JICS Grade 5 students use coding to get people thinking about their environmental habits
Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study Grade 5 teacher Tanya Demjanenko believes that students need to understand the capabilities of technology and how they can be active participants in the creation of new technology.
鈥淎s a teacher,鈥 Tanya said, 鈥渙ne of the languages I think students should be learning 鈥 and I鈥檓 not the first teacher to say this 鈥 is coding.鈥
Besides learning how to code, Tanya also wanted to inspire students to use coding and computational thinking in a meaningful way. She invited her Grade 5 students to create an app to inspire a change in energy consumption habits, ultimately leading to a reduced environmental footprint.
鈥淚 knew the children were very interested in energy and the conservation of energy,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 wanted to find some kind of a way for them to feel like they had a say in their learning and for them to be active citizens/participants in society and could make a change in the world.鈥
Tanya admits her strength isn鈥檛 in coding and says this is common amongst teachers nowadays. While this could have been a barrier, it instead created an opportunity to collaborate with JICS STEM teacher Nick Song. Together, Tanya and Nick created a plan which included these learning goals for the students:
- Understanding the concept of energy and the environment
- Connecting science and technology and its effect on the environment
- Figuring out the mathematical relationships in interactions between the environment and ourselves
- Designing an app around those interactions with a focus on sustainability and stewardship
- Spreading awareness with their apps
The students used Android tablets (handheld devices) and access to a computer to create apps using MIT app maker. 鈥淚 have done coding before in my class, but I鈥檓 not an expert in coding, so that鈥檚 where Nick was able to come and say, okay, I can help with this,鈥 Tanya said. 鈥淗is expertise brought more than I would have necessarily been able to do on my own.鈥 Nick showed the students the functionality of the program used to create their apps.
The students came up with their own ideas for the app and then 鈥減itched鈥 them to the class. Ideas ranged from apps that teach the user about their energy consumption to games that teach the user about pollution in oceans. Tanya and Nick looked for commonalities between ideas and paired students to work together.
JICS Grade Five Teacher Tanya Demjanenko explores a student's app.
One group decided to look at how much energy you can conserve by using alternative means of transportation than a car. Users of the app enter the amount of walking or biking they did and then the app shows how much energy was conserved. The students say they appreciated learning how to make the app function, but they also recognize the math behind their creation.
鈥淔irst we figured out how much energy was conserved in one hour,鈥 said one Grade 6 student, 鈥渂ut then we had to divide that by 60 to get the minutes and another 60 to get the seconds.鈥
The students also recognized other learning that was happening, including science, art and literacy.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of writing,鈥 said another student. 鈥淵ou have to know how to spell and make complete sentences. You also have to think about how what you write is presented on the screen to the user.鈥
Tanya encourages other teachers to explore coding in their classrooms. While it might be initially intimidating, it鈥檚 an opportunity for teachers to learn something new, too.
鈥淵ou have to be comfortable allowing your students to go in directions that don鈥檛 necessarily fall within your areas of expertise. That aspect of uncertainty can be hard,鈥 she says. 鈥淵ou have to be able to say to them, 鈥極kay, I鈥檓 not really sure, but let鈥檚 work together to see what the answer is.鈥
JICS Technology Teacher Nick Song helps a student code.