10: Service Project Day

 Activity Requirements 

From the beginning, the instructions were quite confusing. There seemed to be multiple components to the activity with minimal clear guidance. Before the service project day, I was under the impression that children and their families would come and participate in our lesson, so I was a bit saddened to learn that no children or families would be attending. Regardless, my partner and I worked hard to construct a fun activity and incorporate every detail found below.

 Lesson Activity Specifications 

o  Geared toward an elementary TEKS. 

·  3.9B: to identify and describe the flow of energy in a food chain; predict how changes in a food chain affect the ecosystem, such as the removal of frogs from a pond or bees from a field.

o  15-minute duration

o  Contain a technological element 

· Leo AR Camera

o  A hero story is written in adobe spark

o  Physical movement 

· Scavenger Hunt

o  QR codes 

o  Adaptable to be completed outside

· Water’s Edge Park

 Creation Process 

As I reflect on the construction process, it is visible that computational thinking concepts are throughout our final lesson activity. The four concepts of computational thinking are decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithms. First, we had to decompose the instructions to comprise a general idea and create a lesson plan. Our broad idea was to create a scavenger hunt following TEKS 3.9B; to identify and describe the flow of energy in a food chain; predict how changes in a food chain affect the ecosystem, such as the removal of frogs from a pond or bees from a field. Next, we utilized pattern recognition to create a hero's journey story cohesive with our activity. Every narrative contains similar elements such as the setting, characters, problem, resolution, and plot. Pattern recognition is also in the components of a food chain. Using this information, we decided for our clues to follow elements of a story and the flow of a food chain. Then, abstraction is in our activity through the use of the Leo AR app. The scale of the ecosystem is not realistic, but users are still able to understand the idea. This idea is comparable to a map. Finally, algorithms were operative in creating and scanning QR codes.  

 Service Project Day 

After hours of work, trial, and error, the day to present our activity to the community finally arrived. Although it was early, I was ready to tackle the day until I stepped outside and realized it had been raining. Throughout the morning, a drizzle persisted for a while. We could have presented to families that showed up at the park, but unfortunately, no families bought their children to Water's Edge Park. Additionally, the college students that did attend did not participate effectively. It is understandable, and honestly, I did not expect anything less. Of the four girls that participated in our activity, only one participated entirely. I was happy that she did not give up and appeared interested. However, she did not complete the lesson activity correctly. It was frustrating and disheartening because hours of hard work and the continuous stress and pressure seemed to be for nothing. A positive is that I did not have to experience these feelings and go through this day alone. Almost every group had similar experiences. Besides the fact that there was no initiative to participate, everybody seemed to instantly give up when problems arose while scanning the QR codes. I had mentioned to my peers that it would have been more realistic, engaging, and fun to present to our classmates instead. Since I was proud of the final product, I decided to have my parents participate to get their opinion. Coming from a family of educators, they loved the idea and enjoyed the entire activity. From this experience, I will utilize similar components such as scavenger hunts, interactive apps, and QR codes in my future classroom to engage my students. 

Finished Project 

To participate, scan the QR codes in order :) 

 ISTE CT Standards 

2c) Choose teaching approaches that help to foster an inclusive computing culture, avoid stereotype threat and equitably engage all students.

3c) Plan collaboratively with other educators to create learning activities that cross disciplines to strengthen student understanding of CT and CS concepts and transfer application of knowledge in new contexts.

4a) Design CT activities where data can be obtained, analyzed, and represented to support problem-solving and learning in other content areas.

5d) Establish criteria for evaluating CT practices and content learning that use a variety of formative and alternative assessments to enable students to demonstrate their understanding of age-appropriate CS and CT vocabulary, practices, and concepts.