LEGO Brick Balloon Car Racer

This lesson will allow students to build their own balloon car racer as an introduction to engineering and coding.  Each pair or team of students will be able to engineer their balloon car, measure the performance of their cars using yard sticks, and set up a basic algorithm to construct and run their machine.PURPOSEThe goals for this lesson are to: (1) integrate engineering and coding to young students; (2) have students independenty identify the steps (an algorithm) to build and improve their racers; (4) be able to spot "bugs" in their algorithm; (3) integrate measurement and addition operations to determine which car went furthest overall; and (4) teach perserverance by showing students that it is normal to find bugs in algorithms/coding.   

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Amanda Murray

Kindergarten Mystery Science Force Olympics Mystery 3 Extension

This lesson is an extension of Mystery Science Force Olympics Mystery 3. In this extension, students will create a wrecking ball using the Lego WeDo 2.0 kit and program it to knock down a wall. Students will experiment with different variables (like speed, distance and string length) to answer the question: "How can you knock down a wall?" (credit Mystery Science Mystery 3 guiding question). This activity should be done over multiple days (viewing mystery, building the robot and programing and experimenting). Building instructions for the wrecking ball arm are attached as picture steps.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Taylor White

EL Education Module 2 Unit 1 Roadmap

Integration of CS and Mystery Science Curriculum to the EL Education Module 2 Unit 1 Lessons on weather and preparing for weather. This Roadmap is largely for teachers with all of the materials in one central location, but can be distributed to students to be able to collaborate around flipgrids, KWL charts and other graphic organizers. Interactive word walls are available through padlet on this map as well. This resource features CS Integration through final project of creating a weather report with a green screen video where students are responsible for planning, designing, recording and editing a weather report based on their research from the unit. Earlier in the lesson, students will share their findings on an experiment involving warming a frozen playground through the online program of ScratchJr.

Material Type: Interactive, Lesson Plan, Reading, Unit of Study

Authors: EL Education, Mystery Science, Taylor White

Parts of a Computer

Students learn and label different parts of a computer as they begin understanding ties between letters and words. This K-2 activity can be differentiated between coloring parts by names, labeling with the name of the part and labeling with the function of the part. Can be used in conjunction with EL Education lesson 1 in Module 1 Cycle 1 Skills Block lesson (linked in lesson plan).

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Taylor White

Robot Bowling Speed Investigation

This is a supplement to the activity outlined in Lesson 4 of Mystery Science's Force Olympics. In this activity, students will be bowling with a sphero ball to see how speed impacts force. This activity can be done over multiple days or could be done all in the same day. It could also be used as a supplement to the bumper bowling activity or a replacement activity.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Taylor White

Makey Makey Interactive Story Problems

In this lesson, students will be creating their own story problems and turning them into a scratch game. Resources for pseudo coding cards can be found here: https://resources.scratch.mit.edu/www/cards/en/scratch-cards-all.pdfAnd a remixable story can be found here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/300655911/. Students will need multiple days to plan, write, code and complete their story with the makey makey.Makey Makey lesson plans: makeymakey.com/lessonsAdditional modifications: Students may view tutorials to assist them in creating their games.It may be easier for students to create games in small groups so there is more time for collaboration and game design within the group. This will also allow for more time for students to play their classmate's games.Elementary Teachers,please look out for a scratch jr version to remix for k-3 games.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Taylor White

Reading Fluency Activity

In this lesson, students will be reading HFW, word family words, vocabulary words, etc. and will race their ozobot to see who can finish reading the words first. This activity is an adaptation from a free TPT lesson and can be adapted for any purpose. This activity is best used as a small group activity and can be referenced later as a fluency assessment (If used as a small group assignment, students will need multiple days to complete).Additional modifications: Students code the ozobot to read the desired words (all of the -at words).EL & DL Modifications:- Provide the translations or visuals for the codes for students who need added supports reading.- Provide checkpoints for student monitoring during the assessment.- Provide end of the day check-ins for students to ensure work is completed.- For advanced students (as well as older grades) use more challenging words.- For students needing additional assistance, use letters or words appropriate for their level.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Taylor White

Animated Division Stories (Problem-Based Interactive Learning)

Students will work with a partner to write, solve, check, and animate a division story problem based on a division expression using a sharing model.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Jody Walker

Multiplication Fact Fluency

 This lesson enables students to begin the process of  mastering  multiplication facts. Students will use the Sphero Bolt to fluently practice multiplication facts. 

