[IAEP] SoaS notes: Gardner (GPA)

[forster at ozonline.com.au]

Thanks Caroline/Mel/Walter for documenting this

They are useful observations

It may help to give some background:
year level
socio-economics
in school/lunchtime/holiday program?
prior experience (including Logo etc)

Should you introduce standard terminology and what about concepts which they have yet to be introduced to? Kids seem to have no problems with maths concepts which they will not be introduced to till much later, you mention angle. I find them quite comfortable with rate (pixels per step), Cartesian coordinates, vector addition. The difficult question is that of transfer. Will the later formal learning of these concepts be advantaged by their informal introduction with TurtleArt? Using a common language should help. Is transfer the goal? Is there a skill of 'thinking mathematically' which is the real goal of formal maths and is advanced by problem solving in TA similarly as it is advanced by more formal maths?

I think there is. Ultimately the goal is skills for solving real world problems, which are typically ill defined and multidisciplinary. That requires a good repertoire of basic skills. Also importantly the ability to problem solve. Thats where TA and Sugar come in. Part of problem solving and 'thinking mathematically' is building good mental models of the problem space. Good mental models are internally consistent, consistent with the external problem and can be 'run' in various 'what if' conditions. To what extent does TA develop the ability to build mental models and is this skill transferable to real world problem solving?

In running similar classes with GameMaker, at the start I give 30-45 minutes instruction with the data projector then leave them free to do whatever

Initial instruction, GameMaker for years 5-6 at
http://online.haileybury.vic.edu.au/sites/edrington/computerclub/Gamemaker%20Lesson%20Plan.doc

TurtleArt is a different product, it needs a different intro, I wouldn't demo keyboard input, I might cover:
move
turn
docking blocks
deleting blocks
repeat
pen up/down

but then I would just let them loose, just respond to individual questions, try to encourage sharing and peer tutoring. 

Thanks for sharing this information.

