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Hi there, below will be the content we will be covering as well as any related resources. For Grade 5 / 6 classes, we will be working on a larger project that will go over the course of the term.
How networks (and the internet work) using... Minecraft
How networks (and the internet work) using... Minecraft
So, the Internet, I'm sure you have used it before, heck, I'm sure some of you are using it right now while I am talking (get off it...please) but how does it work?
Think and share:
Can anyone give me an explanation of how networks...work?
Types of networks
Types of networks
Not all computer networks are the same. The network I'm using to link this laptop to my wireless router, printer, and other equipment is the smallest imaginable. It's an example of what's sometimes called a PAN (personal area network)—essentially a convenient, one-person network. If you work in an office, you probably use a LAN (local area network), which is typically a few separate computers linked to one or two printers, a scanner, and maybe a single, shared connection to the Internet. Networks can be much bigger than this. At the opposite end of the scale, we talk about MANs (metropolitan area networks), which cover a whole town or city, and WANs (wide area networks), which can cover any geographical area. The Internet is a WAN that covers the entire world but, in practice, it's a network of networks as well as individual computers: many of the machines linked to the Net connect up through LANs operated by schools and businesses.
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/howcomputernetworkswork.html
IP Address:
These are important, and you all have one, right now. Think of it like the address of your computer on the Internet. Whenever you use your computer (even your school one) on the internet, you broadcast your IP address so people know it's you (well, they will know your IP address and also your general location)
You can check yours right now by going to:
Ok, now the big question - How does the internet work? (it's like a really big network, or collection networks really)
https://youtu.be/TNQsmPf24go?t=67
Wait... I did say we could use Minecraft right? - Well, now I am going to set up a Minecraft Network so we can all this network talk happen...
It's raining data!
It's raining data!
So, we have had a bit of bad luck recently with school events being cancelled due to the rain, but, can we predict when it will rain to avoid this? - Let's learn how.
Today we are going to understand the importance of data in effective decision-making, and are able to find, sort and interpret Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) rainfall data, and to collect your own data and analyse the resulting datasets.
First, let's see if it is going to rain today:
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR023.loop.shtml
Think:
How does this website collect and show us this data?
First, let's look at how people measure current rainfall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyMabcRzUcw
Now, let's look at a long-range forecast:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbKuJrA7Vp7naJL31deES8QAV5E0q6U_H
Discuss:
What has rainfall been like in our area for the past three months?
Was there anything unusual about it?
Were any reasons given for recent rainfall patterns in our locality?
Were there any meteorological terms that you didn't understand?
(check out the BOM Climate Glossary to help understand any unfamiliar terms related to climate: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/glossary/)
Now, let's look at A LOT of data:
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) dataset Climate Data Online.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/index.shtml
Getting data from Climate Data Online:
Select Using Text >
1. Select Monthly Rainfall
2. Enter Location. Click Find > Select Matching Town > Select Nearest Bureau station >
3. Get Data. Monthly Rainfall chart will appear.
Time to dig through all those numbers:
What year had the most rain?
What is the average month with the most rain?
What was the driest year?
Are we seeing more or less rain in the past few years?
Is there anything else you can learn from this data?
The need for speed! (in typing)
The need for speed! (in typing)
As we only have 30 minutes in our session today, I am using you as a little experiment
I have been working with the junior students on some basic ICT skills, starting with keyboards and typing (they actually love it), but I want to see what your skills are... so it's competition time!
I want to see what your WPM and accuracy are (that will make sense soon too)
https://www.typing.com/student/tests
Creating your own A.I.
Creating your own A.I.
The last few weeks we have been looking at various A.I systems and talked about how they worked, today you are going to make your own.
This may sound hard, but really, it is just like teaching a child something new (do you remember learning something new... like, all the time)
We will start by deciding what we want the A.I to learn (what is a Cat and a Dog for example), then give it a lot of 'training data' to learn from.
