Week 8- November 5: Session 1 Finale

This is our final week in this first session of Tech Club. We will be reviewing what we've learned and talk about how we can be tech leaders in the next session that will begin sometime after Winter Break.  Students will be working on Scratch to write some of their own code for their own unique programs. Check out these videos from last week.

Week 7: October 28: Makey Makey Part 3

This week, back by popular demand, the Makey Makey! Students have done an incredible job of creating game controllers and musical instruments using found materials. Now that we've mastered those alligator clips, we'll be working on using our controllers! We'll also be working on our Coding skills using Code.org.

Week 6: October 22: The Makey Makey Part 2

Last week we introduced the Makey Makey. Students enthusiastically explored advanced tools like Bananas, Celery, and Play Dogh to control their computers. Now that they've learned how to plug everything in, we'll be exploring some deeper aspects of the Makey Makey in terms of constructing a game controller or a more advanced musical instrument.

Students can bring items to make buttons and explore what the best conductors are. Feel free to bring vegetables or metal toys or anything else that may be a good button. We'll have some play dogh to use, but if you have more, please bring it!

Week 5: October 15: The Makey Makey Part 1

This week we will take a break from Code.org and explore a fun tool called the Makey Makey.  It was developed by some students at MIT a couple of years ago.  Our district has purchased enough Makey Makey kits for the entire tech club to explore at once.  To learn more about what it can do, visit the website.

We'll post pictures of the students creating!

Week 4: October 8: Getting Loopy

This week we'll be talking about Loops.  We'll get further in our Code.org exploration and be able to see some great things involving how to make our code simpler using repeated commands called "Loops".  We will explore online and offline using this activity involving some killer dance moves.

Week 3 Oct. 1: Cup Stacking Robots

This week we'll be using a cool activity that involves writing code in groups to stack cups according to the directions of the programmer.  The "robots" will be fellow members of the group who will be following directions exactly as written and demonstrating the bugs when the program isn't written properly.  
We will also be continuing our exploration of the Code.org website where students have made impressive progress so far!

Week 2 Sept. 24: What am I Writing When I Code?

Last week we created accounts at Code.org with our CSDdocs google drive username and passwords so that we can track our progress and become more familiar with basic coding language.  This week we will be doing an "unplugged" activity called Graph Paper Programming.  This will involve students working together to interpret code and use graph paper to illustrate the commands visually.
We will also have some time to further explore the coding activities the students started last week!

Week 1 Sept. 17: Hour of Code

We will be kicking off this session with the Hour of Code Activity that was introduced last November from Code.org.  The activities extend much further than the one hour of code offered. Students will be able to continue their progress wherever they can find a device!