Tony

> Note that is this long but I think its pretty interesting and I've been
> trying to share notes with the IAEP list.
> 
> First I want to say thank you and congratulations to everyone involved with
> Sugar on a Stick. We used it in a real school, with an unmodified computer
> lab and real kids and it went great! This is a big milestone.
> 
> If you are an activity writer/maintainer take a look at how much information
> Walter got out of watching kids use Turtle Art.  Consider taking SoaS to a
> school near you and trying your activity with kids!
> 
> 
> 
> Forwarded conversation
> Subject: SoaS notes: Gardner
> ------------------------
> 
> From: *Mel Chua* <mel at melchua.com>
> Date: Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 12:25 PM
> To: Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>, Caroline Meeks <
> caroline at solutiongrove.com>, Anurag Goel <agoel23 at gmail.com>
> 
> 
> Notes from today's SoaS lab at the Gardner school - I wasn't actually trying
> to take fieldnotes, so these aren't great, but jotted them down anyway. Feel
> free to share with whatever lists are appropriate, I'm not sure if there are
> any privacy issues with this.
> 
> --Mel
> 
> -----
> 
> Walter: Each computer has a stick. You'll be able to use these sticks all
> summer long. Inside the computer is a turtle, and we're going to teach the
> turtle how to do stuff. If you tell the turtle to go forward, what happens?
> *Walter walks forward.* If you tell the turtle to go right, what happens?
> *Walter turns right.* Later this week we're going to do more stuff with
> maps.
> 
> Kid1: Can we teach the turtle how to walk in a circle?
> 
> Walter: You can teach the turtle how to walk in a circle. How would you
> teach it how to walk in a circle?
> 
> Kid1: Go around and around.
> 
> Walter: Let's do this exercise. Stand up. *kid stands up* Take a step
> forward. *kid steps forward* Now turn. *kid spins in place* What if you go
> step, turn, step, turn, step, turn? *Walter walks in a circle.*
> 
> Kid2: Can you make it flip?
> 
> Walter: Flip?
> 
> Kid2: Yeah, like flip onto its stomach?
> 
> Walter: That's an interesting idea! We can make it draw pictures and stuff.
> 
> *Children get permission to go to computers, all of them run for a station*
> 
> Some children have put the headphones on. All of them are typing in their
> name with no problem. Some need prompting to click on the XO-person to
> choose a color... and spend a very long time choosing a color. Students
> being prompted to cick on TurtleArt; they do so, mostly sitting at the
> computer until adults tell them to do something, but one boy has already
> dragged out a block and made the turtle walk.
> 
> Less than aminute later, this has spread - adjacent children have dragged
> out blocks and are clicking on them too. Adults walking around prompting the
> other children to drag out blocks and click on them. Some kids are literally
> waiting for adults to tell them every time they should click the mouse.
> 
> One girl raises her hand, she has a question, she has linked some blocks
> together. The girl next to her goes over to her and whispers to her. I'm
> going over to the desk, ask what's up - the second girl (the neighbor)
> explains the first girl wants to make the blocks disappear. The first girl
> confirms this. "How do you make these go away?" I point to the toolbar and
> say she can drag them there, she tries it, and then continues to drag and
> rearrange her blocks.
> 
> Kids are pointing at their screens, at their neighbors screens, leaning over
> to see things... I'm not sure if they're copying ideas from each other yet,
> but a few appear to be showing their classmates how they made particular
> block combinations. Some kids have linked all their blocks together and are
> playing with a single stack; some have arranged the blocks across their
> screen into a sort of custom turtle control panel and are clicking one
> button at a time.
> 
> One girl (the first kid who talked today) gets out of her seat and finds
> Walter, very excited. She's pointing to the screen - she's gotten her turtle
> to draw a circle. The two girls to the right of her have done the same.
> 
> Most of the students are still exploring the turtle toolbar, but two in
> front of me have discovered the other toolbars and are dragging out bulky
> orange control statements (an 'if' block) - they don't seem to know how to
> use it, though, and the blocks are standing on their workspace with nothing
> attached to them.
> 
> Ah! One boy discovered he could link a stack to the bottom of the 'if'
> block. But that doesn't seem to get him anywhere, because he hasn't attached
> anything to the control statements. He unlinks his stack and drags the 'if'
> block back to the toolbar, discarding it.
> 
> I spent the next few minutes working with two girls who are trying to
> understand the 'if' block. After I show them an example on my own computer
> of what the block can do, they try to figure out how to link it together on
> their own screens.
> 
> One child confused by the graphical error ("you need to attach a block
> somewhere") at the bottom of her screen.
> 
> At the end of the class, one child asked if they got to take the sticks
> home.
> 
> 
> ----------
> From: *Walter Bender* <walter.bender at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 2:47 PM
> To: Mel Chua <mel at melchua.com>, Caroline Meeks <caroline at solutiongrove.com>,
> Anurag Goel <agoel23 at gmail.com>
> 
> 
> Mel,
> 
> Thanks for the write up.
> 
> A couple of additional observations:
> 
> The kids kept modifying the same project over the course of the 45 minutes,
> so all of their intermediary steps were lost. Auto-versioning will help
