takes several attempts and a high level of problem solving! I am so proud of them! Computer project teaches basic logic as well as state mandated english and mathematics standards.

Students will be excited this year when they learn that this year's Hour of Code includes a MINECRAFT or STARWARS coding experience which encourages them to learn to leave the blockly coding system, instead replacing blocks with actual Java code.

Welcome to the hour of code!

CLASSROOM LINKS TO CODING:

2nd grade website  http://studio.code.org/sections/GPKBPV

3rd  grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/MSRDON

4th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/MAWNES

5th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/NEVJUK

6th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/QUIXLW

7th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/UWZETY

8th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/IFPQIW

9th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/NUWKEY

Music Composers!

Students had an opportunity to investigate incredibox.com and were able to create their own music! Incredibox allows students to create custom beat-box tracks by changing beats, effects, and melodies. Students create their song easily by dragging and dropping musical effects onto avatar characters. Each character can be muted or changed allowing an unlimited amount of musical compositions possible. Overall, it allows students to become composers gaining confidence in musical studies. Try it out! Its super fun and totally addictive!


A few composers and their music are listed below :)

2nd grade composers:

Vainbow by composer: Stetson

Beats by composer: Savanna  

Rhythm by composer: Eli

DK by composer: Scott

6th grade composers:
The Mix All Over by Darren

PumpUp1 by DJ Jacob

7th grade composers:

Jammaphone by composer: Gavin 

The Mix by composer: Trenton 

BooBooPop by composer: Josh

8th grade composers:
Slushies and Slushies II by composer: Caleb

Week of September 28th: GATE Week 3

Last week's challenge winners!

This is not at all what I expected when I said "Build the tallest tower possible".

This group collaborated well and definitely thought outside the box.

Congrats 8th graders!

We did a LOT this week! Our students conducted investigations into :

STEM bridge building 

Students were asked to create the longest bridge possible with a few catches: 

1. They must use every supply

2. It must resemble a bridge as much as possible.

3. Students must collaborate with all partners at the station.

Robot making

The DEF grant helped GATE purchase a couple of robotic arms. Students worked collaboratively to put them together at the Robotics station.

Tristan shows how he made a gear for the robot.

3D Doodler Pen Artwork

Most students this week focused on 2D art, with a few students moving up to 3D art. Students were allowed to follow stencils to help them create their artwork.

Literacy challenges

This is a silent challenge. Students can only express themselves with their marker... with one catch. They are responsible for only one word at a time. Students must think outside the box as they react to their partner's changes to the story. They had a great time!

Computer Programming challenge

Students logged into their coding accounts and began working through challenges. Several students are high enough on their accounts where they can begin designing basic coding-block games.

Week 2: Steammaker Challenges Begin!

With the move of our GATE classroom, last week we focused on finding where everything had moved with a scavenger hunt. This week we focused on our classroom theme 212 degrees (video below). We will focus on the concept behind 212 degrees through our curriculum, STEAMmaker investigations, and character trait discussions. Classroom prezi here:

We also discussed classroom procedures and how to get the most out of our weekly time together.

This week, I arranged stations where students could investigate different skills they have not "touched" in a while including: Computer programming, STEM challenges, 3D art, engineering/ designing, and iPad presentation apps. Students who were in the GATE program last year were involved in lessons covering these station investigations throughout the year.

For the first month of GATE class students will engage in Level 1 stations allowing them to "remember" how our technology works before we dig in deeper into new Level 2 challenges. Students had the opportunity to choose the area they are most interested in. Check out our video below to see their work in progress!

As you can see, we had a great time! I will update the blog with week 3 soon!
--Mrs. Henley

Welcome back!!!

We are starting the 3rd week of GATE. In weeks 1 and 2 we went over procedures and have done small challenges to remind the students about all the different learning opportunities they have in class. Students have had opportunities to control the Sphero robots, conduct STEM challenges, utilize the Lego Wall, brainstorm on the Thinking Wall, create 3D art with our 3D pens, and log into their code.org accounts.

