Down on the Farm is a two-part VEX IQ learning activity that provides a hands-on exploration into the impact of computing and simulations on human tasks and machinery. Learners will assemble VEX IQ clawbots to use in a programming activity and a simulation activity based on agricultural tasks.
This activity was demonstrated during the Exploring Today's Classroom (ETC) Summit.
In Fashion & Design, students learn how computer science and technology are used in the fashion industry while building fashion-themed programs, like a fashion walk, a stylist tool, and a pattern maker.
Fashion & Design is a complete theme designed to be completed over eight, 45-75 minute, sessions. For each Activity, students will watch a series of videos and create one coding project with opportunities to personalize their work using “Add-Ons”, which are mini-coding challenges that build on top of the core project.
This unit contains eight lessons which culminate in a unit project. Lessons can be completed individually if students have some experience with Scratch.
Be sure to review the Materials tab for the lesson plan, starter guide, and more.
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In Art, students create animations, interactive artwork, photograph filters, and other exciting, artistic projects.
Art is a complete theme designed to be completed over eight, 45-75 minute, sessions. For each Activity, students will watch a series of videos and create one coding project with opportunities to personalize their work using “Add-Ons”, which are mini-coding challenges that build on top of the core project.
In Music & Sound, students use the computer to play musical notes, create a music video, and build an interactive music display while learning how programming is used to create music.
Music is a complete theme designed to be completed over eight, 45-75 minute, sessions. For each activity, students will watch a series of videos and create one coding project with opportunities to personalize their work using “Add-Ons,” which are mini-coding challenges that build on top of the core project.
In Game Design, students learn basic video game coding concepts by making different types of games, including racing, platform, launching, and more!
Game Design is a complete theme designed to be completed over eight, 45-75 minute, sessions. For each activity, students will watch a series of videos and create one coding project with opportunities to personalize their work using “Add-Ons”, which are mini-coding challenges that build on top of the core project.
Students take what they've learned through Unit 6 Chapter 1 and develop an app of their own design that uses the circuit board to output information.
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The class plans and builds original games using the project guide from the previous two lessons. Working individually or in pairs, the class plans, develops, and gives feedback on the games. After incorporating the peer feedback, the class shares out the completed games.
Following the introduction to Booleans and if statements in the previous lesson, students are introduced to a new block called keyDown() which returns a Boolean and can be used in conditionals statements to move sprites around the screen. By the end of this lesson, students will have written programs that take keyboard input from the user to control sprites on the screen.
The class continues to explore ways to use conditional statements to take user input. In addition to the simple keyDown() command learned yesterday, the class learns about several other keyboard input commands as well as ways to take mouse input.
After a brief review of how the counter pattern is used to move sprites, the class is introduced to the properties that set velocity and rotation speed directly. As they use these new properties in different ways, they build up the skills they need to create a basic side scroller game.
In this cumulative project for Chapter 1, the class plans for and develops an interactive greeting card using all of the programming techniques they've learned to this point.
The class is introduced to the Game Lab, the programming environment for this unit, and begins to use it to position shapes on the screen. The lesson covers the basics of sequencing and debugging, as well as a few simple commands. At the end of the lesson, the class creates an online version of the image they designed in the previous lesson.
This lesson extends the drawing skills to include width and height and introduces the concept of random number generation. The class learns to draw with versions of the ellipse() and rect() that include width and height parameters and to use the background() block to fill the screen with color. At the end of the progression, the class is introduced to the randomNumber() block and uses the new blocks to draw a randomized rainbow snake.