Paper Circuits in Year 3

Mrs Murazko's class continued to develop their learning about Electronic Circuits and systems by creating paper circuits using the Paper Circuit Kit in the Technologies Box. As the kit contains Light Emitting Diodes (LED lights) and coin cell batteries, initially students learned the positive and negative ends of these and how polarity effects a circuit with LEDs. Further, they learned how to create circuit elements such as switches using the copper tape by folding it back on itself and using the 'springy' property of tape. Then in pairs students completed their circuit templates and tested if their circuits were successful i.e. their LEDs lit up. Finally, each pairing created a fold-able card of their circuit, getting ready for card making for the holiday season.
Well done class for getting creative with some more complex circuit systems!

Discovering Electronic Circuits in Year 3

The students in Mrs Pott's, Mrs Murazko's and Mrs Wood's class learned how to create a simple circuit using the snap-on kits from the Technologies box. Initially they designed their circuits using actual circuit symbols for elements used in circuits such as switches, lamps and batteries etc. Circuit designs were done using Book Creator. Then students worked in pairs to create their circuit designs based on their knowledge of materials that conduct electricity and the purpose of each circuit element. Many groups re-designed their circuit upon discovering it wasn't successful i.e. the lamp didn't light up. Circuits were created using the Snap-on kits. To conclude all pairs recorded an audio note stating why their circuit was successful and how using the sound recording feature in Book Creator. Many pairs reached the conclusion their circuit could be a useful tool in real life.
Well done Year 3 in exploring Systems Thinking and Designing some real life products!

The Numbers are in - Excelsior PS Year 3 Multicultural

The Year 3's in Mrs Murazko's, Mrs Wood's and Mrs Pott's class tallied the countries they (or their parents) are from to be able to compare the results and make some conclusions about it. After tallying they collected the data in a spreadsheet in Numbers app. They then generated different representations of the data in the app such as 2D bar graphs 3D pie charts. Finally, they analysed the data in these graphs and charts to compare their class data to others classes and make inferences about how multi-cultural their class is compared to other classes inside and outside the school. Well done Year 3's!

Collaborating in Microsoft Word Live Docs on the Office 365 Platform

The Year 5's in Mrs William's and Mrs Adam's class learned the power of collaborating via a Live Word doc via their Office 365 accounts. Working in groups of 3, the leader of the group created a Word doc using a template provided by Word already and shared this out with the other group members who accessed the doc via the link sent to their Outlook mail server. All group members had to establish their roles and research areas using the Live Word doc to create a comparative country report drawing upon their Advanced Google Search and online information skills. Next week all groups will be collaborating from different rooms to really see the benefits of Live Doc collaborations.

Learning to Code via OneNote Class NoteBook in Year 5

Creating an algorithm to make an effect of flying.

Creating an algorithm to make an effect of movement with a looping script.

The students in Mrs William's and Mrs Adam's class learned to code using the Scratch software platform online. They accessed their instructions for the lesson by logging in to the OneNote Class Notebook for their class and following the links to the tutorials in Scratch online. The students chose to create code for various purposes such as animating the letters of a name, emulating a sense of a character flying, creating a sense of continuous movement through creating a continuous loop or repeat and more. The students were challenged to extend their basic tasks by integrating other code commands from other projects online (remixing). The students gained valuable insight into using the laptops for digital coding and submitting work online, to the Class NoteBook.