IRON-ORE MINING : Scratch, Lego WeDo and more

When I work with schools developing IT in the curriculum, I like to have a theme. At the moment, I'm working on how to incorporate Scratch and other software and model-building (using motors and sensors) into "Iron-ore Mining". 

First to raise it's head was designing a game in Scratch. I've worked on a few maze games recently and a mine could be just a vertical maze. Add in a bit of danger with a poisonous gas cloud and I think the children have got something to get there teeth into. That's the idea, what will they come up with?

Explosion

Escape to Safety

A couple of screenshots of my initial Scratch attempts for an Escape to Safety game.

Scratch file to accompany Lego WeDo model of a mine shaft life

Model mineshaft and emergency pod

Next, you need to move heavy stuff around so design a vehicle to bulldoze or pick-up rocks, a belt-transport system etc. There are similar examples out on the internet. So, another do-able project using Lego WeDo or K'nex and using Scratch for the coding.


Can we make it more like real life? The Chilean Mining Disaster in 2010 has been one of the most tweeted about events ever. Following on from the the explosion in our "maze" game, how could we rescue a trapped miner? Some wrapping-paper tubes, some Lego and cotton and we have "Design and make a working rescue pod to bring the miners up to the surface in a safe and gentle manner". Use Scratch for the programming.

I also like to add in musical and historical references if possible, and after starting to sing "New York Mining Disaster 1941" by the Bee Gees, I thought I'd go for a bit more relevance with Martin Carthy's versions of the "Trimdon Grange Explosion"* and "Springhill Mine Disaster"**. (Carthy actually recorded the Bee Gees song on his "Signs of Life" album.)

Looking on You Tube gave me the idea of providing children with images and sound so that they could create a presentation in Photostory, Movie Maker, PowerPoint or Smart Notebook. Alternatives include using Comic Life or some of the 2Simple Collection to tell the the history of local mining.

*The Definitive Martin Carthy (2003)
** Signs of Life (200?)

WORLD WAR ONE

I know it's a bit late to be looking at WW1 as the hundredth anniversary of it beginning was last year but it will always be relevant.

A bit of personal history first. A couple of years ago my wife bought me a Death Penny for my birthday. It was awarded to a chap from Tyneside, where I was born, who died on my birthday in 1918. It made me cry. This year, for my birthday, she bought me a "Fumsup"* and, for Christmas, the "Oh! What a lovely War" DVD and a 3CD boxed set of WW1 songs.

My Fumsup present

Just before Christmas, when I'd been doing Lego WeDo in a school, my friend asked me to put something together to act as a backdrop to her children singing "All Together Now" by The Farm. I'd never realised that this "catchy" song was about the famous Christmas no-man's land meetings. I made her a PowerPoint presentation incorporating images from "The Best Christmas Present" by Carol Anne Duffy & Michael Morpurgo (Egmont) and some animated gifs (snow and poppies).

So, to another school this week where they're just finishing off their work on WW1 and I've encouraged them to show their knowledge and understanding using PowerPoint but trying to incorporate something of themselves, their feelings. To get across the message I pointed them to the graphic novels of Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun (Charley's War - 10 vols, Titan Books) and the wonderful 32 page panorama produced by Joe Sacco covering the whole of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, The Great War. I played then Poppy Day by Siouxsie & the Banshees & My Youngest Son Came Home Today by Mary Black. We also looked at war propaganda using cartoons from the book "World War 1 in Cartoons" by Mark Bryant (Octopus Books (2006)).

Another book to look out for is the Costa Book Award Winner "Five Children on the Western Front" by Kate Saunders (Faber)**

We all respond to tasks we're given with different interest and enthusiasm, so I'm really anxious to experience what they produce.


*http://blog.maryevans.com/2014/02/fumsup-a-first-world-war-lucky-mascot.html
**http://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/book/10321/Five-Children-on-the-Western-Front-by-Kate-Saunders.html

YEAR 6 EVOLUTION : Book and Magazine

As I've mentioned before, one of my heroes is Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin's Bulldog, and I have a great interest in Evolution. With the changes to the National Curriculum, I was hoping to be inundated with schools asking for help. I'd already done a special day in 2009 for Darwin's anniversaries and, as so much more research has been carried out, I was looking to get myself updated.

