{"id":22368,"date":"2024-05-30T13:56:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T12:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/?p=22368"},"modified":"2024-05-31T16:44:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T15:44:06","slug":"creative-computing-science-in-primary-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/glowblogs\/digilearn\/2024\/05\/30\/creative-computing-science-in-primary-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiring Creativity: Sparking a Computing Science buzz in primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were delighted to be able to support and deliver a day long professional workshop with all staff of Kingswells Primary School.\u00a0 We were asked to facilitate this activity after delivering an information session to colleagues at Aberdeen Digital Learning Live.<\/p>\n

This day long workshop guided all staff through practical, hands on activities to develop and explore their Computing Science skills.\u00a0 Hands on sessions were split into lower and upper primary staff.<\/p>\n

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The Upper Primary staff experienced the following:<\/h3>\n

Building and coding physical solutions using micro:bit<\/strong> – Utilising\u00a0 common low cost materials to build real world projects eg going beyond putting code onto the microbit and building objects that people can interact with<\/p>\n

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Bringing real world objects into Scratch programs<\/strong> – being able to draw\/sketch\/make real world objects and designs, capture these and import them into a scratch project – allowing discussions to take place about various CS concepts such as storage, graphic file types while consolidating coding concepts<\/p>\n

Coding AI Solutions<\/strong> – a guided tour around machinelearningforkids and short workshop creating and using an AI model, focussing on AI themes such as bias, knowledge bases and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Integrating microbit into Scratch projects<\/strong> – connecting micro:bit to scratch projects allowing for a wider range of creative opportunities with code.<\/p>\n

Designing and Prototyping<\/strong> – a focussed session looking at user interface design \/ user experience \/ structure of a digital product (eg app or website) \/ integration of multiple media types.\u00a0 In this session we used presentation software such as powerpoint\/google slides and repurposed the tool to create prototype mobile apps<\/p>\n

We also had the opportunity to discuss progression, particularly with microbit experiences<\/p>\n

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The lower primary staff explored how to\u00a0blend creativity and computational thinking.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Using tools built into the iPad, either using Keynote or PowerPoint via Glow, we explored how to creating an app prototype to showcase skills or knowledge in a particular topic, can be an excellent showcase of pupil knowledge and understanding. We explored using hyperlinks to create basic navigation, buttons, content, context, and how to develop learner resiliency if something goes wrong or works unexpectedly.<\/p>\n

The below example is an excellent showcase of how a basic bug curation app, can develop computational thinking skills, such as:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Decomposition<\/li>\n
  • Problem solving<\/li>\n
  • Logical thinking<\/li>\n
  • Debugging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    App Prototyping Example<\/p>\n

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    \"YouTube