> here, but I will attempt to move the Keep button to the Project toolbar as
> well as the Image Save button, to facilitate their keeping occasional
> records of their progress.
> 
> None of the kids every figured out how to close the activity.
> 
> I shut the machines down for them one at a time.
> 
> A handful of kids managed to launch multiple copies of Turtle Art.
> 
> Some had trouble removing blocks.. they ended up in a pile under the
> palette.
> 
> Quite a few were interested in drawing letters of the alphabet.
> 
> ---
> 
> Next time (Thursday 9 Jul at 11:30) we plan to use a projector. I will walk
> them through using the setxy block to position the Turtle on a Cartesian
> coordinate space. I'll show them hw to print the current position and have
> them guess coordinates for the turtle. Then we will have them each try to
> label the school on a map.
> 
> -walter
> -- 
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
> 
> 
> Caroline's Observations
> 
> Students were very engaged.  These students had not yet been introduced to
> angles so I'm not sure if they understood the significance of what they were
> doing but I could see this as a way to get there by the end of the summer.
> Computers change what math is useful when and students using Turtle Art may
> want some geometry earlier then the standard curriculum.  They were very
> motivated to draw cool pictures.
> 
> Kids wanted to erase part of the screen.
> 
> The lesson could have been a good an opportunity to introduce them to some
> math vocabulary.  Ones I know I used were:
> 
> 
>    - Program
>    - Angle
>    - Arc
>    - Heading
> 
> We might want to keep track of what words we want to use and see if the
> teachers want to reinforce any in class.  When we start working on the clock
> activity we might want to think through what words we want to use and have
> them introduced in class.
> 
> Kids wanted to take the sticks home right away. I need to think through what
> we need to do before they can do that. We need a parent communication plan.
> 
> I was very pleased with the results and it'll be interesting as we give them
> more challenge and structure on Thursday.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
> 
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
> Note that is this long but I think its pretty interesting and I've been trying to share notes with the IAEP list.<br><br>First I want to say thank you and congratulations to everyone involved with Sugar on a Stick. We used it in a real school, with an unmodified computer lab and real kids and it went great! This is a big milestone.<br>
> <br>If you are an activity writer/maintainer take a look at how much information Walter got out of watching kids use Turtle Art.� Consider taking SoaS to a school near you and trying your activity with kids!<br><br><br><br>
> <div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">Forwarded conversation</span><br>Subject: <b class="gmail_sendername">SoaS notes: Gardner</b><br>------------------------<br><br><span class="undefined"><font color="#000000">From: <b class="undefined">Mel Chua</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mel at melchua.com">mel at melchua.com</a>></span><br>
> Date: Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 12:25 PM<br>To: Walter Bender <<a href="mailto:walter.bender at gmail.com">walter.bender at gmail.com</a>>, Caroline Meeks <<a href="mailto:caroline at solutiongrove.com">caroline at solutiongrove.com</a>>, Anurag Goel <<a href="mailto:agoel23 at gmail.com">agoel23 at gmail.com</a>><br>
> </font><br></span><br>Notes from today's SoaS lab at the Gardner school - I wasn't actually trying to take fieldnotes, so these aren't great, but jotted them down anyway. Feel free to share with whatever lists are appropriate, I'm not sure if there are any privacy issues with this.<br>
> 
> <br>
> --Mel<br>
> <br>
> -----<br>
> <br>
> Walter: Each computer has a stick. You'll be able to use these sticks all summer long. Inside the computer is a turtle, and we're going to teach the turtle how to do stuff. If you tell the turtle to go forward, what happens? *Walter walks forward.* If you tell the turtle to go right, what happens? *Walter turns right.* Later this week we're going to do more stuff with maps.<br>
> 
> <br>
> Kid1: Can we teach the turtle how to walk in a circle?<br>
> <br>
> Walter: You can teach the turtle how to walk in a circle. How would you teach it how to walk in a circle?<br>
> <br>
> Kid1: Go around and around.<br>
> <br>
> Walter: Let's do this exercise. Stand up. *kid stands up* Take a step forward. *kid steps forward* Now turn. *kid spins in place* What if you go step, turn, step, turn, step, turn? *Walter walks in a circle.*<br>
> <br>
> Kid2: Can you make it flip?<br>
> <br>
> Walter: Flip?<br>
> <br>
> Kid2: Yeah, like flip onto its stomach?<br>
> <br>
> Walter: That's an interesting idea! We can make it draw pictures and stuff.<br>
> <br>
> *Children get permission to go to computers, all of them run for a station*<br>
> <br>
> Some children have put the headphones on. All of them are typing in their name with no problem. Some need prompting to click on the XO-person to choose a color... and spend a very long time choosing a color. Students being prompted to cick on TurtleArt; they do so, mostly sitting at the computer until adults tell them to do something, but one boy has already dragged out a block and made the turtle walk.<br>
> 
> <br>
> Less than aminute later, this has spread - adjacent children have dragged out blocks and are clicking on them too. Adults walking around prompting the other children to drag out blocks and click on them. Some kids are literally waiting for adults to tell them every time they should click the mouse.<br>
