Coding & Communications
Week 1 - Buckle up!
Land Acknowledgement
Ontario Tech University acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog
Island First Nation. We are thankful to be welcomed on these lands in friendship. The lands
we are situated on are covered under the Williams Treaties and the traditional territory of
the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin,
Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to a number of Indigenous
nations and people.
We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for
Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this
day. Most importantly, we remember the history of these lands has been tainted by poor
treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.
This history is something we are all affected by as we are all treaty people in Canada. We
all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different
ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it
does not have to define our future.
Think
Think slides are for you to think out loud in your
groups.
You may wish to note things on your chart paper.
What do you want or need to know about
me so that you can begin to trust me to
teach you coding?
You may ask me anything. I’ve yet to have
a question I shouldn’t answer.
Share
Share slides are for you and your group to share your
thinking, doing or questions.
Go ahead.
Ask me anything.
Think
What do you feel is your level of con dence
about learning new and di erent things?
What feelings do you have about learning to
code?
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Do
Do slides are almost always for you and your group to do
together. Hopefully collaboratively. You may always
choose to work by yourself.
Your rst Do task is to come up with a set of
instructions that will tell your instructor how to
walk in a square.
When you are ready, you might want to try out
your instructions on yourselves before you try
them on your instructor.
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Think
What kind of feedback did you get from me
when following your instructions?
Why was I ‘playing dumb?’
How smart are computers really?
Share
Before we begin coding for real, what do
you think you are going to need to keep in
mind as you create instructions (code) to
get your computer to draw a square in
Scratch (a program)?
Do
Log into your Scratch account and write a
program to draw a square.
Everything Usually, we use
you need a starting block
to move that is placed
your at the top of a
sprite. program to let
us tell it when
to run.
Want a pen
to draw?
Click this
and choose
‘pen.'
Think
What did you learn about
squares along the way?
How many instructions did you
need to repeat?
Look in the controls section to
see if you can nd anything that
would help you make your code
shorter.
Rewrite your code.
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Share
You have just learned how to create your
rst program, and you have learned about
a very important feature in all code that is
called a LOOP.
Share how you feel about yourself with
your group.
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How to save and share in Scratch
Blue slides are organizational in nature. They could be FYIs or tasks
you need to do before the next class.
Do
Draw a triangle.
You don’t have to start from the beginning.
What will you need to change in your square
program to draw it? Talk to each other before
trying it.
Think
What happened?
How did you nd the solution.
What does the solution tell you about 2D
shapes and all of their angles?
How does this lead you to new learning
about shapes that you hadn’t considered
before?
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Share
Through engaging in computational
thinking, you have just discovered
something that we didn’t used to teach
about 2D shapes until grade 9, if then.
How does this feel?
Do
Stretch yourself.
Draw a ____gon.
• penta
• hexa
• hepta
• and so on
• n-sided
• How do we name those polygons?
• What shape is a loonie?
Do
Stretch yourself.
Add another sprite.
Make it draw a shape, too.
Try other colours.
Make a pleasing design.
Affordance(s)
What does this mean?
How does this relate to teaching and computational
thinking?
Think
Why code?
What does it add?
What does it facilitate?
Where does it t in the curriculum?
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Assignments
There are no assignments
Mastery and grades
[Link]
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Shared Google doc - do not submit to Canvas
Someone’s Portfolio of Coding and Learning - shared
with [Link]@[Link] with EDITING enabled
Please uncheck the box ‘Notify people’
Async
It is anticipated that your async work for the rst six weeks of this
course will take about 1.5 hours each week.
1.5 hours x 6 = 9 hours
This means that there will be no async work for weeks seven
through nine. You may wish to cheer out loud a bit if you think
this is a good idea. It gives me feedback.
• Post pics of your in-class coding.
• Write in your portfolio using our class developed writing
prompts.
• Finish any programs you started in class.
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Async
Before next class:
• Read Wing (2006)
• In this course, we are going to be assessing your
critical thinking about computational thinking and
pedagogy. Think about clear ways to do this. Be
prepared to discuss next class.