Computational Thinking Learning Activities

Two weeks ago, my professor asked each student to create 16 learning activities under the umbrella of Computational Thinking. Each activity was designed to fit into one of the four key concepts of Computational Thinking: Abstraction, Decomposition, Algorithmic Thinking, and Pattern Recognition. Half of the activities were "unplugged" and the other half were "plugged" or employed the use of technology.

Last week, I met with my team to discuss the activities and how they would work for students. We each shared one or two activities to begin. Tom shared a great activity that recruited the program JamBoard. This activity asked the students to think about the qualities of a favorite character and write down a few of their qualities. Tom asked the students to reflect: Are these qualities admirable? What impact would a character with these qualities have on our society? How would society affect this character? I thought that this activity was a great opportunity for self-reflection and a way to build community in the virtual classroom. I shared an abstraction activity grounded in the transition from food chains to food webs. Monique commented that she liked the use of native species and Tom liked the layered nature of the activity. Lastly, Monique shared an awesome pattern recognition activity created through IXL. We also had a bit of time to see Monique's Blockly sequencing activity. She said it was easier to navigate than MusicBlocks but it had the same basic outcome. Pretty cool!

This week, we discussed our activities with a different lens. We read through each others activities searching for errors or areas for improvement before our work is submitted to Ezra for "publication". For example, Tom needed to clarify his rationale in some activities. We were able to help Monique by catching a spelling mistake and asking her to clarify the directions on one activity. Monique and Tom were very supportive of many of my activities, making me feel like I did something right! They offered some great advice. Tom suggested using a Flipgrid rather than a video for one of my activities that requires documenting an oxygen molecule’s journey through the breathing process. Monique suggested including a vocabulary list in my WordArt activity. I debated this idea but decided not to include a vocabulary list because I wanted the activity to act more like a formative assessment, checking the students’ ability to recall the terms. I was glad that she made this point because it pushed me to reevaluate and clarify the purpose of the activity. Additionally, Tom helped me edit an activity in order to make it more inclusive for all children. Originally, the activity asked the students to find similarities between family members. This was meant to be used as an introduction to heredity but I neglected to consider the variety of possible family structures that students may have at home. Monique and Tom helped me choose the word "household" to replace "family members". Now, the activity will include basic similarities that encompass genetic and environmental traits.

Creating this compilation of activities has been a lot of work but I am excited that I have such a comprehensive list. I think the list will be a useful resource in my future classroom.