I thought today's Snap! assignment would be on-target for student skill level. It was, generally so, but I seem to fall into the same trap of falling short on setting students up for swift success. I should have made the variables for the students. Perhaps I should have set milepost goals to chunk the assignment. Students that struggle could be pulled along as the goal is achieved on the class screen. This robs some students of the opportunity to figure stuff out, but I fear these are the students who are not happy campers. It might be good politics. I need to identify the skills needed to teach using Snap! and develop those skills. This is a huge part of the potential success of Snap! in physics.
3/16/19 - Adding some significant thoughts, here....
What compels this effort: 1) Programming is a rich context for deep learning and achievement. Every level of Bloom's taxonomy are covered - especially higher-order thinking skills. 2) There is a growing and high-profile trend to teach CS from early elementary school, onward. 3) Students can do it. More and more students will enter high-school with coding experience - some are quite proficient with Scratch - and coding skills need opportunities to develop
What are the challenges?
1) Time. High-school course content seems to have no time for new lessons
2) Teacher comfort. Many teachers have no no of little coding experience.
3) Instructional resources. Coding requires the creation of new digital or hardcopy stuff for teachers and students.
4) Evidence of positive impact on learning. Will coding improve student performance in physics? I don't know. I don't have definitive results from research. Just like any other instructional mode, it involves many factors.
So, what to do?
1. My own experience is helping me figure out the issue of time. I now think that the early units of motion can be used for learning Snap! in order to apply it in a more advanced way during the study of dynamics, projectile motion and energy. In my two attempts to date, I have had a learning Snap! unit. That needs to to - for the sake of time.
2. I can make resources to help students (and teachers) learn Snap! I can make and share stuff that teachers and students can use in the course of working through lessons. As more people get involve, this issue can be greatly mitigated.
3. Find opportunities to demonstrate the use of Snap! in science class and transfer skills to my teacher colleagues. I need admin support in this.
4. I need to keep abreast of research and other activity in this realm.