Prep with Peers

For the TLO I will teach lesson 2. I will be teaching this lesson to my 7th graders in November (most like) so I will need to think about where they will be in order to understand the content as well as the coding. I think I am a little confused as to what this post means by “lesson” versus the “modules” that we will be teaching. Sorry for that. Thinking about the TLO, I am looking forward to practicing the instruction and getting feedback from my peers and the facilitators. As I don’t know much about the TLO process I am not sure where I will be feeling stuck or what help I will be able to offer.

I have not had time to teach module 1 yet due to logistical issues (trying to fit it into the curriculum and access to computers), so I want to focus on how to do module 1 during the TLO. I am a little nervous about how much time it will take (again due to logistical issues with the computers) and I wonder if the module could or should be completed in consecutive days or if there can be gaps.

I plan on teaching module 1 with ecosystems and weather. I will be collaborating with the other science teacher to create a cross-curriculum unit, where they learn the coding concept in science, in conjunction with the research piece in writing. This will provide a wholistic approach to this unit. Students will see that they have to undergo preliminary research in order to understand the model they are creating.
Where I feel stuck would be timing. I would be interested in speaking with other teachers on how they’ve implemented their modules and what their best practices are.

I will be teaching module 3 at the October PD. I will probably stick to the suggested lesson plans for lessons 2 and 3 as written in the manual. After following the manual while “teaching” other educators, I anticipate making small changes when I implement the module with my students. I am looking forward to going over the modules again with the group of teachers. I am feeling “stuck” in that I probably need more practice time before going forward with my students. My students are very excited about coding and I have had them working on the accelerated course on the code.org website. I am looking forward to introducing them to Star Logo Nova soon!

I will be teaching module 3-Ecosystems as Complex Adaptive Systems.
I will present lesson 2 as a 5 E’s lesson (Engaging the students in the getting started–reviewing the first lesson, concepts/words, and making a connection to the present lesson. Exploring with the first activity, “looking under the hood” Explaining model observation form,command blocks, program loop and executive order.Extend-This would be Activity #2-Designing and Running Experiments. Wrap-up would be questioning and discussion in small groups and then share out to the whole group. Evaluate would informal questions to check for understanding.
My plan for lesson 3 will be using the 5 E’s.
In lesson 2, I think that Activity #2: Designing and running experiments will be interesting for the students.In lesson three, it will be adding a predator.
The pacing will be a problem because it will take my students more than one day. I don’t know what help to give to others because I have to take time with my students to do these activities.

That is ditto for me. I am not coding with fidelity. Doing this with novice kids will be tricky. Luckily, many of my students have experience with scratch or other coding.

I have already started Module 1. However, it is slow going as we meet for a 30 minute class 4 days a week. We are currently experiencing connectivity issues with our new devices and our servers, so alot of my time is spent trying to troubleshoot these issues. I will begin Module 2 in two weeks or so. I have not had any experience with this module as it was not covered during the workshop last July. However, this is the module that fits my 6th grade curriculum. We are currently working on the Watershed unit in my science classes, so my students should have the background knowledge to work with the module and understand the underlying concepts.

I have had some conversations with my team math teacher about our students preparedness to understand the planar graphing and working with coordinates. I was also concerned about their comprehension of protractors and angles. He has stated that they would be spotty at best with this. Therefore, I will begin with setting up my classroom floor as a graph and have students locate and place themselves on coordinates. I will also do some basic work with angles, relating directions to a compass that includes angles. This will also be something I can use with them in Social Studies.

After this reinforcement, I think I will have them start a program from scratch, create four blocks with symmetrical placement, and practice moving them in specified directions. I will have them add a ground and sky. When they have completed that, we will move into the instructions and specified in the manual.

For lesson 3, I will need to have my students complete the last lesson of Module 1 and assess their level of understanding of running experiments with the code and experimental design template provided. I will reinforce earlier instruction about the steps of the Scientific Method and the process we covered in the beginning of the year and in Module 1.

Having about 6 weeks left to develop the process, I anticipate my students having a good bit of time to create more than one experimental model.

I am looking forward to having them build some programming from scratch to allow them to practice what they have learned from the prepared programs.

