Coding a Card Game: Using Loops
A card game we played together recently inspired a new project we are working on during Computer Science/Coding. After breaking down the game and getting to the core of the rules and how the game flowed, we moved to writing pseudocode together. Then, a demonstration lead by Mrs. Lai involving articulating the steps of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich helped us refine our understanding of the importance of not assuming anything while writing a program. We learned that writing our code out in a very clear and incremental fashion is necessary . . . when we didn’t have the steps of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich articulated clearly enough, we almost put the peanut butter on the packaged loaf of bread! We refined our pseudocode with this new understanding and prepared to begin to code our game…
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Elephant Toothpaste
Last week we pivoted in science from a focus through a series of lessons on how engineers solve problems to deeper work on the nature of science and how scientists think and work. Mrs. Swanson took the group through a demonstration that involved catalyzing the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide. The result of the very exciting demonstration was that a huge swath of thick foam poured out of the graduated cylinder, and the timely addition of food coloring made the foam look like large toothpaste, or “Elephant Toothpaste."
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Engineering Solutions: Keeping Water at Bay
Engaging in the practices of engineering helps kids understand the work of engineers, as well as the links between engineering and science.
As problems are identified and solutions are needed, often times the solution is developed through the engineering design process. Engineers, like scientists, utilize a series of practices as they design solutions to solve meaningful problems…
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Building Confidence at Long-View
Is your child exuding confidence as a learner in a way that he or she had not experienced in previous educational experiences? At Long-View, the academics are different, but so are the ways we facilitate learning. Independence and confidence are always on the horizon, and how we teach constantly stretches young children to become more independent and more confident.
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Don't Even TRY To Keep Up With Us in Math!
During the approximately 5 1/2 hours we spend over three days working on math, we cover some serious ground. Your kids amaze us every day, and we are very excited about their progress!
At the start of the year, students learned that in order to combine (or add), they must have like terms. During this past month, students have connected this knowledge to expressions in which the values that are numerated are unit fractions…
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Claim-Evidence-Reasoning in Science
This week in Science we moved into looking at natural hazards, and everyone is excited to share what they know about earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, etc and all the damage they inflict. Over the next weeks we will definitely increase our knowledge about how these geologic threats significantly alter human populations, activities, buildings, and land and we will explore the fact that humans cannot eliminate natural hazards but can take steps to reduce their impact…
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Dr. Lai Visits our Coding Lab
Dr. Mark Lai visited our Coding Lab this week and offered up support, encouragement, and tips to the children about how computer scientists think and work.
Dr. Lai is a postdoctoral fellow at UT's Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics (i.e. he is a fascinating guy and a great mathematician-role-model)…
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Analyzing Algorithms
Mathematicians communicate their thinking algorithmically; that is, they devote time to developing sound, precise ways to methodically illustrate the manner in which they arrive at a solution. Nearly every day we use a practice with the kids in which we analyze a fellow mathematician's algorithm….
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Hello, World!
Our coding/computer science program began this week and we kicked off the first day with the traditional initiation into the world of coding: the "Hello, World" program. We'll be learning about Python and having the chance to experience the creativity and excitement behind programming, but more important we'll be focusing on growing our logical thinking skills, bridging to the reasoning we practice in mathematics, and learning to think like a computer scientist…
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