In some of my posts about Genius Hour, I’ve mentioned Gamestar Mechanic. “Gamestar Mechanic includes a self-paced learning experience that uses game-based “Quests” to help youth learn how to design games while they build critical 21st century skills.” Gamestar Mechanic, by far, was one of the most popular projects my 5th graders pursued during Genius … Read more
For many of us, at least in the United States, another school year is over. Even as we eagerly embark on our rejuvenation journeys for the summer, you might be thinking, as I am, of new ideas for the next school year. This week, I would like to share some of the improvements I hope … Read more
In the past, I have posted about some options for kids that are available to help them learn about programming: Codecademy and the iOS apps Cargo-Bot and Daisy the Dinosaur. I also briefly mentioned Gamestar Mechanic in one of my posts. Many of my 5th graders have been using Gamestar Mechanic, which you can … Read more
In yesterday’s post about the iPad app, Daisy the Dinosaur, I referenced some ways to introduce kids to computer programming. For those of you who want to pursue this further, I thought you might like this post by Marshall Brain, “Teaching Your Kids How to Write Computer Programs”. This is a fairly detailed summary of … Read more
A couple of months ago, I mentioned that I would be trying a “Genius Hour” with my 5th grade GT students. You can read this post and this post to find out about the origins of this idea. Click here to read about The Beginning of our project. First – a little background. I teach 13 5th grade Gifted … Read more