Ms. Coutts' Class

Category: Applied Design Skills and Technologies (Page 1 of 2)

Maker Mondays

April 9, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Most Mondays students have a chance to explore a variety of hands-on ADST (Applied Design Skills and Technologies) activities. Students work together using critical and creative thinking in their problem solving, and strengthening interpersonal skills through communication. They are always very proud of their creations and eager to share! They’ve been asking me to do a post highlighting what they’ve been working on, so I will be adding to the gallery below as I take more photos. Keep checking back!

Some of the activities include:

  • Textiles – knitting, crochet
  • Strings and Beads – friendship bracelets
  • Keva Blocks
  • Card Structures
  • Lego
  • Pattern Blocks
  • Turing Tumble (a physical “computer”)
  • Snap Circuits
  • Paper Cutting
  • Sculpting
  • Geoboards

 

Media Balance

January 10, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Division 5 is beginning to explore digital literacy and citizenship skills. We will be learning how to use technology in helpful ways, about our digital footprints and online privacy, how we interact with others, how to find information safely, and how we can keep a healthy balance between media and non-media in our lives.

The following information is from Common Sense Education, a digital literacy resource I have been using for many years. You can also check out this family activity that can help with discussions around digital balance at home.

From phones and tablets to streaming movies and YouTube, tech and media are everywhere. Kids love easy access to shows, games, and information. Parents and caregivers love that kids can learn on the go (and stay busy when dinner’s cooking). But it’s easy to overdo it when the phone never stops pinging and the next episode plays automatically. Families can keep media and tech use in check by following a few simple practices.

Thinking in 3D

May 12, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Division 3 learned the skill of isometric drawing, or isometric projection, which is a graphic representation used by engineers, technical illustrators (drafters), and sometimes architects. Isometric drawing is a technical drawing style that makes two-dimensional figures appear three-dimensional. From Greek for “equal measure,” isometric images can illustrate interiors, exteriors, objects, etc, using height, width, and depth to create the illusion of a 3D perspective.

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Finding Balance in a Digital World

April 3, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Division 3 is learning to identify and reflect on the habits they have with digital media and devices.

From phones and tablets to streaming movies and YouTube, tech and media are everywhere. Kids love easy access to TV shows, games, and information.

Parents and caregivers love that kids can stay in contact while they explore their independence. But it’s easy to overdo it when the phone never stops pinging and the next episode plays automatically.

Check out these tips from Common Sense Media to keep media and tech use in check.

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Language and Knowledge

March 6, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Humans all over the world define our knowledge, values, culture, and worldviews through the language we use. Today Division 3 looked at Inuktitut syllabics and listened to the language.

Inuktitut includes many different dialects, and is written today using two methods: Qaniujaqpait (syllabics) and Roman orthography. Many Inuit communities are working on revitalizing and continuing to teach/learn Inuktitut to maintain traditional knowledge. Inuit use their language to describe places, phenomena, and relationships unique to them. This is reflective of the deep relationship they have with the land, as well as the complex understandings about nature they have learned from their environment. Like in other languages, Inuktitut ties Inuit to their ancestors, family members, and neighbours. It is a way for them to unite and ensure that their cultures endures for generations to come.

Check out some of these games made for children (and really anyone) to develop some understanding of Inuktitut.

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Black Canadian Excellence

March 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Throughout February, Division 3 celebrated Black History Month by researching various individuals of note and summarizing who they are and what they do/did into one to three PowerPoint slides. Students discovered a wide range of Black Canadians that have contributed to our country through sport, politics, art, activism, education, and more.

Students collaborated on a shared PowerPoint file, each person adding their set of slides to the overall composition. Division 3 has been learning how to communicate information effectively. In their slides, their goal was to use visuals and point form to communicate the main ideas clearly.

Please check out their work with this link: Black Canadian Excellence

Cave Art

December 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Division 3 has been looking at the emergence of art as early humans developed conceptual thinking and and some understanding of themselves in relation to the world around them. Examining the cave paintings from France, Spain, and Argentina, we noticed they often pictured large animals such as mammoth, bison, horses, deer, etc. Some of the paintings featured depictions of humans and arrows or spears. Some anthropologists suggest these depictions may have been intended to “enchant” big game animals for a successful hunt. Or maybe they were recording stories from their lived experiences for future generations. The negative-space hand prints are, perhaps, the most haunting of the cave paintings. It’s almost as though you can reach out and touch our early human ancestors living in the midst of an ice age!

Earlier this week, we headed out to the forest to collect raw materials that could be combined to create painting tools. Students gathered sticks, grass, rocks, leaves, etc. Then we brought them inside to adapt the raw materials to create useable tools. We agreed that we could use twine to bind things, but no glue or tape.

Finally, we got to painting on our “cave” walls! Students worked on vertical surfaces and different heights to experience a tiny bit of what it might have been like to paint this way. Some students worked more independently, and some collaboratively in order to create their images. They attempted to work in the style of the cave paintings from France and Spain, and depicted similar subjects as well.

Hour of Code & Computer Science Education Week

December 6, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Hour of Code takes place during Computer Science Education Week, which is this week!

Some smaller versions of our now-grade 7s! This photo is from when I visited UHE a few years ago to teach some coding, back when I held a district position.

The idea behind Hour of Code is get everyone participating in a coding activity at some point throughout the week. Students have all different levels of experience with coding, and it has become part of our B.C. curriculum. While we understand that not all students will grow up to become programmers, learning coding and computational thinking in school helps demystify the powers that drive our everyday technologies, broadens participation in the field of computer science, and nurtures problem solving skills. It is essentially a new literacy needed as our children grow up and navigate the world.

Thinking about coding and modern technologies is especially interesting as we also examine and think about prehistoric technologies early modern humans used to survive, thrive, and observe their world.  Division 3 has been looking at some of the earliest cave art found in Spain, France, and Argentina. This week, students are combining found natural materials to create tools that could be used for painting–then we will test if they work! Keep an eye out for some of our process and finished pieces!

I have positioned some coding links on our Hour of Code page. Feel free to check them out!

 

Beading in Binary

September 23, 2022 / / 3 Comments

Students have been exploring how to write numbers in binary code. Binary is a base-2 number system that is the foundation for machine commands. Each bit in this 6-bit series below can be turned either “on” or “off” in order to represent a value. When a bit is “on” it is represented with a 1, and when it is “off” it is represented with a 0. For example, in order to write the number 10 in binary, we would write 001010. The two 1s appear in the places of 8 and 2, so 8+2=10.

What is the largest number you can make with 6-bits? How would you represent the number 24?

Division 3–Have you noticed the strange addition sentence sticker on my laptop? Have a look the next time you’re here and see if you can solve it! (Hint: it has something to do with binary!)

 

This week students learned that letters can also be coded in binary using the ASCII alphabet. Each uppercase and lowercase letter can be represented by a decimal number that is translated into an 8-bit binary code. Students mapped out their the letters of their names on grid paper, chose their colours, and beaded their names into a bracelet. They used a different coloured bead as a delimiter to separate each 8-bit letter.

Here is a message for you, Division 3. Let’s see if you can decode it!

1001000  1000001 1010000 1010000 1011001 01000011 01001111 01000100 01001001 01001110 01000111

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