Where I am feeling stuck? Having to spend most of my time dealing with hardware and server issues, rather than having the time I feel I need to help my students struggling with code. I also have several students who are not as experienced with computers and have difficulty understanding some of the basics. Personally, I would love to have a better memory of code sequences and being able to spot where coding may not be correct. Hopefully, that will come with experience.

What help can I offer others? I am not sure about that . I am willing to listen and offer what I know, but I usually feel others are in a better place to offer me help. I am not yet in a place where I can say that programming is in my comfort zone.

I have started teaching my students module 1. I found that some connectivity issues exist when I have my larger classes. Since I teach sixth, seventh and eighth grades, I started with the chemistry module. Coding is going slower than expected due to scheduling issues. I hope to learn more about the other modules to share with my other grade levels.

will try to work with teachers in building to do TLO. will try different modules.

Just like many others, I plan to start the lesson with module 1 because my students do not really have any background in coding. I might even have my students work through the Hour of Code for homework so they can at least get some exposure to block programming with some guidance. And I would most likely introduce this to them right before I start my Ecosystems unit, so that while we go through the Science content, they can continue practicing with Star Logo Nova at home.

After my students familiarize themselves with the basic idea of block programming and with Star Logo Nova, and after I go over Ecosystems, I will then work through Module 3 Ecosystems with my students. As I go through my Ecosystems unit, particularly MS-LS2-1 and MS-LS2-2, I would pose the following questions to my students: 1. How do animals survive in the world? 2. What would happen if animals had too much or too little food? 3. What would happen if animals were allowed to reproduce without constraints or if they died too easily?. After coming up with hypothesis, I would then challenge the students to try to create a simulation where they can vary the population of predators and prey so they can see how changes in different populations affect ecosystems.

I still need more practice with the coding myself. I have not had the chance to experiment with the sliders which will be necessary for the challenge I pose to my students. I am nervous and excited to see how my students will engage in the lesson.

I plan to teach Lesson 2 the Ecosystems Rabbits and Grass Module.

Since my students and I are new to coding, I plan to teach the module as presented in the workbook. I already reviewed the lesson and saw that it is very straight forward and can be followed as is. I would only add a Warm-Up, an Exit Ticket, and a discussion on how the module presented and practiced connects to ecosystems and science. The Warm-Up will be relating the science concepts that they will be learning in the unit (ecosystems and their interactions). For the discussion, I will use the form in the workbook for students to work on in bigger groups (4-6); they did the practice in partners. For the Exit Ticket, students will reconnect to the Warm-Up question to determine what they learned and what the gaps may be between the science concepts and the coding.

For Lesson 3, I will also teach it as presented in the workbook; I will also add a Warm-Up, Exit Ticket, and a class discussion connecting the science concepts with the coding practice. I also plan to extend the time that they get to explore the predator factor. This will allow some groups to get a great model while most should get the basic ideas on the possible effects of adding a predator to the model.

I am really looking forward to the other teachers lesson modifications. I hope to get more ideas for my lesson on how to make it more interesting, more accessible, or more grounded in teaching the desired concepts. I also look forward to the teachers reaction to how I will present the modules.

Right now I do not feel stuck, but this may change as I discuss with other teachers (mistakes and setbacks) and I implement it with my students. But since I do not plan to present this as an expert, I know that students will be open to learning together with me as we make mistakes in the classroom and also have mini successes together.

Given that I am new to coding and do not have much practice other than the Hour of Code and the PD training, I can only offer motivation and support. I tend to be positive and hope to allow others to feel motivated by the experience they are offering their students.

I will be implementing module 3, the life science ecosystem lessons. We are going to preface that with the accelerated course of 20 hours of code run once a week starting in November. By May, our 7th graders should be proficient in coding and ready to start module 3. Immediately following this, I will also have to front-load students on ecosystems concepts because it is not part of the CA 7th grade life science curriculum.

I am planning to redistribute time for the first 3 days, as our class periods are shorter than the tiem allocated.
Day 1: Ecosystem overview with analysis of a specific ecosystem students will recognize to identify the different agents and their interactions, Papercatchers activity with assessment questions 1-3 as closing
Day 2: Preview the Rabbits and Grass Model. Students complete the model observation form, then kids assume driver/navigator roles to evaluate the model.
Day 3: Students write up experimental design form, then run their own experiment. Complete scientific practices form as a reflection.
Day 4: Preview & predictions. Add a mountain lion together using student activity guide #1. Test. Student groups free to add some mountain lion behaviors and retest.
Day 5: Class discussion regarding impact of predator on ecosystem. Students run their own experiment. Discuss the value of computer modeling.

