Category: Creativity

4th December 2020. Demo session: digitally documenting learning at early level with iPads.

Friday 4th December at 12.30pm via Google Meet.

No prior sign up required, however, a Gmail account is required to access Google Meet.

This confidence rasing demo session will provide a step by step, how-to guide of how to use the iPad apps covered in the previous webinar:

Supporting early level learners to digitally document their learning.

Due to practitioner demand, this session will look specifically at the iPad apps covered in the webinar recording.

You can join the session on Google Meet here. Please note a Gmail login is required.

Confidence, creativity, and curiosity in early level computing science: unplugged and outdoors.

This webinar focussed on how we create experiences and spaces that allows computing science to be embedded at the early level through play and where we can access a wealth of free learning and teaching resources to embed unplugged computing science at the early level. It explored a range of unplugged activity ideas and the concepts, approaches and key vocabulary of computational thinking.

This session welcomed practitioners working with learners in ELC or Primary School AND all other practitioners who work with learners at any level, with an interest in creatively embedding computing science their learning environment.

There will be another follow-up session in January exploring programmable devices and online coding resources, followed by drop-in discussion sessions to ask questions and share practice.  Please look for the webinar sign up information at the Upcoming Webinars section of this blog. All webinar information for early level practitioners is also available here via this Sway. 

8th December 2020, 16:00 – 17:15 QUANTifying Design with V&A Dundee

 

This session will introduce attendees to the Mary Quant Exhibition at V&A Dundee and will highlight resources available for educators to support creative problem solving and design skills.

The webinar will also cover some Microsoft and Apple apps which can be used within your classroom to support learning across the art and design and technologies.

This is a joint session between V&A Dundee and hosted by Education Scotland’s Digital Skills Team.

A Glow account is required to attend.

Register here

 

Creative Bravery with Daydream Believers

Today as we work though a global pandemic our call to be creatively brave has become even more important.

What does creative bravery mean and how can we support and develop these skills in our young people?

In this webinar Helena Good, Team Leader on the Daydream Believer Programme, shres her thoughts on creative bravery within education and how the Daydream Believers free online resources can support parents, teachers and lecturers in the new academic session.

Inspiring Digital Enterprise Awards, Grove Academy

iDEA Awards, Grove Academy

Gavin Pyott, PT Computing Science

I became aware of the iDEA awards by chance when it was first launched 3 years ago. I can’t explain how glad I am that I did. The programme is so well written and produced that all learners are drawn into the modules and are keen to do more. Due to the positive impact iDEA had with classes in my department l began promoting the awards and encouraging others to use it within their schools. As a result of this l was awarded the title of Teacher Ambassador from iDEA.  

The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA, is an international programme that helps students develop and demonstrate digital, enterprise and employability skills.

Since its launch, iDEA has established itself as the digital equivalent of The Duke of Edinburgh Award. The iDEA awards are recognised by universities and employers so are a great addition to any student’s CV.

The iDEA awards allow students to map their knowledge and understanding of the digital world through a series of modules (badges).

The badges have been designed to unlock new opportunities and raise awareness of the diverse range of careers in our digital world, all the while allowing students to gain an industry recognised award to help them stand out from the crowd.

To achieve a Bronze Award, students need to earn a minimum of 250 points, including at least 40 points in each of the core categories of the curriculum: Citizen, Worker, Maker and Entrepreneur.

• CITIZEN BADGES cover digital awareness, safety and ethics.

• WORKER BADGES introduce tools and techniques which are useful in the digital workplace.

• MAKER BADGES cover digital creativity and building and making in the digital world.

• ENTREPRENEUR BADGES explain how to originate ideas and bring them to life.

• GAMER BADGES investigate gamification techniques and help people learn how to make games.

These badges are all very informative and explain complex concepts in a straightforward, easy to understand, way. All badges are designed to be interactive, allowing pupils to answer questions as they go, building up their knowledge step-by-step.

To help track student progress iDEA have launched ‘organiser codes’ and the organiser area. This allows you to provide pupils with a simple code to add to their iDEA profiles. This will then pull the progress charts for each pupil together into a handy, easy to use spreadsheet.

After completing the Bronze award, many pupils volunteer to move on to the Silver. Unlike Bronze, the Silver award has been written as a series of topics. Each topic is story-based with students being guided through a real-life scenario as they discover the skills required to progress.

Due to the amazing quality and excellent writing in the badges in the programme the target audience range has really been opened up. I have successfully delivered the iDEA award in S1, S2 and S3. We now have pupils is S4-6 who are also tapping into the programme as it has caught their attention. iDEA also works great in an upper primary setting. My own daughter liked the look of the badges and had a go herself. She successfully completed the Bronze award in Primary 6 and completed her Silver when in Primary 7. Not wanting to stop there she completed a total of 50 Bronze badges to become ‘Badge Champion’ and completed the remaining Silver topic to become a

‘Silver Star’. This determination to complete the modules has been replicated by students in my classes who applied the Pokemon ‘got to get them all’ approach to the badges and awards. I have to admit, I have done this too! The iDEA badges are so interesting and informative I found I couldn’t stop either! As an introduction to a new concept (block chain) or to brush up existing skills the iDEA Award is great CLPL for staff too.

