During their second and third rotations through STEM class, 6th graders worked on creating stop-motion animation videos. Their videos included props that they designed and then printed using our 3D printer. Stop-motion animation videos are created by taking many, many pictures and moving the props and characters subtly between each shot. It is not an easy technique, but with perseverance, the student groups produced animations that each tell a unique story. Check out part one of their projects below. Click here to view part two.
In their first computer science project of the year, our 7th and 8th graders took a big step in their journeys as programmers -- moving from block-based to text-based coding. In previous STEM projects, students have used tools that allow them to snap together code "blocks" to make things happen. In this unit, they were responsible for typing commands to tell the computer how to execute actions. The image below shows the difference between text-based coding and block-based coding. While there are many different text-based coding languages, our 7th & 8th graders learned skills in Python, due to its beginner-friendly nature. Still, making this transition is not easy, so students were provided with resources and modules to work through that allowed them to have some starting directions and then challenged them to stretch their thinking by generating their own additions and modifications. Here's a look at a project, called "Turtle Race," in action: https:
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