Technology Grades TK-4 – Mr. King

Last trimester, students grades TK-4 developed skills centered around online safety, and preventing cyber-bullying. We routinely work towards expanding our tech understanding and vocabulary. Students grades 1-4 are learning home-row hand placement in Typing Club; a program that can be worked on at home as well!

We are currently learning about effective strategies to finding high-quality internet resources, and how search engines work. For example, did you know you can ‘-omit’ words in Google searches by using the ‘-‘ key before the word with no space? Try it out!

A New Year of Learning

We’re just entering 2018, which means at SFCS we have recently started our second trimester.

In the technology rotation the 5th through 8th graders have explored a number of topics, including “turtle graphics” programming with Logo, the history of computers, how the internet works, and how to build a webpage from scratch using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

As well as these and other technical topics, we have also discussed being a good Digital Citizen. Explore further material on digital citizenship from Common Sense education here: https://www.commonsense.org/education/scope-and-sequence

We will continue to explore these topics, expanding and deepening an understanding of computers, the internet, and programming — skills that will give SFCS students a special insight and dexterity in an increasingly automated world.

3rd & 4th – CS First [Activity 1]

The 3rd and 4th graders are currently participating in Google program called CS First (click link to log in).

Each student was given a username and password for the program, which they recorded in a “Passport” book. The book will also serve as a record of their progress, as they go through the lessons.

We will be focusing on using CS (Computer Science) to tell stories. The first exercise had the students create a scene of a character walking along, reacting to things that pass by.

When you log in to CS First, you will be able to jump to any activity. You will want to choose the Storytelling module. You will automatically be taken to whatever the current module is.

JavaScript Lesson #2

JavaScript is a very widely-used programming language. It is used within webpages, and every modern web browser has the ability to run JavaScript code. These are the two primary reasons I am focusing on this language: it is practical, and widely-accessible.

To begin getting acquainted with JavaScript, we will use a common feature of modern browsers: the developer console.

HTML/CSS Lesson #1

In which we learn about a new resource: http://sfcstech.x10.mx/

Webpages are, by-and-large, created using three languages: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We have already touched on JavaScript, but we have so-far not gone into HTML or CSS.

HTML stands for Hyper-Text Markup Language. “Hyper-text” refers to documents that are “hyper-linked” together. (The shortened version of this, “link,” has entered into our modern vocabulary.) CSS stands for “Cascading Style Sheets.”

JavaScript Lesson #1

Click this link to open this exercise in a new tab.

Logo Challenge #1 – Letters & Numbers

This exercise can be done using Logo Interpreter, or Nugo. Example code will be written in the Logo syntax, but it can easily be recreated in Nugo.

The challenge is to draw one or more letters or numbers. For example, say we want to draw the letter A.

Here’s one example:

Here’s another example:

Logo Lesson #4 – Recursion

As usual you can use Logo Interpreter for this exercise.

By combining variables and functions, we can do some very powerful things. A function that calls itself is doing something programmers and mathematicians call “recursion.”

We’re going to use recursion to draw a special kind of mathematical object called a fractal. Fractals are objects which, when you zoom in on certain parts, they resemble the whole. Consider a tree: what it looks like when you’re standing far away and looking at a tree, the trunk and branches. Now go up and look at the tip of one of the branches of the tree, and you’ll see the same pattern: a central trunk with smaller branches coming off it.

Logo Lesson #3 – Procedures

When coding, the programmer often finds that she is reusing certain bits of code over and over. For example, we have discussed a certain algorithm for drawing a circle. It goes something like this:

REPEAT 36 [ FD 10 RT 10 ]

In the above code, we draw circle by moving forward 10 pixels, and turning right 10 degrees, 36 times.

If we wanted to draw something with a bunch of circles, we probably wouldn’t want to write all that out each time. Instead, we could give that chunk of code a name, and then call it by that name instead of typing it all out.

In Logo, you do so with the following code:

TO circle
  REPEAT 36 [ FD 10 RT 10 ]
END

And, having thus defined the procedure, you can call it by name:

circle

Nugo

I enjoyed using Logo as a kid, but back then we were using Apple IIe‘s. Now we have Chromebooks and iPads. I thought I’d try giving Logo a bit of an update, too, and I came up with Nugo.

Nugo can’t (yet) do everything that Logo can. But it provides a new interface to some of the basic features of Logo. It uses icons to represent different commands, and allows the user the adjust them graphically (e.g. how far to move forward, how far to turn).

This is what Nugo looks like when you first load it. For this exercise we start with the “repeat” command, circled in red.

Next, we’ll tell put a “forward” and “right turn” command into our loop (circled).