Mr Pyott has created a Sway which will give you a full introduction to the work and process involved in using iDEA and his top tips. To view click here.

To see more from Mr Pyott you can visit his Twitter feed on @MrPyott

To see more from Grove Academy, please visit their Twitter feed on @Grove_Academy

You can find out more on iDEA Awards via https://idea.org.uk/ 

Race for the Line Event by Liz Dighton at Boroughmuir High School

On a rather cold, but thankfully dry, Wednesday all 220 of our S1 pupils were involved in an inter-disciplinary project which was part of the National BBC micro:bit Model Rocket Car Challenge called Race for the Line.  Over 400 schools from all over the UK are participating in the competition.  The inspiration behind the national project is the Bloodhound car which is attempting to beat the 1000mph world land speed record and also inspire the next generation of engineers to get involved in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.  #STEM 

In Design and Technology classes leading up to the Race Day, pupils worked together in teams of 4 to make a foam rocket car creating a design folio which showed how they had considered aerodynamics, friction etc.  In Computing classes the pupils programmed the Micro:bits which were used to carry out the timing mechanism on the race track and in Science they explored the forces which would be applied to the cars. 

On Race Day we were joined in school by a team from the Royal Navy who are based at Rosyth and are members of the crew of the new aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.  The Navy team equipped each car with a solid fuel rocket and setup the Race Track in the playground.  Each class took turns to race their cars and the times were recorded for each car.  The Navy had brought along one of their PT instructors so to keep warm pupils carried out a fitness test with a couple of our S1’s managing to reach the fitness standard for the Royal Navy while wearing their school shoes!!!  After racing the cars the pupils then used our new Dual teaching space on the 3rd floor to create some posters to summarise their learning in this project.  Some of these are now on display in the classrooms around the school. 

The top 3 car teams went forward to the Regional Final on the 3rd of May when they competed against all of the teams from other school in East Central Scotland @ the Royal Navy facility at Rosyth and 3 also qualified for the Scottish Final at the Barracks at Redford.   

 

 

 

19 November 2020 4-5pm. Confidence, creativity, and curiosity in early level computing science: unplugged and outdoors. PM Webinar via Glow

 

This webinar will take place within Microsoft Teams within Glow. A Glow login is required to join the webinar.

This webinar will focus on how we can create experiences and spaces that allows unplugged computing science to be embedded at the early level through play and where to access a wealth of free learning and teaching resources to embed unplugged computing science at the early level.

This session is for practitioners working with learners in ELC or Primary School AND all other practitioners who work with learners at any level, with an interest in creatively embedding unplugged computing science their indoor and outdoor learning environments.

This video is a recording of the first early level computing science webinar of this series. Please feel free to view it before attending this webinar if you wish (not essential).

If you do not have Glow l access, the session is being delivered earlier in the day at 10am via Google Meet. Please look at the other events listed in the upcoming webinars section of the blog: 

This webinar will also be recorded.

 All information for early level webinars is also available here via this Sway. 

Please click on this Eventbrite link to sign up.

19 November 2020 10-11am. Confidence, creativity, and curiosity in early level computing science: unplugged and outdoors. AM Webinar via Google Meet.

 

This webinar will take place within Google Meet. A GMail login is required to join the webinar.

This webinar will focus on how we can create experiences and spaces that allows unplugged computing science to be embedded at the early level through play and where to access a wealth of free learning and teaching resources to embed unplugged computing science at the early level.

This session is for practitioners working with learners in ELC or Primary School AND all other practitioners who work with learners at any level, with an interest in creatively embedding unplugged computing science their indoor and outdoor learning environments.

This video is a recording of the first early level computing science webinar of this series. Please feel free to view it before attending this webinar if you wish (not essential).

If you do not have GMail access, the session is being delivered later in the day at 4pm via Teams within Glow. Please look at the other events listed in the upcoming webinars section of the blog: 

This webinar will also be recorded.

 All information for early level webinars is also available here via this Sway. 

Please click on this Eventbrite link to sign up.

30 November 2020, 16:00 – 16:45 Code Club H&WB and Environmental learning resources

A Glow Login is required to join this webinar. This webinar will take place on Glow, Education Scotland Digital Teams channel.

Join Dr. Lorna Gibson, Programme Manager, Code Club, while she shares new resources available for practitioners using coding to explore the environment, health and wellbeing, and more. Project demonstrations plus opportunity for questions.

Register here

03 November 2020 16:00 – 16:45, Experience running an online Code Club

This webinar will take place on Glow, Education Scotland Digital Teams channel. A Glow login is required.

Join Dr. Lorna Gibson, Programme Manager, Code Club, for an online session aimed at practitioners. Experience running an online club and try out the new health and wellbeing projects. This is a practical session followed by short Q&A