One area where there has been great strides is Human Evolution so, with a bit of birthday money, I bought and read Alice Robert's book "The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being". This was very informative and coupled with the purchase of the New Scientist Collection - The Human Story, I felt more confident.

The rush of schools wasn't forthcoming and without that imperative of "How the hell do I engage and enthuse the children?" my new knowledge started to get pushed out by thoughts of Scratch coding.

If you're looking to update your knowledge, I'd recommend both of these and the Corpse Talk comic strip about Human Evolution in the Phoenix Comic (see previous post).

http://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/

The good news is that I am in a state of panic because one school has been brave enough to take me on to deliver Evolution. I start this week and will let you know what I do and how it goes. Wish me luck. Watch the blog.

YEAR 6 : EVOLUTION - Lesson 1

My photo - Darwin Doll

The Plan

Introduction
"What do you know about the Universe & Life?"
General chat. 
Try to bring in Brian Cox as a populariser of Science.
Creation myths show the human fascination for our origins and the origins of everything but also the amazing scope for creativity and imagination which we have. Indeed, stress that scientists must be imaginative and creative to be able to understand and to try to explain these questions.


Activity 1 : Watch a video of the Navajo* creation myth.
                   Discuss and constructively criticise it.

Activity 2 : Retell the Navajo creation myth using software of choice
                      2Create-a-Story
                      Comic Life
                      Photostory
                      PowerPoint
                      SmartNotebook
   (Pupils will be given a range of screenshots from the video to use in their
     presentations.)

Activity 3 : Timelines (choice here)
                      Construct a timeline for a creation myth.
                      Watch the "How 2" video of Earth's timeline
                      Construct a "toilet-roll" timeline of:-
                          The Universe
                          The Earth
                          Life on Earth
                          Humans
                   Flash timelines are also available for the children to access.

Plenary : What we've done and where we're going next - Classification and
                 Variation

Homework : My Family's timeline or an "Events Timeline of my Life".

The Reality 
Well done Year 6.
Loved every second of the afternoon. As usual IT raised its ugly head but, despite not getting out my toilet rolls, we achieved a lot. Some great retelling of the myth.
First time ever I was tweeted in a photograph.
Exciting Science @BaderPrimary Evolution & Inheritance with Y6 and @DoctorABeepic.twitter.com/jx2yQ2izqM
 Roll on next week 
                
* Brain Cox : The Origins of the Universe, Solar System, Life
** I chose this as a personal favourite. Other myths are available on You Tube or you could access the Big Myths website. They have also created an app but it costs.

MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness : the article, the books, the app

Mindfulness first reared its head when I was browsing some education articles on the Guardian website. My favourite food is chocolate and there was an article about giving chocolate to children to introduce them to mindfulness.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/teacher-blog/2013/jun/24/mindfulness-classroom-teaching-resource

It sounded interesting and I determined that, soon, I'd go back to my roots in CASE (Cognitive Acceleration in Science Education) and do a bit of metacognition (thinking about thinking). However, the very next day I came across a book entitled Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana and its companion volume, Eight Mindful Steps To Happiness.

Wisdom press (2001) ISBN 0-86171-176-9

Book on loan so no details

It was a stressful time, personally, so I sat and read the book. I took from it what I wanted (I left the spiritual bit behind) and took to trying to be "mindful". It wasn't easy then and I'm afraid I've let it slip a bit but I did feel there were benefits to be gained. It was, therefore, very interesting to read in the New Scientist Collection : The Scientific Guide To A Better You a scientific take on the topic.

If you're up for sitting and actively thinking/not-thinking for 30min a day I'd recommend having a go.

Finally, browsing through one of the Sunday papers, I came across a review of an app. and website to do with mindfulness, Headspace. I've not tried the app yet and am not sure I'd want to "buddy" up with anybody for support through the website, but mindfulness is an avenue I'm happy to walk down in trying to cope with what the world flings at me.

YEAR 3 SCIENCE - LIGHT & SHADOWS

When I was teaching full-time, I was always on the lookout for ways to engage the pupils. With changes in technology and resources, this is easier now than previously but still can prove difficult.
When it comes to Light & Shadows, I had a "wow" moment when I first saw Pilobolus do one of their shadow dance routines. This was long before Britain's Got Talent brought us Attraction.

