Robotics Day!!!!!
This past Friday Indiana University CEL students paired up with the fifth grade teachers at Lakeview Elementary to organize a Robotics Day to teach students about computer science. I paired up with Riley Sunday to teach students about conditionals! Together we created a fun and engaging unplugged lesson for fifth graders.
Overall, I think that our lesson plan was very successful with fifth grade students. We started our lesson by asking students what they already knew about conditionals. From here we asked our students to go around in a circle and share a conditional that they came up with. We received answers like, "if I'm hungry, then I will eat," or "if it is raining, then I will get an umbrella." For the most part students were willing to share examples that they came up with but we had to help some students by leading them off with the if part of the statement, for example we would say, "if I am thirsty..." and they would finish the statement by saying, "then I will get a drink of water."
Once we felt that everyone had a good idea of what a conditional was we introduced the game that we would be playing. We had the students first play a game with cards and then had them play with M&M's. We displayed the instructions of the game on the computer screen at the table so the students could reference it throughout the game. This was a great idea on our part because for the M&M game there were a lot of directions for them to remember and with it being right in front of them it saved us a lot of time not having to explain it to them each time. The game that we used to teach the students was great because students were seeing how conditionals work. Students were also very engaged throughout our presentation because they were excited to see who was going to get the most points and win, they also got to eat M&M's at the end!
One thing that I think would have helped our lesson be better is if we had the students in smaller groups so they wouldn't have to wait so long in between each turn. Another thing that could have made the lesson more successful is having each student repeat the conditional after their turn so we could really enforce what a conditional is. For example, if a student drew a yellow M&M they would say, "if I draw a yellow M&M, then I will stand up and spin around." This way the student would really understand what is going on in the game and know why the game applies to learning about conditionals. I also wish that our station would have had time at the end to talk about how conditionals applied to computer science. We were able to touch on this a little bit during our time with the groups but I would have liked to go more in depth about it.
After today, I learned how helpful unplugged activities can be when teaching students about computer science. In the future I definitely want to utilize the idea of unplugged activities more in my lesson plans. Code.org is a great place to find unplugged activities for just about any concepts in computer science. Robotics day taught me a lot about computer science and how excited and eager students are to learn about this topic! I found that working with students in small groups like we had on Friday is a great way for students to be more engaged with the material that they are learning. I also think that having 20 minute stations is a great way for teachers to keep their classroom fast paced and interesting for their students. I would like to use this small group station idea in my future classroom because it allows for students to be more involved and hands on during a lesson.
Overall, I think that our lesson plan was very successful with fifth grade students. We started our lesson by asking students what they already knew about conditionals. From here we asked our students to go around in a circle and share a conditional that they came up with. We received answers like, "if I'm hungry, then I will eat," or "if it is raining, then I will get an umbrella." For the most part students were willing to share examples that they came up with but we had to help some students by leading them off with the if part of the statement, for example we would say, "if I am thirsty..." and they would finish the statement by saying, "then I will get a drink of water."
Here is an example of the card game we had students play!
One thing that I think would have helped our lesson be better is if we had the students in smaller groups so they wouldn't have to wait so long in between each turn. Another thing that could have made the lesson more successful is having each student repeat the conditional after their turn so we could really enforce what a conditional is. For example, if a student drew a yellow M&M they would say, "if I draw a yellow M&M, then I will stand up and spin around." This way the student would really understand what is going on in the game and know why the game applies to learning about conditionals. I also wish that our station would have had time at the end to talk about how conditionals applied to computer science. We were able to touch on this a little bit during our time with the groups but I would have liked to go more in depth about it.
After today, I learned how helpful unplugged activities can be when teaching students about computer science. In the future I definitely want to utilize the idea of unplugged activities more in my lesson plans. Code.org is a great place to find unplugged activities for just about any concepts in computer science. Robotics day taught me a lot about computer science and how excited and eager students are to learn about this topic! I found that working with students in small groups like we had on Friday is a great way for students to be more engaged with the material that they are learning. I also think that having 20 minute stations is a great way for teachers to keep their classroom fast paced and interesting for their students. I would like to use this small group station idea in my future classroom because it allows for students to be more involved and hands on during a lesson.
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