Our life principal word we are studying is "Courtesy".
Students are discussing how to be polite and mannerly and we are having fun with it! If you have a 2nd-->6th grade students they now have courteous responses for the following two prompts.
#1.  "Thank you"
#2. "How is your day/ morning/ afternoon?"

Students discussed how in class they will speak in complete sentences and address one another by name. We are working on acknowledging every conversation directed to us and valuing all ideas from our classmates.

I am still waiting for everyone to turn in their GATE contracts. Once I have those, I will begin posting more pictures and video of our classroom investigations.

Limeades for Learning has begun again! The most votes wins! Go here to read about the supplies we are asking for and to vote daily for our grant! https://www.limeadesforlearning.com/projects/1694180

For now: Here are our code.org classroom links. Students may work on their assigned "course" from home or they will have opportunities to work on them in GATE class as well.  Students who pass their assigned "course" will have access to a special STEM challenge coming up!

CLASSROOM LINKS TO CODING:

2nd grade website  http://studio.code.org/sections/GPKBPV

3rd  grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/MSRDON

4th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/MAWNES

5th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/NEVJUK

6th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/QUIXLW

7th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/UWZETY

8th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/IFPQIW

9th grade website http://studio.code.org/sections/NUWKEY

Week One Slideshow: 
Week 1 we introduced the different zones of the classroom to the students through a scavenger hunt. Students had to write their name on the thinking wall, create their first initial on the lego wall, determine where our classroom supplies were and how many pieces of technology (iPads, 3D pens, etc.) we had.

One of the neatest things we did was have a group discussion of what it means to be in the gifted program, why we have GATE, what activities they enjoyed last year, and what activities they look forward to this year. It was a perfect start to what will be a wonderful year of learning and investigations. Watch our video below as a recap of the week.

Thank you Phillips 66!

The Phillips 66 Research Center approved a $20,000.00 Water Conservation grant request which was written by representatives from each of Dewey's schools. These advancements will add a campus Outdoor Learning Classroom & Aquaponics System addition to our district greenhouse. We are thankful to have the support of Phillips and are excited to add more opportunities and educational experiences for our students! 

Thanks to Verdigris Electric!

We are excited to announce that Verdigris Electric has awarded our class with several items to help kickstart our MAKER classroom! Among them are:

• 2 Laptops
• 2 3D Doodler Pens
• 2 Makey Makeys
• 3 sets of Little Bits 
• Lego Baseplates for our Lego Wall (for STEAM activities. Here is an example)

We are so humbled by this donation and excited to utilize these MAKER materials! Thank you so much Verdigris Electric!

STEAMmaker Camp Day 2

On Day 2 of STEAMmaker Camp we were very excited to learn more about creating objects for the 3D printer to create. We learned in the software "Sketchup" and were able to manipulate basic shapes. Several of the students were able to print their designs to take home!

The Aerospace station was a big hit and really kept us busy. The object was not only to create an object that could be lifted, but there was a challenge to see how much weight our aircraft could carry. What a fun challenge! Even when we were successful, the challenge pushed us to make modifications and continuously try to better our designs.

We ended the day at the music station. Some students chose to make musical instruments with recycled materials while others chose to be composers of their own music. I think we laughed at this station the most :) Looking forward to our last day tomorrow! Can't wait to see what else we will learn about!

STEAMmaker Camp Day 1

Mrs. Henley used her first year running the district GATE program to create a career mindset in her classes. Students were exposed to technology, robotics, computer programing, graphic design, 3d printing, and pre-engineering along with many options that the area's local Tricounty Technology Center offers. With the career mindset in place, Mrs. Henley's focus for her second year is to create a STEAMmaker classroom and the plans are already in the works! STEAMmaker combines science, tinkering, engineering, aesthetics and mathematics with the education maker movement. The Maker Movement is a project-based learning environment where kids learn through the process of making, researching, collaborating, and building. This is exactly what students who qualify for GATE will be doing next year in class which is why she chose to send students to the camp even though it fell in that hectic finals week/ last week of school.