What we will see is how the computer 'sees' the training data and how important that data 'looks'.
This will be an interesting one...
https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/train/image
Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose
Recognise and explore patterns in data and represent data as pictures, symbols and diagrams
Identify and explore a range of digital systems with peripheral devices for different purposes, and transmit different types of data
Recognise different types of data and explore how the same data can be represented in different ways
Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems
Explore how people safely use common information systems to meet information, communication and recreation needs
Define simple problems, and describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve them
Explain how student solutions and existing information systems meet common personal, school or community needs
A.I. Generated Text.
A.I. Generated Text.
Today we are going to continue our look at AI and Machine Learning generated content, but this time, instead of images, we are looking at text.
The system is similar, we will give the AI some help (things we want it to write about) and select a type of text (email, song, cover letter, story, etc) and it will create it from scratch.
How will it do? - Well, we will find out, and also have a chat about if this is "cheating", technically, like our art example, the texts created are original and not copied from anything else... and technically it can't be done with your input.... but let's chat about it.
A.I. Generated Art.
A.I. Generated Art.
Today we are going to be artists, but the lazy, not working very hard kind.
That's right, we are going to dable in the current trend of A.I. Generated art, that is, writing a few words of text (my example was 'a teddy playing basketball') and then a neural network (a bunch of computers linked together) will generate that for us.
The results can be interesting, but they are all original, copyright-free pieces of art you can use.
This leads to a few questions:
What do you think are the concerns of being able to make any art, and in some cases, photoreal, on a computer - with no work by the artist?
Are there any negatives to this you can think of?
Where could this be a benefit?
Oh, and of course - how does this actually work?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVcsDDABEkM
Here are a few AI services we are going to look at:
Dall-E - https://openai.com/dall-e-2/
https://labs.openai.com
Craiyon - https://www.craiyon.com
Night Cafe - https://creator.nightcafe.studio/
Oh, and here are my images they created:
Chemistry (in Minecraft)
Chemistry (in Minecraft)
Chemistry is the branch of science that deals with the properties, composition, and structure of elements and compounds, how they can change, and the energy that is released or absorbed when they change.
Think of it like cooking, if we mix some ingredients in a certain way and cook them at a certain temperature, we might get some cookies (hopefully)
Today we are going to explore what elements are and how they work, we are then going to see what happens when we combine some of these elements (for example, 2 Hydrogen + 1 Oxygen element will give us water, or H2O).
Now, it would be a little unwise of me to give you some Plutonium (Pu) to play with, so we are going to do it all in Minecraft, yep, other than being a game about smashing some blocks, Minecraft has a pretty impressive Chemistry lab built in.
https://education.minecraft.net/wp-content/uploads/ChemistryLab_Journal.pdf
https://aka.ms/elementconstructor
Sprite Based Animation
Sprite Based Animation
Staying on our topic of game design, we are going to go back in time a bit.
Older games were almost exclusivley made using 2D sprites (like what we have done in Scratch) mostly out of the fact that there was so little memory in those machines. Sprites use square pixels and a limited colour paletteto be created, but with a bit of practice, this limitation can produce some great results.
Sprites can also animate by using frames (like an animated GIF, but hopefully not just of a cat falling).
Today we are going to look at some examples of great sprite animation, talk about how they work (and why older TVs make them look better) and then, make our own.
Examples:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E7hn1iBZ1-nYkBB6ySgKkrA_5tci6CDT?usp=sharing
Software:
Design and Technoloiges
Generate, develop and communicate design ideas and processes for audiences using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques (ACTDEP025 )
Foundation Games (made by Grade 5/6)
Foundation Games (made by Grade 5/6)
So here we are, the debut of some completed Foundation Games.
Remember, the Grade 5/6 Students had to follow the brief laid out by the Foundation students, including drawing all the sprites as close to the drawings done by those students.
Some games were complex (a maze, jump over the rocks, fly a unicorn) others were straight forward (hit a button, eat some cake!) but all were creative and orginial. Great work everyone.
