"In their hands" - State of Victoria, DEECD
Speranza
If it weren't obvious from my writing and physique, you should know that I love food. And there aren't many foods I love more than pizza. Indeed, on a recent trip to Italy, I visited my favourite pizzerias.
With such a strong spiritual bond, I find the pizza an excellent source of analogy. However, I can't go past Leon Krier, the Luxembourg urban design critic, who likens the absurdity of suburban zoning, where residential is separated from commerce, education and office areas, to the absurdity of eating a pizza - one ingredient at a time. First you eat the cheese, then the tomato, then the anchovies...
Sometimes I see the division of learning into compartments (science, maths, english, history, etc etc) in a similar way. The pizza tastes better when all the ingredients are with all the other ingredients, and eating the ingredients separately seems contrived. It seems particularly so in maths; fortunately, there are many opportunities to integrate mathematical skills and ways of working into broader contexts.
I've always thought Scratch represents many opportunities for transdisciplinary learning. Currently I am working with maths teachers who are striving to use the engaging project of creating their own computer game to explicitly teach mathematics. So far, we have identified x-y coordinates, angles, algebra, chance (through the random number function), and basic functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as all concepts that are fundamental to creating a computer game using Scratch.
We're beginning with the teaching of using the x-y coordinates to describe the location of a point. For this, using the x-y grid background can provide an aide to transferring knowledge taught explicitly to the students' own computer games.
So our task this week is to make a simple game based on x-y coordinates: a simple game where you get a point for clicking on a fast-moving object that moves to a random position every second. Can you limit the movement of the object to a particular quadrant?
Hopefully, by linking the understanding of how an x-y coordinate can identify the position of a point on a two-dimensional plane (abstract) to the creation of a computer game (tangible), the common lament of students, "when are we ever going to use this" will be answered. And our pizza might just be tastier.
With such a strong spiritual bond, I find the pizza an excellent source of analogy. However, I can't go past Leon Krier, the Luxembourg urban design critic, who likens the absurdity of suburban zoning, where residential is separated from commerce, education and office areas, to the absurdity of eating a pizza - one ingredient at a time. First you eat the cheese, then the tomato, then the anchovies...
Sometimes I see the division of learning into compartments (science, maths, english, history, etc etc) in a similar way. The pizza tastes better when all the ingredients are with all the other ingredients, and eating the ingredients separately seems contrived. It seems particularly so in maths; fortunately, there are many opportunities to integrate mathematical skills and ways of working into broader contexts.
I've always thought Scratch represents many opportunities for transdisciplinary learning. Currently I am working with maths teachers who are striving to use the engaging project of creating their own computer game to explicitly teach mathematics. So far, we have identified x-y coordinates, angles, algebra, chance (through the random number function), and basic functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as all concepts that are fundamental to creating a computer game using Scratch.
We're beginning with the teaching of using the x-y coordinates to describe the location of a point. For this, using the x-y grid background can provide an aide to transferring knowledge taught explicitly to the students' own computer games.
So our task this week is to make a simple game based on x-y coordinates: a simple game where you get a point for clicking on a fast-moving object that moves to a random position every second. Can you limit the movement of the object to a particular quadrant?
Hopefully, by linking the understanding of how an x-y coordinate can identify the position of a point on a two-dimensional plane (abstract) to the creation of a computer game (tangible), the common lament of students, "when are we ever going to use this" will be answered. And our pizza might just be tastier.
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Comment by Marcellinus on November 2, 2009 at 5:49pm - Rob- I applaud your passion and commitment to pizza. You sure showed that trendy italian gourmet pizza who was boss.
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Comment by Darrel on October 28, 2009 at 4:33pm -
Hi Rob,
I also think the ICT is best eaten with all the other ingredients (science, maths, english, design, etc). I also think that scratch is an awesome tool for personal learning and cognitive development. It is not easily pigeon holed when someone says "what does it do?" That's part of the power - it does whatever you make it do!
Mitch Resnick from the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT talks about developing "Digital fluency", the ability to manipulate and use things that are in digital form such as text, images and sound. I love this quote from the "Learning by Design" paper:
"Research has shown that people learn best not when they are passively receiving information, but when they are actively en- gaged in exploring, experimenting, and expressing themselves (sometimes known as the 3 X’s)."
Scratch gets 3 x's in my book :)
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