LightbulbEd

Once upon a time, many years ago, children were introduced to programming with 'Turtle'. A small turtle would follow basic commands and draw images on a screen. If you were lucky, you could even buy a special printer on wheels that would create images on paper at your command. Move forward 30 years and we now have 'Blockly Turtle'. Using the blockly/ scratch language, you can take control of a turtle and create all sorts of different shapes. Complete first few levels (it gets really hard by level 4 so just skip the hardest ones!) Just jump to level 10 and create your own design. Tip: Use loops and variables for the most interesting shapes Connect Maths There are obvious connections to angles, shapes and space.  But you can also connect to algebra if you add variables into your program. Art Creating mathmatical artwork is difficult but rewarding.  You can experiment with varying colours and shapes to make precise designs that can be copied & pa...

Most people in the world have a window but the world outside that window varies dramatically from country to country. Even the view from two different windows in the same street can be completely different. Gardens contain different mysteries and treasures. If you live in appartments, your view might stretch for many kilometres or you may have a view of a brick wall and a spiders web. But whatever you can see, explore it in more detail. Really look, listen, feel, analyse and wonder. Then create and share your own particular view! Learn: Use your Senses Where is your window?  What does your world look like when you peer outside your window? How does this place make you feel? What life can you see? What wonderings do you have? Do you have plans for this view? What makes your view special?  How does this view compare to others you have seen? Why is your view the way it is? How did it get this way? What vocabulary/ colours/ digital tools would you need to s...

What matters to you? Your culture?  Your family? A favourite sports team? Surfing on Sunday? A certain song? Your pet dog? Everyone has something that matters to them.  Using Aurasma you can take an image of your significant something and bring it to life with a video or animation. From PokemonGo to Snapchat, Augmented Reality is commonplace for entertainment but it is actually remarkably easy to Augment Reality in the classroom.  There are a few apps you can use to do this but a good one to start off with is Aurasma. Learn: Aurasma is an app that lets you quickly and easily augment images so that they come to life when you hover your phone or tablet over it.  You will need to download the app onto your smartphone or tablet.  This tutorial below will teach you how to create an 'Aura' quickly and easily, just using your mobile device. There is also 'Aurasma Studio' a website that gives you more control over the trigger images and their actions.  I...