At this point, I have no idea how quickly students will adapt to the coding demands. Since most are digital natives, things will probably progress much easier for my students than they did for me!

My plan for TLO is to gain more comfort level prior to actually presenting this to my students, and having a network of peers who can help with where I can troubleshoot issues with. I will be presenting the Earth Science portion with the water pump.

Expecting to do the water and ecology lessons as things open up. None of my fellow Life Science teachers are interested in the coding aspect, so we need to carve out time later this spring when the pace and curriculum make it tenable. We are talking about a full grade level swapping of students each of 4 class periods that will place only those with high interest in coding with me for at least 2 periods a week. Getting great support from administration and the IT people for the idea. Sure do miss our computer science teachers…
What I’m looking forward to the most is letting the students modify the code in the classes. This year’s students are having trouble modifying only 1 variable in their labs. I think this will be really beneficial.

I will start with Module 1 with my students. I think this is a great way to get the students engaged and comfortable with coding. Once that is done we will move on to Module 3, ecosystems, since it fits in perfectly with our curriculum in the spring when I will have more freedom to work on the coding with my students. I know that if a fell stuck or have problems, I always have someone to contact for support, I am not alone.

Since I am teaching the Algebra module first, I am going to teach Module one in late spring. I very much want to attend the summer training again as a refresher, since I still don’t feel that confident with the coding.

I will begin with code.org simple activities. U will then start with module 1. I will need to practice quite a bit to feel confident to teach it. If all goes well, I would like to complete the Physical Science module. I really want my students to feel comfortable with coding and if that happens, I will start with the other modules.

That’s a good idea, I think that is how I will proceed too.

I began instruction with Module 1, giving the students a lot of time to manipulate the coding to find out the many variations they could come up with in each lesson. The first semester section then ran into serious difficulties in our ability to access SLNova on a regular basis due to our server’s limitations. This caused us to lose whole weeks at a time when we were unable to work online. So, while I tried to implement the second module, we were not able to get to the use of the module for experimental purposes. We did manage to manipulate the coding to create our multiple pumps and areas of pollution. The second semester, after the year’s science instruction ended, we were not only able to get that far, but able to manipulate the variables. However, the module did not capture my student’s interest as much as I had hoped, so we went on to module 3. They loved having the species react with each other and were much more invested. We used this module for scientific experimentation, each pair of students picking a different variable. It was interesting watching them get results from the experiments that they were not expecting. This was an excellent opportunity to go back and review and reinforce the experimental process as well as writing up the labs.

My plan for TLO:

Let me first start by saying that I think that the TLO session I had with the fellow teachers and facilitators was an excellent learning opportunity. It gave me a chance to see exactly the areas I know I am going to need help on. It also gave me a good sense of how to ask the right questions (even if I don’t know the answer) to my students so that we can hopefully figure it out together. This TLO experience also gave me a chance to get comfortable being able to say to my students “I do not know the answer, but let’s see if we can figure it out together” and knowing that I do not always have to have the answer.
I was teaching Module 1 because that is the module that I have taught before and felt comfortable with, for the most part.
The way that I present lesson 2 is together as a class we go thru the Guided Tour of the SL nova interface. For those kids that are Spanish speakers I have video tutorials in spanish that they watch to be able to follow along. I also have video tutorials for the lessons in English as well for those who work better alone.
I will teach lesson 3 exactly as the guide suggests, however knowing my students we will most likely have to spend more time learning the concepts of conditionals and if-statements. We will really need to take out time on activity #1- Trailblazers before moving onto the actual block coding in SL nova.
I and my students are really looking forward to the activities of module #3 ecosystems. They are 7th graders and learn about ecosystems in science and curious to run experiments with predator, prey, water cycles etc. in the SL nova 3D environment.
I still feel stuck in general with the coding and forms. I am however getting better at finding answers to my questions on the forums and such.
The help that I can offer to others is to do the activities ahead of time and use a screen recorder to video yourself completing the modules. These video tutorials are so helpful later when you or your students are stuck.