*Felicity's pretty butterfly flower Game by Scarlett, Polly and Erica:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/718705581/
*Flying Purple Butterfly Game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/718691814/
*To the Loo:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719565034/
wasp game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/722104823/
*scout's castle adventure:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/718693450/
*Get the Cheese:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/718692601/
*101 Maze:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/718691479/
The Plane:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719023390/
egg explodes game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/720467188/
Hannah and Elsie's Game for Buddy:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/720401777/
Smash:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/724033591/
bear boom boom game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719558099/
Bernie's game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/720468822/
*Mountain climbing game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/718691607/
Daisy's amazing app:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/720407611/
Sony:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/722464473/
*Katie's amazing app!:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/720136332/
Climbing desert game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/720402796/
Dino Game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719528069/
Jack:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719531294/
Racing:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719020917/
Isadora:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/722464561/
to to's amazing game:
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/718693427/
Design and Technologies
Generate, develop and communicate design ideas and processes for audiences using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques (ACTDEP025 )
Make a Foundation student's dream (or app) come true!
Make a Foundation student's dream (or app) come true!
Ok, no pressure.
I will explain this one better in class, but the gist of it is:
I asked the Foundation students to come up with their very own app or game. They have drawn some designs and recorded their thoughts. Now, you are going to use code to see if you can make it...
Good luck!
Oh, don't worry we will have some lessons on coding before we get to the final product.
What's in a computer?
What's in a computer?
So, something I did with the Foundation students is talk about what is in a computer and how it works, but you are all big boys and girls, so let's make it a bit more tricky.
I am going to get you to pull apart and actual computer but not only do I want you to find out how it works, but I want to talk about sustainability - how do these parts get made and what minerals are used - and even more important talk about what mining these resources can do to the planet.
Term 2 Week 1: - This is me (also, creating a web page)
Term 2 Week 1: - This is me (also, creating a web page)
Back in the old days of 1996, creating web pages was a bit of work, more like coding is now. HTML, links, URLs and other fun abbreviations ruled the day. But now, it is a stack easier, so, we are going to make our own websites.
The goal here is for you to make a place where you can share your work, ideas, or interests, I'm also thinking you could use it as a digital portfolio of your work this year - but really it's up to you.
We can keep the websites private (and only people you want to look at them can) or make them more open to the world, we can discuss this more in class.
For the first week, I am going to give you a quick overview of what is possible (things like text, images, galleries, links, video content, URLs, etc.) and your task will be an easy one, think about (and do some notes on): What do you want to use your website for?
Plan, create and communicate ideas, information and online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (VCDTDI029)
Term 2 Week 3: - This is me (also, creating a web page)
Term 2 Week 3: - This is me (also, creating a web page)
This is the last chance we have to finish off our website (in class anyway) as I want us to get started on our next (big) project.
The video below will help get us thinking about that one:
https://youtu.be/WLP_L7Mgz6M
Plan, create and communicate ideas, information and online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (VCDTDI029)
Term 2 Week 2: - This is me (also, creating a web page)
Term 2 Week 2: - This is me (also, creating a web page)
Today we are going to work on our website, remember, I don't expect you to have a completed site, just your landing page (we will add to it over the year)
Plan, create and communicate ideas, information and online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (VCDTDI029)
Term 1 Project: Time to work on your pitch and finish any leftover bits and pieces
Term 1 Project: Time to work on your pitch and finish any leftover bits and pieces
Ok, it's been a bit of a learning process to do one giant project over the course of the term (and a lesson in focus for us all), but now it is time to wrap it all up.
Remember at the start I said the goal of this project was to learn the Design Thinking Process not just try and get everything correct, in fact, failing is part of this process, so technically, if you failed, you kinda' passed! (when will you ever hear that again in school I wonder?)
