Author: Jacqui

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

What is ‘Technical Math’?

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The difficulties with engaging children in math learning grows each year. I have several articles coming up next week that discuss that issue (links won’t work until publication date):

What is ‘Technical Math’–December 10, 2021 (this article)

Returning to Rigorous Mathematics–December 16, 2021

Math Scores Drop Again–December 17, 2021

An excellent solution is to change the focus, teach kids what will be required. One of our Ask a Tech Teacher partners has a good article on that topic:

What Is Technical Math?

There’s an old joke about how kids are forced to learn algebra and trigonometry in school, but have no use for those subjects in real life. But in reality, that depends heavily on what kind of profession you choose to go into. A lot of professions you might think wouldn’t call for much math actually require it as a core skill set for certain trades, including plumbers, electricians, welders, and construction workers.

Why do trades like this require so much mathematics? These are supposed to be the jobs you don’t need extensive education for, right? Well, as it turns out, they’re not.

In fact, many technical trades require more math than some white-collar professions. Let’s look at welding, for example. To excel in their profession, a welder needs to understand and calculate concepts like material usage, which requires using fractions and sometimes algebra. They’ll also need to know how to use charts and graphs for some processes.

The same is true of construction workers, who must deal with equations, conversion of quantities, and taking measurements. In a typical workday, a construction worker may have to use equations to convert between units of measure, or use ratios to figure out the proportion of a roof’s length to its height. Getting some calculations wrong in construction work can have dangerous, if not deadly, consequences. In more advanced construction work (i.e. the jobs that pay well), they’ll even have to know some geometry.

The skills required for these sorts of jobs comes from a particular field, called “trade math” or “technical math.”

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The Easiest No-coding Way to Build an Education App

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What could be more organic during Hour of Code than creating your own app? There are a lot of ways to do that, often expensive, time-consuming, and coding-intensive. There’s a new online option available that’s none of those. In fact, it’s intuitive, uses tools you already know, and–dare I say?–fun. Check out Jotform Apps:

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You may know Jotform as one of the most popular tools in the form builder category, recognized for its versatility, ease-of-use, and sophistication in what could otherwise be the complicated process of collecting and analyzing data. Jotform works on all platforms (including tablets, desktop computers, and smartphones) and can be shared via a link, QR Code, and embed (as well as other options).

Over the past several years, JotForm has released many apps designed to simplify and automate teaching’s more mundane tasks (Smart PDF Forms, a PDF Editor, Cards, Tables, Approvals, and Reports–click for my reviews). I’m excited to partner with them for their latest release, Jotform Apps.

Jotform Apps is a web-based tool that enables you to create a professional-looking cross-platform app quickly and with no knowledge of coding. It can include forms, links, widgets, text, images, videos, a photo gallery, PDFs, calendars, maps, interactive pieces, and more. Thanks to drag-and-drop modality, it can be customized to your needs and branded to fit your class or school. Once you’ve completed the app, it can be downloaded onto any smartphone, tablet, or computer, shared to your social media, or pushed out via a link or QR code.

Best of all, Jotform Apps is free with any JotForm account.

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15 Unusual Projects for Hour of Code

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Over the next week, I’ll share ideas that will get you ready for Hour of Code. This includes (links won’t work until the articles are posted):

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Here are ten unusual projects (each, about one hour in length) you can use in your classroom to participate in this wildly popular event:

Alt Codes
Animation
Coding with pixel art
Human robot
Human algorithm
IFTTT
Macros
QR codes
Shortkeys
Wolfram Alpha widgets

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Coding Websites/Webtools by Grade

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Over the next week, I’ll share ideas that will get you ready for your Hour of Code. This includes (links won’t work until the articles are posted):

This is a long list of online activities related to coding and programming. It is updated once a year so I apologize in advance for any dead links. At any time during the year, click to take you to the master list.

