Coding Sequences with BB-8

I wanted to do another coding project after "Code Day" I thought the students would benefit from seeing it again.  We had a day between our short chapter on sequences/series and NeSA review of next week.  In class we introduced arithmetic sequences, geometric sequences, and series.  I programmed the BB-8 with a code and asked students what the sequence was, then what the rule was?

Students explained that the sequence was 3, 6, 9, .....

Then what the rule was? Adding three every time.

Then I gave them code and asked them again what the sequence was suppose to look like and what the rule was.

The 10 degrees was to keep it on the number line.

I asked what the sequence should be. Some students said 2, 4, 6, 8, ...

I was impressed with my students, because they asked how far was 2 seconds at 50% speed.  So we played it with the BB-8 and it was somewhere between 2 and 3.

I asked them to download the "Tickle" app.

Students then were to create their own sequence where the BB-8 had to move across the number line. Students had to take a screen-shot of the code and write what the sequence was on Notability and include the photo.

I was incredibly impressed with the amount of effort put in to it.  Even with just one BB-8 from Sphero all students had the chance to get test their BB-8's code.

Here is an example of student's code:

It was a great activity for students to use code and their knowledge of sequences and rules together.

#9: Start a YouTube Channel

I have been a big fan of YouTube and have had a channel for a while, but this week I have been using YouTube more as an outlet for students.  I took some video of a coding project we did this week, a NeSA Review assignment with QR codes, and a VideoScribe for Teacher's Guild. (Whew... it has been a busy week.

• To start with was my BB-8 project which will be more to come, but we went over sequences and and students had to code their own sequences and find out what that sequence was.

• My second video was actually multiple videos and put in QR codes for our NeSA Review that we have next week (during my observation).  Students will get a worksheet with different types of algebra problems and I made videos to review each type of question.

Lastly was my VideoScribe, which is becoming one of my favorite presenting apps.  It did take some time to learn, but became easier to use the more that I used it.  It was a good tool that I might have my students use later this semester.

#8: Sketch-Noting

Sketch-noting was a blast for me and the students.  We talked about taking notes and thought sketch-noting was a powerful tool for synthesizing critical information and provide key insights on what note-taking in class looks like.  I collected most of the sketch-notes and made it a participation grade, because I wanted to see what some of them looked like.  I created a template on the board of what I would write down if I was in class and included some of the nuances of what sketch-notes were.

We used this site: http://uxmastery.com/sketchnoting-101-how-to-create-awesome-visual-notes/

To understand why some of these things pop out and make you remember.

I now realize looking back that math is a very difficult subject to try sketch-noting especially the section on radical expressions.  I gave students the option to try sketch noting on paper or use the iPad app Notability to help them.

Here is a student example:

It turned out pretty good, they got the general concept of putting things in boxes.  It was difficult to draw pictures and include thought bubbles, but for right now it is a start and will want to do this with a more user-friendly topic.

Here are some other examples:

BreakoutEDU

Got my first BreakoutEDU posted in Beta.

Can't wait to start building my second one!!

http://www.breakoutedu.com/games/

FINALLY!!! Designing Angry Bird Levels

If you have been a long term subscriber you know that I mentioned Angry Birds before:

5 Angry Bird Lessons

Journal Article

Finally, I put my words into action and give my Algebra students a chance to show their knowledge of parabolas.  Here are the directions and rubrics I used to grade their performance tasks. 

#6: Voxer Chat and Buncee

It is becoming more and more difficult to find Things to Try in 2016, since I have already done things like 3D printing in my classroom last year in 2015, I won't make my students do it twice unless I can think of a really cool project.  So this week was suppose to participate in Voxer Chat.

If you haven't heard of Voxer you need to.  It is an amazing tool that allows you to communication with your voice, with text, or with pictures to one or a group of people.  I recently have gotten more involved in BreakOutEDU and designing more puzzles, but the Voxer Chat helps a tremendous amount with getting feedback instantly from a group of knowledgeable people. 

It would be interesting to get something started with a class where students can instantly communicate in your classroom or have wide staff development where they use Voxer instead of getting 25 emails a day from your colleagues. 

       

Second part of this is Buncee.

https://www.edu.buncee.com/

You can create them for your class, I used one for a bell-ringer and it really simple.  You can also have your students create them, we used them for a different lesson and used them as exit tickets.

It is really easy to use this tool with drag and drop directions.  The best part is you can include YouTube videos and make it very simple to flip your lessons if you send it to all of your students.

Here are a few of my bell-ringer examples:

The last one had a YouTube video embeded and makes it easy to push to students and have them watch a quick YouTube video explaining, in this example, square roots and have them coming to class with previous knowledge of what square roots are.

Below I had students create a Buncee for an exit ticket where students had to one for three things they learned about discriminants.

They are quick and easy for students to put together, disregarding downloading time, it took about 5 minutes for students to get use to the tool and send it to me.

Great tool and app for classroom purposes!!