GRADE 7

April 2024

We discussed how three LEDs that are the colors red, green, and blue (RGB) can be used to produce a lot of different colors. This involves turning some lights on and others off. Or making some brighter than others. We can control which LEDs are on and off using 1s and 0s, too!

We used the pixel widget in code.org to make different colors. We also tried to recreate some images in color using 6 bit codes, 2 bits for red, green, and blue each. We could make 64 colors using 6 bits.

Some students in Ms. Truppo's class also created LEGO robotics design with our new kits.

March 2024

We began a project in which we're programming drones to explore an “ancient archaeological site” (aka our playground). We analyzed aerial maps of the site and brainstormed what kinds of instructions they would need to give their drones to take video footage of the sites. We made measurements to plan our algorithms. We also tested our designs with Turtle Stitch.

Students participating in the Media and Design Competition shared their projects at a city-wide event.

• Grades 7 and 8 students Nasir, Taahir, and Zyair won second place in the digital movie category with their documentary about child labor.

• Grade 6 and 7 students Amirrah, Mykenzie, and Taylor won second place in the 3D design category with their expandable box project.

• Grades 6 and 7 students Nyasia, Suhayla, and Taylor won third place in the web design category with a website about our school's oratorical competition.

February 2024

We started string art projects by reading about designs from around the world for inspiration. We selected and measured pieces of wood we’d use, sized images we found from Google Image searches and pasted into a Google Doc so they would fit our wood when printed, sanded the wood over our new sanding table, and painted our wood pieces. Then, we hammered nails along the outlines of the designs we'd selected. Next, we used pliers to hold the nails to keep our fingers safe. Once we’d nailed the outlines, we removed the paper template and wrapped string around the nails to finish the design.

We began preparing projects in animation, graphic design, and digital movie for the Media and Design Competition.

January 2024

We earned Digital Citizen Badges for being Password Security Pros, Screen Time Managers, and Conscientious Digital Sharer. We also played Interland to learn more about digital citizenship.

December 2023

We celebrated Computer Science Education Week with Hour of Code activities. Students chose among a number of coding options, including Scratch, Tynker, and code.org.

We added to our knowledge of HTML tags and also began styling webpages using cascading style sheets (CSS). CSS files allow us to change the properties of different elements on our webpages. For instance, we can make all paragraph text a specific color, size, and alignment. We can do the same with headings.

Then, we added to our knowledge of HTML and CSS tags by learning how to insert images into a webpage. We wrapped up our unit on creating webpages with HTML and CSS. Our last lesson was on styling elements on our pages with CSS.

For our school’s winter door decorating contest, a few students in grade 8 contributed to the Wildcat Workshop “Snow-make” theme by creating LEGO snowflakes and making pixel art snowflakes with sticky notes.

November 2023

We began learning about how paragraphs and headings are coded using HTML (hypertext markup language) using Web Lab on code.org. HTML is basically one of the languages that developers use to tell your internet browser how to display a webpage.

We started by learning about opening and closing tags like <p> and </p>, which let a computer browser know that a specific bit of text is a paragraph. Heading tags like <h> and </h> help show the importance of text and set it apart from paragraphs. We can even use tags to make bulleted and numbered lists.

The tutorials and practice tasks in code.org asked us to identify and correct bugs in the HTML code and to begin creating content.

October 2023

We researched different ancient (and postclassical) building structures from around the world, from aqueducts to arches and from pagodas to pyramids. Then, we built models using toy bricks, searched the internet for information and photos (using a Creative Commons search), and updated a slideshow with photos of their models and the information and photos they found online.

If we completed multiple introductory models, then searched the internet for example ancient structures and built more elaborate models using the toy bricks.

We also searched for example ancient structures and created 3D versions in Tinkercad that could be 3D printed.

Some students running for positions in Student Government elections used Wildcat Workshop resources and tools to create buttons, make copies of posters, and create campaign videos.

September 2023

We visited the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to kick off our unit on ancient technologies. In preparation for the visit, Penn Museum educators visited Ms. McCaney and Ms. Truppo's classes to introduce the museum and the topic of a special lesson: paint making.

At the Penn Museum, a museum educator guided us through some of the exbitions, telling stories and helping us attend to designs on artifacts. Students completed a "Greek Motif Bingo" activity. We also explored exhibitions featuring artifacts from Africa, the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia.

During the Penn Museum visit, we crushed up ocher and charcoal with a mortar and pestal. Next, we added water and a binder to the pigments to make red and black paint. Then, we used the paint to create a design on wood.

We discussed some technologies that we use today. We discussed how technologies sometimes are machinical, they may use electricity—but that not all technologies are like this.

We focused our attention on an important technology that has ancient origins: levers. A lever has a rigid bar that pivots on a fulcrum. We began by watching a video about how the Rapa Nui people may have used levers to move and position the moai statues on Easter Island. Then, we explored how levers work by changing the conditions in a lever simulation. We realized that changing the distance of an object on one side of a lever can allow us to change how much we can lift on the other side of the fulcrum.

We explored another very important technology: Writing! We brainstormed why we think it was important for ancient cultures to develop writing systems. We decided that communication, trade, and keeping records were important reasons. A number of ancient civilizations—like those in Mesoamerica (Mayans), Egypt, Mesopotamia (Sumerians), and China—developed writing systems with symbols that we call logographs. Some of these writing systems were carved into stone (Mayan glyphs, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Chinese characters) or pressed into clay tablets (Sumerian cuneiform). While they didn't necessarily have an alphabet like the one we use today, some of the symbols connect with sounds that people in those cultures would have spoken. So, today we can use symbols and their corresponding sounds to spell out things like our own names. We're doing just that! And instead of carving using a chisel, we're going to use our makerspace Glowforge laser cutter to create keychain designs with our names.