Reflection for the week of Sept 25th - 29th

This was an odd week, it was split between Double Churches and New Mountain Hill.
       On Tuesday I was in Ms. Ells class. I was still getting used to being in the classroom but had started making observations about the students and the daily operations of the class. I found out that the students can use tablets in the classroom to take AR tests instead of using computers, which I did not expect to see. The class is not what I would consider creative but it is also not boring. the students have the freedom of choice during the time I'm there to choose what task they want to complete that day as long as all the work gets done by the end of the week.
       Thursday's lab was moved to Friday at New Mountain Hill I like STEAM Days because I get to see the students react to new and exciting stimuli. On todays journey to New Mountain Hill I got to introduce my group to coding using a simple coding mouse that the media center had. The mouse could go forward and backward and could turn either right or left and for some added fun it could do a random action if added into the code. I had my students first design a course using foam blocks, over a five minute period the course was formed and it was time to code the mouse so that it would navigate the course. I tried to be as hands off as I could on the decision making because I wanted the students to learn how to problem solve, but of course I had to offer some guidance when they either became confused or started to argue. I went in order from my left to my right and each student got to decide on a direction to send the mouse. it took four iterations to get the mouse to the end of the course with a few corrections needed to correct miss coding due to student decisions. The mouse was not perfectly accurate in its actions but came close enough. The students were able to see that their decisions had made the mouse go from its starting point through an obstacle course and end at the designated ending point. When the mouse stopped at the stopping point my group started cheering, it made me smile how happy they were to complete this task. From design of the course to giving the directions to code the mouse it was all them and they knew it.


Building the course

              These two videos show the mouse working through its code that the students created!

              





The finished course and the mouse at the end point.
The mouse started on the opposite side,
between the red blocks facing the finish point.





If you zoom in or look closely you can see the course
 laid out by arrows that the students created.
Course corrections are marked by an X with the new direction next to it.