Innovation and Inspiration

Last weekend, we had 35 students from Campbell Middle School compete in MESA Day at San Jose State! Students competed in different engineering design challenges, including the prosthetic arm, popsicle stick bridges, mousetrap cars, balsa wood gliders, egg drop, and bioengineering. Thanks to the dedicated MESA teachers, Richard Timpson and Pedro Garcia, the students were ready and proud to present their finished projects before the teams of industry judges. Below are pictures of the the 5/6th grade and the 7/8th grade prosthetic arm teams. The teams worked for months designing an assistive device that would pick up and throw as many bean bags as possible into a specific area. Our students used 3D modeling software to 3D print a hand that would best pick up and throw a bean bag. They then used an Arduino circuit board to program a motor to that would move the hand's fingers with the touch of a button. Finally, they used cardboard and other recycled materials to connect all pieces o...

This year we celebrated National Engineers Week as a district STEAM event! It was optional, but we had over 100 classes choose to participate! We started by preparing teachers for Engineers Week by hosting three Engineering Teacher Boot Camps at three different schools and libraries throughout the district. Teachers who attended learned about the Engineering Design Process and recommended engineering projects (including our STEAM Library Book Projects and the Tech Challenge Classroom Projects). They then shopped for the materials that they needed to do their favorite Engineering Project with their students and had the option of trying the project as well! I also had the privilege of getting to work with many classes on their engineering projects! Here are a few of the classroom highlights throughout the week:

Last Saturday, our dedicated MESA teachers (Richard Timpson and Pedro Garcia) invited me to join them at their Arduino training for students and teachers. We have a set of MakeyMakeys at all of our middle schools, and so far we have just been using the front side with the arrow keys. It was fascinating to learn about all of the advanced functions that we can now use on the back of the MakeyMakey! We started out by learning how to program an LED light to blink on and off, how to create a light dimming switch, how to create a motion sensored light, and how to make a motor turn forwards and backwards. The Arduino Software is free to download here:  https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software This was one of my first times attending a training with students, and it was amazing to see how quickly the students picked up on the coding concepts. I was even more impressed that they remembered a lot of it when we returned to school the next day and were able to teach others about it. A ...

All of the 5th graders at Rolling Hills Middle School loved making MakeyMakey game controllers and pianos last week! After programming 2 - 3 of their own video games on scratch.mit.edu using the Google CS First program, the students were ready to start bringing their games to life! As an extension to their electricity science lessons, Anna Rutledge had her students bring in items from home that would conduct electricity. It was fascinating watching them test out if their items in fact conducted electricity and were able to complete the circuit!  Students then used http://makeymakey.com/piano/ to create their own original compositions on their newly created pianos. It was such a great learning experience to see students problem solve and collaborate how to have multiple students play at the same time and stay "grounded" to the circuit board!

Students in our district joined millions of students around the world in the Hour of Code last week. This year, we had well over 4,000 students participate! A special thank you to Blackford, Campbell Middle School, Capri, Forest Hill, Marshall Lane, and  Village for having 100% of their students participate! I started a collaborative celebration wall this year, for classes around the district to share photos:  http://padlet.com/jgoo/hourofcode Favorite coding classroom web-based resources this year were: Code.org Star Wars, Minecraft, Frozen, and Angry Birds lessons, Code.org Code Studio, Tynker, Code Monkey, and Google CS First. Favorite iPad Apps included: Blue-bot, Hopscotch, Kodable, and Scratch Jr. My personal favorite coding activities were using the robots from our STEAM Resource Libraries! Some of our TK - 2nd grade classes used the Blue-bots for literacy and math centers. One class even had used Blue-bot to write and draw with markers! Some of our 3rd - 5th grade...

The Hour of Code and Computer Science week are here! Thank you all for your excitement and enthusiasm!  Five of our schools, Forest Hill, Village, Marshall Lane, Capri, and Campbell Middle School have committed to having 100% of their students participate this week! They will be receiving a special 100% banner to hang proudly at their school! Some schools may even have a visit from a special guest later this week! It's not too late to have your class participate! The main website is:  code.org/learn  and additional resources are available at:  https://goo.gl/NzRS5R  Many classes are also planning to have students use the Dash, Sphero, and Blue-bot robots for their Hour of Code! Please post your favorite photo of your class coding on the CUSD Hour of Code Celebration Wall:  http://padlet.com/jgoo/hourofcode  Check back regularly to show your class pictures of students around the district all coding together!

Congratulations to the students, teachers, and administrators of Blackford! They had the largest percentage of students participate in the Cardboard Challenge this year. All of their 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students participated! With many of the TK - 2nd grade teachers participating as well! We really want to celebrate the Blackford teachers for being willing to try something new and truly fostering a culture of creativity and critical thinking. A special thank you to the Blackford teachers, Stacy Enfantino, Christina Rocci, Michelle Giraudo, Shanti Lipari, Tammy Bilbes, Anupama Gupta, May Liu, Nancy Cassell, Aimee Oani, Nancy Lopez, and Emily Salmon! The school received a Campbell Cardboard Challenge certificate to display in the office and the Blackford staff enjoyed well-deserved cardboard carafes of Starbucks Coffee!  Honorable mentions this year: All of the 4th and 5th graders at Lynhaven and Sherman Oaks participated this year! The 5th graders at Forest H...