Screenshot from Pilobolus video "Summer in the City"

I remember, as a child, making shadow shapes with my hands.

What shadow image do you think this shape might produce?

Links can also be made to:-
     - the fashion for silhouette portraits before cheap photography (1790-1840)

Beethoven as a boy - Wikipedia (public domain) 

     - Fairy Tales illustrated with silhouettes e.g. Arthur Rackham's Cinderella,
        a number of books by Jan Pienkowski and Rob Ryan

Jan Pienkowski

     - animation e.g. The Kingdom of Witches inspired by Pienkowski
                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T06OToVOsbk
                              Various fairy tales by Lotte Reiniger 
                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvU55CUw5Ck   

The Adventures of Prince Achmed by Lotte Reiniger (1926)

Lotte Reiniger (1899-1981

  - Far-Eastern shadow plays

Creative Commons -The Children's Museum of Minneapolis

Back to the Science, investigations can be undertaken into "How shadows can be changed?", "How shadows change during the day?" and "Is it really cooler in the shade?".

Postscript : Thinking about Britain's Got Talent reminder me of a winner (Kseniya Simonova) of the Ukrainian version. She won with a very moving sand animation performance using a light box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOMgDbcA84A

PRIMARY SCIENCE - BRIDGES

PRIMARY SCIENCE : BRIDGES

The North East of England is known for its bridges crossing the Tyne, Wear & Tees. This is especially helpful when teaching about the forces involved in supporting bridges where I usually show a slide show of them.

Transporter Bridge across the River Tees

The Swing Bridge across the River Tyne

I then go on to ask "Who can build me the strongest bridge from just one sheet of A4 card /paper?". This is fun and good to video but, for me, a bit repetitive.

One of the best ever A4 card bridges - not mine.

I try for added "wow" by showing the Tacoma Bridge Disaster movie or the Top Gear look at the Millau Suspension Bridge.

What is now of particular interest to me are bridges that move and there are four in the region:-

    on the River Tees          Transporter Bridge

                                       Newport Bridge (no longer moving)

    on the River Tyne          Swing Bridge

                                       Millennium Bridge

Having got into Lego models through WeDo, having Scratch in my arsenal and having collected some K'nex, I've been trying out making interactive, moving models of these bridges.
Here's the approach:-

(a) build a working model of one of the bridges incorporating sensors and  
           motors

(b) use Scratch rather than the WeDo coding to control the bridge

(c) make the Scratch program interact with your 3D model i.e. what happens in
           real life also happens on screen.

This can prove tricky especially when it comes to weight and accurate control of the motor. 
Modelling the Swing Bridge has given me the most pleasure so far, the Transporter Bridge the most headaches.

The superstructure for  my transporter bridge

I originally tried to use strong cotton to support my gondola but the gondola proved too heavy.

Here's a screenshot of my Scratch program.

My Scratch version of  the Transporter Bridge

More to follow, especially if I can get some children involved.

Year 6 SCIENCE - Evolution & Inheritance

I've pointed you towards The Phoenix Comic & Corpse Talk in past blogs. Two of the latest issues are especially relevant to the new National Curriculum. Issues 156 & 157 involve Charles Darwin and Human Evolution. 

http://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/shop/

What a great resource - short and simple. The team at The Phoenix deserve a pat on the back for continuing to produce a high-quality comic for children with NO ADVERTS and brilliant graphics and storylines. I'm eagerly awaiting their upcoming strip on the Universe.

If you're looking for other resources to help teach this topic look for a copy of Catalyst from 2009 (Darwin's anniversaries), The Biologist article on Alfred Russel Wallace and Primary Science review articles.

From Primary Science Review

From The Biologist 

Finally, for getting to the bottom, how about Evolution a la Simpsons.

http://www.lghs.net/ourpages/users/dburns/ScienceOnSimpsons/Clips.html

The blog is back.

Can't believe I've not blogged for so long. There are a hundred and one things to share and get off my chest. Preparation before publication.

But, just to whet the appetite.....

Work will centre on Scratch, Lego WeDo and building "bridges that move".

"Dementia and old age" will be a rant and "Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker" and "Lucy Ward" blogs of admiration.

"Anyone but me" is one of my favourite ever songs.

Be back soon!