Program on computers, iPads, laptops–whatever works, whatever age. I’ll start this list with web-based options, by grade level and then continue with a mash-up:

Kindergarten

1st grade

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

MS

HS

Build an App

Apps Geyser
App Inventor–build Android apps on a smartphones; from MIT
Game Salad
Glide–create an app from a spreadsheet
Jotform App Builder
Metaverse–create apps using Metaverse’s AR platform
Thunkable

Coding Curriculum

C-STEM Studio–download to teach computers, science, technology, engineering and math with robotics
Code Academy
Coursera
Everyone Can Code–from Apple
Free Code Camp
Google Computer Science for High School–free workshops (with application) for K-12 teachers
Learn to Code (for free)
PluralSight
Ted-ED Think Like A Coder–a 10-episode cartoon-based series to teach kids about coding in a game format
Tree House

Hour of Code

Miscellaneous

Animatron–design and publish animated and interactive content that plays everywhere, from desktop computers to mobile devices.
Basics of Coding–from AT&T
BeeBop–based on the Beebop floor robot–free
BotLogic–great for Kindergarten and youngers
BrainPop coding games
Build a website–a guide
Cargo-Bot—logic iPad game
Cato’s Hike (K+)
Chrome Experiments–geeky experimentation with programming
Codea (Perfect for Intermediate+)
Code.org–learn to code; with teacher accounts, no student emails required (join with Join code)
Codespace–coding curriculum
Daisy the Dinosaur—intro to programming
Edabit–learn to code with interactive challenges
Foos–app or desktop; K-1
Grasshopper–coding app for beginners with lesson tutorials; intuitive
Hopscotch (for up to intermediate–more complicated that Kodable)
Hummingbird Robotics
I like programming video
Kodable –-great for K-2–learn to code before you can read
Kodu—game programming
KOOV–by Sony Education
Learn to code
LightBot Jr.–programming for six-year olds
Lightbot–solving puzzles with programming; MS
Minecraft coding mod
Move the Turtle–programming via iPad for middle school
Osmo Coding--a purchased game system to teach coding
Pencil Code
Pyonkee–free, a little glitchy
Robby Leonardi–programmer–a game played about programming in the style of Mario
Roboblockly–to teach coding and math, from UCDavis
ScratchJr--for ages 5-7
Stencyl–build games without coding with downloaded software
Stickman–draw a stick figure and the site animates it
Swift Playground–from Apple, includes lessons and challenges designed to teach kids to code
Symbaloo collection for coding
TED Talk on young programmers
Which Language Should You Learn to Code–an infographic of options

Robotics

C-STEM Studio
Cue–from Wonder Workshop
Dash and Dot — from Wonder Workshop–younger thinkers
Drones
Mebo
Robot Don
Sphero

Scratch

Click for an Hour of Code lesson plan bundle (K-8).

Click for Robotics 101 lesson plan.

Windows apps

More on Hour of Code

6 Unplugged Activities for Hour of Code

Build Your Own Apps

Build Websites

Hour of Code–Is it the right choice?

Kid-created Games That Teach

Looking for a Class Robot? Try Robo Wunderkind

Minecraft Review

PrimoToys–unplugged programming for youngers

Root Robotics–Great Way to Extend Hour of Code

Scratch Jr.

Should Coding be a Part of the Modern School’s Curriculum?

Websites and Apps to Support Hour of Code

Why Should Students Learn Computer Science? A Teacher’s Perspective

Wonder Workshop’s Amazing Dash

@CSEdWeek #hourofcode #hoc #edtech

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Hour of Code? Here’s why to participate

December 6-12th, 2021, Computer Science Education will host the Hour Of Code–a one-hour introduction to students on coding, programming, and why they should love it, designed to demystify “code” and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, and an innovator. Coding is that mystical geeky subject that confounds students and teachers alike. It feels like:

When it should feel like:

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#1 Skill to Teach–Protect Student Privacy

I’ve written a lot about the importance of teaching students to protect their online privacy. Yes, we must do what we can on the campus but the real impact will come from students taking care of themselves. District Administration has a great article on this topic. See what you think:

9 ways school leaders can protect privacy while protecting kids online

Matt Zalaznick

Monitoring is not quite the right word to describe the responsibility educators have when thinking about students’ online activity outside of school hours, a cyberbullying expert says.