I have been participating in a class for first graders of Affiliated Showa Elementary School to create bug robots. As you can see in the photo, it is always very impressive to see students working actively and collaboratively to create their own projects in the class. I wrote down the students’ activities to see what …
“Learning through making” and “Learning through activities through making” Read More »
At the 7th workshop held last December, we held a quiz competition by soliciting questions for a 4-question quiz from children in advance via Google Form. The number of quiz questions exceeded our expectations, with 51 questions being collected, resulting in a 5-round quiz competition, making this the most exciting workshop (I feel it became …
Since last year, I have been discussing with teachers about programming education at the attached Showa Elementary School. We are discussing what kind of programming education we will provide over the six years, as well as developing a curriculum and holding training sessions for teachers. I am considering whether programming can be used as one …
How to connect programming education with daily learning at school? Read More »
Smartphones, small devices, and what they can do. On January 25, a workshop for parents and children using Octostudio, a programming app for smartphones, was held at the Hamagin Children’s Space & Science Museum. This time, participants worked on their own project with programs using Octostudio, paper bags, and craft materials. In the workshop, we …
Octostudio Workshop at Hamagin Children’s Space Science Center on January 25 Read More »
Eery semester, we hold workshops planned and managed by seminar students. On January 12, nine members of the 3rd year seminar divided into three teams and conducted a workshop for children (a report on the workshop can be found on the department blog here). When designing my own workshops, I am conscious of low floors, …
Low floors, high ceilings, wide walls are the principles of tool development espoused by Professor Mitchel Resinck and his colleagues in the Lifelong Kindergarten Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, where Scratch and Octostudio are being developed. They use the metaphor of a programming tool as a room. First, the threshold is low …
Low Floor, High Ceiling, Wide Walls: Principles for Effective Workshop Design Read More »
On September 24, a remote workshop was held at the Ehime General Education Center’s “Komadori Classroom,” an educational support classroom. This time, we challenged students to make computer-operated toys by combining programmable batteries, blocks, and craft materials. Each time, we get to watch the students’ activities closely through the remote and learn many things from …
On September 14th, for the first time in three and a half years, we held a face-to-face workshop at the Hamagin Space Science Center in Yokohama. I recall that the last time we held the workshop was with a face shield. This time, we used Octostudio, a programming tool for smartphones released in October 2023 …
On August 30, we held a workshop on making moving toys using programmable batteries at the Sinno Children’s Club (Minato-ku, Tokyo). It has been a year since we held our first remote workshop here last summer. Over the past year, we have gradually improved the equipment and materials used for the workshop, based on the …
On August 9, we held our third workshop on making moving toys using programmable batteries at an after-school day service in Kanazawa. The workshop was scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m., but when we connected remotely at 9:30 a.m., the work had already been completed. It seemed that some of the kids had already started …
Workshop at Kanazawa City After School Day Service on August 9th Read More »
