Following on from appearing on BBC Click I have been invited to attend a meeting to discuss the place of programming in the primary curriculum. In our school we use 2Do It Yourself to create games and this started in KS2 but in June we made simple games with KS1 as well. Next year we will develop this further and introduce Kodu and Scratch across the school.
So my question is, do you have any game design or programming in your school? What do you do and from what age?
If you have any examples that I can share with the audience next week it would be very much appreciated!
I used Scratch with year 5s. I started by letting them play and experiment. I was learning alongside them and every now and then we’d stop and share something cool that someone had discovered. We then looked at the examples and magpied them to make our own racing games etc. It culminated in designing our own very simple Angry Birds levels. Great fun and a fab way to introduce children to programming!
I’ve used Scatch at our school in a year 6 lunch time club which about 70% of our year group attended by the end of the year! I too was learning as they were and they would often aske questions on how to do things which took some time to work out, but I think that develops great problem solving skills. We also ended by creating very simple games based on a maze type game, some were able to develop different levels as well. One of the best outcome for me was one boy who loaded Scatch at home and created an amazing 6 level game far more complex than I could! Here is the link to our website with some examples.
http://www.emmergreenprimary.com/ICT_detail.asp?Section=24&Ref=257
I no longer teach ks2 but did some G&T workshops on scratch and kodu last year to start children and staff off in their own classes. The children tried out the scratch tasks first of all, looked at examples and played a lot before making their own animations or simple games.
With Kodu, I showed examples that I had made so that they could get some idea of what could be achieved. They then followed a couple of the tutorials and tasks, before creating their own worlds. Lots of experimenting and playing went on. Some short film clips of their work can be seen on the blog~beinspiredbyict.blogspot.com but it is the early stages.
The children loved both, for different reasons. In the final session that I did with them, they would move onto Scratch when they had achieved a new thing on kodu,
and vice versa. They enjoyed flitting between the two.
We have also made creatures using bamzooki. With this, I started the chidren off in a session, with the understanding that they will complete them and race them in their
own time.
We made lots of games for the last world cup; these were played over a million times http://www.northwood.org.uk/world%20cup.htm
Also we made some scrathcj games three years ago mainly based on scripts for a simple pong game. http://www.northwood.org.uk/scratch.htm
This year we are making a big Olympic project using Scratch and 2DIY; both are fantastic tools.
I’ve been doing Scratch with Years 5/6 across a few schools. I introduce it by letting them play a few games at the end of a lesson and then next lesson start building a traffic light simulation see http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/SimpleScratch/18279
I have used Scratch with Year 6, they use it to create games for Reception children to play.
I use many of the ideas from @simonhaughton’s blog http://simonhaughton.typepad.com/ict/scratch-programming/. which are great and easy for the children to follow independently.
Seeing the Yr 6’s sharing and reviewing their games with the Reception children is always a highlight of the year.
I introduced stratch programming in KS2 from year 3 up to year 6 and started with a video to explain/demonstrate what Scratch programming is all about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxDw-t3XWd0
I had prepared a set of laminated scratch programming cards with mini projects to follow.
I found these cards on the following site:-
http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Support/Scratch_Cards
I started with a demonstration on the white board using one of the scratch cards.
When I was sure the basics were in place and the children understood where they were going with this. I handed out sets of cards to each table, one for each child to complete.
Each card was different and when a pupil had completed one card they could swap with another pupil.
I suggested that if anyone in the class did not feel confident enough to complete one on their own they could work with a partner.
I felt that before creating a game it was important to understand the fundamentals of the programming package.
When the children felt confident using the control blocks we could then move on.
I had gathered together various projects and printed them out for pupils to follow.
The first resource after the scratch cards was a booklet with a slightly more challenging project to follow.
Once completed the pupils could move onto creating a game. I had various game resources for them to follow. I.e.
• A shark game
• A racing game
• A pacman game
I also used the following link and embedded the video tutorials onto the learning platform for those pupils who found it easier to learn watching a video.
I also taught year 2 pupils but limited the scratch project to one card which I demonstrated and then they went on to complete it on their own.
Although I taught Scratch to all the year groups I taught at a slower pace for the younger children and a faster more detailed pace for the older children, but still covering the same fundamental principles of programming.
I did not let the children race ahead if they had not grasped the basics first.
I also taught them the difference between good code and bad code and common syntax errors.
I used the correct terminology throughout the lesson ensuring the pupils understood this ‘new’ language.
Once they had gained some experience of creating a game, the pupils then went onto create their own gaming project.
I have to say this module proved a great success with all of the children.
I hope this is of some help to you.
Here’s my contribution (or rather, my daughter’s). I’m not entirely sure how relevant this might be – I teach high school ICT in an international school in Prague. We’ve been introducing students in both KS2 and 3 to Scratch in the last couple of years. My daughter uses it as a form of interactive digital story-telling tool (for want of a better description). Here’s a couple of examples of things she’s done in Year 6 – http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/David_Hellam/1800712 (a party for Scratch Day) and http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/David_Hellam/1956765 (a virtual tour of a pyramid) – hopefully it gives you another example of the types of problem solving activity that students in KS2 can accomplish with Scratch.
Just a follow on from my tweet..
It’s great that you’ve been invited to input at Bletchley Park. I hope you’ll be able to mention the programming that goes on in Foundation 1,2 and Key stage 1 using the robots such as BeeBot, Pip and Roamer. I no longer have a class so cannot share specific recent activities but I see it all the time when I’m in school and my PGCE Trainees/Students report their activities back to me.
This sort of early concrete activity is so important for a progressive primary programming curriculum. Have a great day.
I use scratch with year 5 and have connections with local secondary to use their facilities for using kudo. The kids loved using these and were quick learners, many downloaded these at home.
We use Game Maker a lot in our curriculum, which has been fantastic for teaching control and motivating students. We also look at scratch for a few weeks. I’m a secondary school teacher, but we teach game maker to year 7s so years 5/6 should still be ok with many of the basic concepts. I can probably send you an example of what some year 7s have produced if it’s useful?
I’m not sure if it’s relevant, but we also teach HTML from year 9 up, followed by VBA, PHP & SQL and Unreal Tournament.
Over the last few years we have been moving towards programming and computing.
We introduced Scratch programming first – children have really enjoyed this. Building retro games like Pacman, Space Invaders, Breakout
This Sept we start a GCSE Computing course and will be teaching Python programming language.
I have been sharing everything I have found on twitter here http://twitter.com/teknoteacher
We are also running Computing at School event, teaching teachers how to program
http://caspreston.eventbrite.com/
Audioboos here http://audioboo.fm/teknoteacher
Blog from our last meeting http://caspreston.blogspot.com/
Started looking properly at what Logo can do, using Guido Van Robot to investigate conditionals and Greenfoot and html to extend pupils at school http://www.upton.bexley.sch.uk.
Started a programming blog at http://www.irsoftware.co.uk/workshop to spread these ideas. Looking at how programming really relates to problem solving rather than an ICT skill.