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<p>GPA Notes 8/4/09</p>
<p>Caroline: Today we are going to learn how to boot the computers from scratch so we can take our sticks home. How many of you have computers at home?</p>
<p>have computers: 8</p>
<p>Dont' have: 4</p>
<p>Caroline: How many of you had your sticks break during the summer?</p>
<p>Failed sticks: 2</p>
<p>We are hoping that by the end of next year, every student in the school has sticks. </p>
<p>kid: what if the stick breaks?</p>
<p>Caroline: bring it back with you on the first day of school </p>
<p>teacher: There is a letter that explains everything in your folder. </p>
<p>Caroline: What was your favorite thing and hardest thing this summer?</p>
<p>kid: Best thing was making the turtle use different colors. </p>
<p>kid: The best thing was painting and beautiful colors. The hardest thing was getting the computer to start.</p>
<p>kid: The best thing was using the forever block. The hardest thing was making the map and labeling the Gardner School. </p>
<p>kid: best part was making the turtle make games. hardest part was making the clock. </p>
<p>kid: Everything was the best. Nothing was the hardest.</p>
<p>kid: The best was getting to see the samples in Turtle Art. Hardest part was making the clock</p>
<p>kid: Favorite part was making the turtle go in different directions. Hardest part was to get on the computer. </p>
<p>kid: Favorite part was finding your own art and changing it. Hardest part was turning the computer on. </p>
<p>Caroline: What would you like to use the computer for when learning new things next year? Today as we go around and look at all the different programs, think about the best way the computer can help you with learning. </p>
<p>kid: we can learn about nature</p>
<p>Caroline: Here's a program we can use to learn a little bit about nature (shows kids moon activity)</p>
<p>Caroline: Does anybody know what it means if the moon is waxing?</p>
<p>kid: It is getting bigger. </p>
<p>Caroline: (On home screen) Does anybody want to see any of these other activities</p>
<p>kid: The one with the cat.</p>
<p>Caroline: (opens program) This is kind of like the turtle program. (Caroline plays around with scratch)</p>
<p>Kid: What if you have too many programs running. </p>
<p>Caroline: (shows how to stop an activity)</p>
<p>kid: I want to use the robot face thingy. </p>
<p>Caroline: (Opens speak activity, speakers did not work)</p>
<p>Caroline: (Caroline goes to <a href="http://activities.sugarlabs.org">activities.sugarlabs.org</a>) This is a site full of games. All the games are free. One that is really popular is the maze game. I'm going to show you how to download a game. Click on "download now." Now when I go back to my home screen, I have a new game. (Caroline plays game)</p>
<p>kids: Awesome...</p>
<p>Caroline: (shows kids how to start up the computer)(put in cd, power off, plug in usb, power on) In the fall, I want you all to tell me if it worked or not. </p>
<p>The kids spent the rest of the time downloading and playing with different activities. One of the kids found out that if you star activities in list view, those activities appear on your home screen. The kid thought that by starring the activities, he was downloading them. Maybe for tomorrow's group we should introduce the kids to list view. </p>
<p>When the kids downloaded the maze game, it did not scale properly with the monitor so they were not able to see the entire maze. The scaling of the game varied slightly from computer to computer. This was unexpected because Maze worked on normal CRT monitors in the past. Maybe there is an issue with the video card/driver?</p>
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<div></div><br>-- <br>Anurag Goel<br>