> 
> <br>
> One girl raises her hand, she has a question, she has linked some blocks together. The girl next to her goes over to her and whispers to her. I'm going over to the desk, ask what's up - the second girl (the neighbor) explains the first girl wants to make the blocks disappear. The first girl confirms this. "How do you make these go away?" I point to the toolbar and say she can drag them there, she tries it, and then continues to drag and rearrange her blocks.<br>
> 
> <br>
> Kids are pointing at their screens, at their neighbors screens, leaning over to see things... I'm not sure if they're copying ideas from each other yet, but a few appear to be showing their classmates how they made particular block combinations. Some kids have linked all their blocks together and are playing with a single stack; some have arranged the blocks across their screen into a sort of custom turtle control panel and are clicking one button at a time.<br>
> 
> <br>
> One girl (the first kid who talked today) gets out of her seat and finds Walter, very excited. She's pointing to the screen - she's gotten her turtle to draw a circle. The two girls to the right of her have done the same.<br>
> 
> <br>
> Most of the students are still exploring the turtle toolbar, but two in front of me have discovered the other toolbars and are dragging out bulky orange control statements (an 'if' block) - they don't seem to know how to use it, though, and the blocks are standing on their workspace with nothing attached to them.<br>
> 
> <br>
> Ah! One boy discovered he could link a stack to the bottom of the 'if' block. But that doesn't seem to get him anywhere, because he hasn't attached anything to the control statements. He unlinks his stack and drags the 'if' block back to the toolbar, discarding it.<br>
> 
> <br>
> I spent the next few minutes working with two girls who are trying to understand the 'if' block. After I show them an example on my own computer of what the block can do, they try to figure out how to link it together on their own screens.<br>
> 
> <br>
> One child confused by the graphical error ("you need to attach a block somewhere") at the bottom of her screen.<br>
> <br>
> At the end of the class, one child asked if they got to take the sticks home.<br>
> <br>
> <br>----------<br><span class="undefined"><font color="#000000">From: <b class="undefined">Walter Bender</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:walter.bender at gmail.com">walter.bender at gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 2:47 PM<br>
> To: Mel Chua <<a href="mailto:mel at melchua.com">mel at melchua.com</a>>, Caroline Meeks <<a href="mailto:caroline at solutiongrove.com">caroline at solutiongrove.com</a>>, Anurag Goel <<a href="mailto:agoel23 at gmail.com">agoel23 at gmail.com</a>><br>
> </font><br></span><br>Mel,<br><br>Thanks for the write up.<br><br>A couple of additional observations:<br><br>The kids kept modifying the same project over the course of the 45 minutes, so all of their intermediary steps were lost. Auto-versioning will help here, but I will attempt to move the Keep button to the Project toolbar as well as the Image Save button, to facilitate their keeping occasional records of their progress.<br>
> 
> <br>None of the kids every figured out how to close the activity.<br><br>I shut the machines down for them one at a time.<br><br>A handful of kids managed to launch multiple copies of Turtle Art.<br><br>Some had trouble removing blocks.. they ended up in a pile under the palette.<br>
> 
> <br>Quite a few were interested in drawing letters of the alphabet.<br><br>---<br><br>Next time (Thursday 9 Jul at 11:30) we plan to use a projector. I will walk them through using the setxy block to position the Turtle on a Cartesian coordinate space. I'll show them hw to print the current position and have them guess coordinates for the turtle. Then we will have them each try to label the school on a map.<br>
> 
> <br>-walter <br><div><div></div></div><font color="#888888">-- <br>Walter Bender<br>Sugar Labs<br><a href="http://www.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">http://www.sugarlabs.org</a><br><br>
> </font><br></div>Caroline's Observations<br><br>Students were very engaged.� These students had not yet been introduced to angles so I'm not sure if they understood the significance of what they were doing but I could see this as a way to get there by the end of the summer.� Computers change what math is useful when and students using Turtle Art may want some geometry earlier then the standard curriculum.� They were very motivated to draw cool pictures.<br>
> <br>Kids wanted to erase part of the screen.<br><br>The lesson could have been a good an opportunity to introduce them to some math vocabulary.� Ones I know I used were:<br><br><ul><li>Program</li><li>Angle</li><li>Arc</li>
> <li>Heading</li></ul>We might want to keep track of what words we want to use and see if the teachers want to reinforce any in class.� When we start working on the clock activity we might want to think through what words we want to use and have them introduced in class.<br>
> <br>Kids wanted to take the sticks home right away. I need to think through what we need to do before they can do that. We need a parent communication plan.<br><br>I was very pleased with the results and it'll be interesting as we give them more challenge and structure on Thursday.<br>
> <br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br>Caroline at SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br>
> _______________________________________________
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