On October 4th, 2021, my teammate and I taught the 4th graders from the ECDC school about recycling. We collaborated on the use of technology with a 4th grade TEKS. The TEKS we chose was (1b) which is to make informed choices in the use of natural resources and reusing and recycling of materials such as paper, aluminum, glass, cans, and plastic.
Our Activity
We had made two recycling trucks with the Lego WeDo 2.0 kits. Our goal was to use them to teach recycling and coding. We opened up the lesson by asking questions to see the knowledge they had about recycling. We then explained how they could code with the trucks, and I gave an example of the code by instructing the truck to move. We then let the students do their own code with the IPads we had. The first group wanted us to give a code for their race. They also made a code to have the Smarthub change to different colors. The second group coded the trucks to go forwards, backwards, and make noises. The last group wanted to race with speed by setting the trucks to the highest speed possible. One of the students figured out how to do it first before explaining how he managed to do it.
My Experience
Overall my experience was great from the students. I had the opportunity to teach them, and I also learned from them. I got to see their creativity, and I learned that the speed could be set higher. I haven't worked with a 4th grade class before, so I didn't know what they would do with coding the trucks. It was also interesting to see them find out how to change the code to do something new. I wouldn't have thought that the speed could be manipulated more. I thought it went up to only speed 9, but the students put in a bigger number than that.
The ITSE standards we used are:
3c: Plan collaboratively with other educators to create learning activities that cross disciplines to strengthen student understanding of CT and CS concepts and transfer application of knowledge in new contexts.
4a: Design CT activities where data can be obtained, analyzed and represented to support problem-solving and learning in other content areas.
I helped to collaborate with Jasmine to create this activity and transfer our knowledge of technology and recycling into new contexts. Our activity was designed with WeDo 2.0, so students could problem-solve with the code and learn with coding. This will be important for when I do teach. I can design activities to support problem-solving and learning, and I can discuss with educators about similar topics as well.
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