We still need to present our projects completed, so today we will work on our last part of the product production puzzle, pitching your product, that is, trying to convince someone (most likely me) that your idea is one that should be backed and put into mass production (we will talk about what that bit is too)
This might help...
https://www.firstpitch.com.au/how-to-pitch.html
Term 1 Project: Design Thinking and 3D Printing
Term 1 Project: Design Thinking and 3D Printing
Last week we sat down and discussed Design Thinking (handy reminder image below), now, we really need to get cracking on it so we can get our projects going.
Today you need to finalise your groups, potential people to help and the problem you think you can solve. Next week we will be taking a break from all the thinking and will start to look at one of the first skills we will need to learn, 3D modelling.
In future sessions, we will look at product design, marketing, graphic design (for packaging) and some sales pitch skills to sell people on your product (or convince your parents to let you stay up late?)
Alright, now let's figure out how it all works.
Empathise
Who are you trying to help? What do they need?
Define
What is the problem you are trying to solve? How can you turn the problem into a 'How might we...?' question?
Ideate
How many ideas can you come up with? What is your most original idea?
Prototype
Which idea will you try first? What will you design to test your idea?
Test
What is working well? What improvements could you make?
Term 1 Project: Design Thinking and 3D Printing
Term 1 Project: Design Thinking and 3D Printing
So, what is Design Thinking?, I mean, it must be important, it's in a big font above and everything!.
Let me use a picture to get the discussion going:
Alright, now let's figure out how it all works.
Empathise
Who are you trying to help? What do they need?
Define
What is the problem you are trying to solve? How can you turn the problem into a 'How might we...?' question?
Ideate
How many ideas can you come up with? What is your most original idea?
Prototype
Which idea will you try first? What will you design to test your idea?
Test
What is working well? What improvements could you make?
Week 1 - Intro Session: Exploring Photogrammetry
Week 1 - Intro Session: Exploring Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry.
Photogrammetry.
Hi Grade 5 and 6, as this week, is a bit split I thought we would get outside get moving and modelling (no, not that modelling) and look at a technique called Photogrammetry.
This is a technique where you can make 3D models by combining images (digital photos) that can be super detailed and can save a lot of time, it is also very helpful at creating content from very delicate real-world objects.
Let's look at some examples below and discuss the following:
How do you think Photogrammety even works (try and be as technical as you can here)
What examples have you seen of this technique used in the world?
How would you use it?
So, let's check some out:https://sketchfab.com/GlobalDigitalHeritage/models
What is Geo-Imagery?
What is Geo-Imagery?
Now, let's talk about how this technique is used in a slightly different way to get you around the world!) in Google Earth, however in Google Earth they use satellites collect 2D imagery, which is laid around the globe like an orange peel. The 3D imagery, however, is gathered via airplane, similar to how Google Street View cars grab photos from the ground. The images are overlapped, pieced together to show depth, and covered with texture.
Let's have a go, I feel like pizza, so why don't we head to Italy:
https://earth.google.com/web/search/the+coliseum/@41.89062776,12.49259785,34.40297747a,336.63557871d,35y,-22.61538206h,63.47706699t,0r/data=CncaTRJHCiUweDEzMmY2MWI2NTMyMDEzYWQ6MHgyOGYxYzgyZTkwODUwM2M0GWbIZ2jy8URAIUopQ7AF_ChAKgx0aGUgY29saXNldW0YAiABIiYKJAmewYcj205GQBGaitYOlcoxwBnE9Qh4gfU8wCE_49FooPdYwA
Acquire, store and validate different types of data and use a range of software to interpret and visualise data to create information (VCDTDI028)
AR - Augmented Reality
AR - Augmented Reality
I'm sure you can probably tell me about VR (Virtual Reailty) and maybe even how it works, but there is another reailty platform I think is even more interesting - AR (Augmented Reality). This is where you can add interactive, digital elements to the actual world around you - What is the point of this and what can you do with this technology - that is what we are going to find out, by making our own AR experiences using Adobe Aero
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