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Edwina Lawson

Dynamic Earth: Volcano Alert with Lego We-Do

In this lesson students will see how volcanoes as they relate to deposition work to continually change the surface of our planet.  This lesson provides visual evidence of changes that the earth undergoes in area where volcanic activity is prevalent.  Students will acquire knowledge to understand what volcanoes are, how they form, and the differnt careers that participate in creating safety precautions before volcanic activity. Students will build and program a safety device that simulates a volcano activity. This lesson can be used to supplement Unit 3 Overview Dynanic Earth: Shaping the Land, Learning Set 5.   

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Edwina Lawson

Designing and Programming Lego Mindstorm EV3

This lesson should be used after students have completed the introductory Lego EV3 block building.  This lesson wil help students get a better understanding of how to use input and output parameters.  Students will explore and identify previously used software that uses block programming.  Students will connect early interactions in Computer Science programming with the input and output parameters in Math. This lesson review input and output functions associated with the mechanics of a computer

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Edwina Lawson

Let's Code

To learn the basic elements of coding, to code a game with Scratch

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Monique Guest

Processes on Complex Networks

Building on their understanding of graphs, students are introduced to random processes on networks. They walk through an illustrative example to see how a random process can be used to represent the spread of an infectious disease, such as the flu, on a social network of students. This demonstrates how scientists and engineers use mathematics to model and simulate random processes on complex networks. Topics covered include random processes and modeling disease spread, specifically the SIR (susceptible, infectious, resistant) model.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Monique Guest

Defining Variables and Substitutions

In this activity, students will learn to define variables that can be used to reference values and expressions. Once defined, their variables can be used repeatedly throughout a program as substitutes for the original values or expressions.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Monique Guest

Light Up Music Box

This is an engaging project for students who have never programmed before. Students create a musical light show by designing and programming their own Arduino-based circuit. They will problem-solve timing, frequency, color, circuit design and the language of Arduino-based programming to create custom made light-up electronic music boxes. This project was developed by Allen Distinguished Educators Tracey Winey and Dawn DuPriest.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Blair Sawyers

Mouse Trap Racing In The Computer Age

Students design, build and evaluate a spring-powered mouse trap racer. For evaluation, teams equip their racers with an intelligent brick from a LEGO© MINDSTORMS© EV3 Education Core Set and a HiTechnic© acceleration sensor. They use acceleration data collected during the launch to compute velocity and displacement vs. time graphs. In the process, students learn about the importance of fitting mathematical models to measurements of physical quantities, reinforce their knowledge of Newtonian mechanics, deal with design compromises, learn about data acquisition and logging, and carry out collaborative assessment of results from all participating teams.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Blair Sawyers

"Program Your Own Game"

DescriptionOverview: Lesson focuses on how software engineers design computer games and other software. Student teams work together to develop a simple computer program using free software that is available in multiple languages. Teams evaluate the games developed by other teams and present findings to the class.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Blair Sawyers

Binary Numbers

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Duncan deBruin

Sentenced to Prison by a Machine

In an extremely controversial case, Wisconsin v. Loomis, a machine learning algorithm was used to assist a sentencing decision. This case has triggered an impassioned debate in the legal community regarding the proper use, if any, of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the justice system. In response to this case and advances in technology, the US Supreme Court and its justices are beginning to contemplate AI and more generally, technology's role, in influencing law.You will review three articles exploring the controversial case in Wisconsin and strong arguments for and against using artificial intelligence in the justice system. After reading the articles, you will answer short response questions and prepare for your class debate.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Duncan deBruin

Bot or not? How fake social media accounts influence voting.

Social media is an important tool for learning about current events and practicing active and informed citizenship. However, fake Twitter accounts called ‘bots’ have been used to try to influence public opinion—and not always for the better.About 30 percent of social media users have been deceived by a computer-generated bot at one point or another. Students will watch the PBS NewsHour video, ‘Cracking the stealth political influence of bots,’ which examines how bots play a role in influencing public opinion and design their own bot to help spread awareness about an issue they care about.   

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Duncan deBruin