 Oklahoma CareerTech teamed up with ESSDACK, an educational service agency with headquarters in Hutchinson, Kan., to conduct STEAMmaker camps. Dewey GATE students applied and were accepted along with a handful of other participants to attend this STEAMmaker camp conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education where they had a chance to think, build and learn.  Dewey brought a team of two teachers (Mrs. Henley and Mrs. Sloan) and five 7th grade students to come up with answers to challenges, build prototypes and test them.

On Day 1 students were immediately challenged with the "amazing rubber band car." (Click here).
Teams of students were given limited quantities of odds and ends to create a car that not only moves forward, but also moves backward. Teams drew out their ideas and collaborated using the process of trial and error, created their prototypes to the best of their ability, and then presented their projects to an expert panel. Amazingly enough... our team created a successful model of the car! We were all a little shocked and very proud of our creation! After lunch, we were assigned to the Circuitry station where we learned about "Little Bits", "Makey Makey's" and circuitry in general…. The boys used the Little Bits to create a model of a chair that uses a pressure sensor. When a person sits on it, a fan blows on them, a reading light turns on and it vibrates for their relaxation! (View it in our video above!)

Tomorrow... 3D printing! We are so excited to take a step in our 3D know-how!

Thanks to the: Dewey Education Foundation

DEF SUMMARY 2014-2015

Thanks to the DEWEY EDUCATION FOUNDATION, students dove into the world of marketing and began learning all about branding and logo design. Students were challenged to take their new knowledge of branding and logo creation and apply it to themselves. We discussed how each of us is a brand. Every day we have conversations, behave, and make choices that either work for or against the brand we want to establish. We learned that as the designer of our brand, we can have the power to persuade others through the marketing of our brand.  In class one, students had to "dig deep" and decide who they were and what their brand should project. They explored fonts and how their names looked in each font. They used the emotion tied to fonts to decide if it was best portraying “who” their brand represented. Students learned that their signature "speaks" for them on formal documents and that they can affect whether it “speaks” in the same language of their brand they are creating.

Students learned about color psychology and how brands use colors to influence consumers. Students studied 10 major colors and made notes about if it fit their brand or not. Students studied popular company logos to decide why they picked the colors they did and what they were trying to push as their brand. Students explored their goals by making a list of jobs, purposes, and visions for their brand. Some classroom brands focused on short term goals (being a good student) while others felt they already knew their purpose (work in education, etc.)

Students studied the use of symbols in branding a company. We explored symbols of current logos and brainstormed symbols that they might want to consider that supported the goals they previously outlined.

To help us get started, we then logged into http://www.designmantic.com/ where students can type their name, set filters, and manipulate objects and colors. Students sketched ideas down and used the site for inspiration.

Students then worked to design the logo of their brand using their name. They reviewed their research on designmantic and worked to merge their ideas into a cohesive logo and their brand.

Once students understood the concepts of graphic design, they were introduced to Wyla at Dewey’s local Backyard Shirts and Designs. They were given a challenge to create a t-shirt that would be profitable for her business. Students collaborated in teams, discussed target audiences, fonts, symbols, and color psychology to create their best attempt of what they hoped would become a popular t-shirt design. Wyla served as the project manager as she provided constructive criticism and feedback to groups as they worked allowing them to make changes and submit their final designs.  It was an amazing process and there were so many creative ideas; however, Wyla chose 1 elementary and 1 middle school shirt design to sell in her business. The elementary’s design was created by 4^th graders who turned the Superman Logo into a Dewey Theme. 7^th graders won the middle school contest and designed a sports tee-shirt that played off the OKC thunder logo, but also changed it to a Dewey shirt. A percentage of future sales of these shirts will benefit the GATE program!  The generous DEF grant allowed the winning teams to receive their very own tee-shirt that they worked so hard to create!

 

 To complete the unit, all GATE students learned about graphic design at a local higher-ed, Tricounty Tech. Students sat in on a 2 hour class and worked with high school and college aged students to learn about graphic communications technology and what careers are available in the field. Students were able to create and print spiral notepads and notebooks as well as work with several printing presses.

We genuinely thank the Dewey Education Foundation for being such a big part of our year and solidifying this unit to make it meaningful as well as help tie our curriculum to real world connections for 1^st through 8^th grade GATE students.

Sincerest thanks,

Alyssa Henley