GRADE 4

April 2024

To develop our digital literacy skills for designing things with digital tools, we designed buttons using Adobe Express. In designing our buttons, we had to pay attention to:

• Sizing of our canvas and circles;

• Margins around our designs to ensure the design would show up properly when put in the button maker;

• Fonts and text alignment; and

• Whether there was enough contrast to read text placed on top of images.

We printed our designs and pressed together the buttons using a button maker.

Students also continued working on Genius Hour projects of their choosing. 

A few students from the Science Research Club participated in the Carver Science Fair at Temple University. Noah and Theo in grade 4 won rising STEM star awards for their project on measuring aerodynamic 3D designs.

March 2024

We kicked off a podcast project on the environmental impacts of clothing. First, we reflected on what we know about clothing. Then, we analyzed four infographics that showed important facts about how clothing can affect our environment.

A few grade 4 students participated in the Media and Design Competition. Foster, Grant, and Noah won second place in the digital art category with their "sand art" project.

Students in the Science Research Club continued meeting with Drexel University students and a professor on Fridays to prepare for the Carver Science Fair.

February 2024

We explored the influence that a mechanical weaving system from hundreds of years ago had on the development of computers. Here's how a Jacquard loom works. Ada Lovelace was inspired by the Jacquard loom to write what are considered to be the first computer programs. All weaving patterns, whether they are from a Jacquard loom or not, involve over and under movements.

We used potholder looms to weave our own binary patterns with two colors (e.g., over and under). Many of us chose basket weaves (and we realized that we had a harder time finishing the edges as we took them off the looms). A plain weave worked better for our looms and materials. 

Students continued working on Genius Hour projects of their choosing. Projects included:

• Editing and recording scripts for podcast episodes (e.g., sports, comedy)

• Creating animations for the Media and Design Competition

• Creating games in Scratch

• Coding mobile apps in code.org's App Lab

• Designing movie scenes with LEGOs

• Preparing digital sand art for the Media and Design Competition

Students in the Science Research Club met with Drexel University students and a professor on Fridays to prepare for the Carver Science Fair.

January 2024

We engaged in some creative engineering by creating scribble bots using plastic cups, motors, battery packs, switches, hot glue, tape, and markers. A scribble bot works as a motor and spinning arm placed on the side of the bot's body cause it to rock back and forth, moving erratically. When you uncap the markers that make up its legs, it draws patterns.

We also discussed an important theme in science and technology: What happens when we design something that we are not able to control or fully understand how it works? Frankenstein's monster is an example in literature.

Students continued working on Genius Hour projects of their choosing. Projects included:

• Engineering a vehicle with battery, motor, wires, a bottle, wheels, and propellor

• Creating scripts for podcast episodes (e.g., sports, comedy)

• Designing additional digital sand art pieces

• Creating games in Scratch

• Designing movie scenes with LEGOs

• Creating 3D designs in Tinkercad

December 2023

We’ve continued thinking about patterns and code. We created geometric designs using repeat, move, and turn blocks to tell our digital turtles what to draw in Turtle Stitch. Then, we used our laser cutter to carve our designs into wooden medallions.

We used our WeDo LEGO robotics kits to build spin art devices. To build the device, we used instructions with images. Then, we used the WeDo app to control the spin of the motor.

For our school’s winter door decorating contest, a few students in grade 4  contributed to the Wildcat Workshop “Snow-make” door design by creating shakeable @microbit_edu snowflakes with greetings, stories and games with Scratch, geometric designs with Turtle Stitch and the laser cutter, and digital art via thisissand.com.

We also continued working on Genius Hour projects.

November 2023

We continued to create our pixel art with plastic melting beads. We discussed how it took us a long time to "render" or make the image by hand. Our computers do this work much faster!

We began thinking about color images. 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.

We practiced using binary code along with a compressed version of the code to make black and white images. We realized that we could compress our binary code most easily when we had multiple pixels in a row that are the same color.

We also continued working on Genius Hour projects.

October 2023

We continued to explore how binary code allows computers to store and share information. To think about how binary code can be used to encode numbers, we compared decimal (base-10) versus binary (base-2) number systems. When students finished editing the slideshow to show that they understood how to convert between the two number systems, they played an online game to practice further.

We discussed how our computing devices use common code sequences in binary (8 bits or 8 zeroes or ones = 1 byte) for things like letters of the alphabet. A common example is the ASCII system. We wrote out binary code for our initials using ASCII. Then, we made two-color (binary) bracelets for our initials.

We continued to explore encoding information using 1s and 0s. We used a pixel widget in code.org to make black & white images using 1s and 0s. We realized that we needed to set the width and height of our images before making them. We also realized that the more bits of information we used (that is, the smaller the square samples were), the clearer the digital image became.

We we also started making our own pixel art. First, we selected images that we could sample and still make out what the pixelated version was. We realized that it takes a lot of bits to encode complex images. Then, we began creating physical representations of our pixel art with plastic fuse beads. We realized it takes us a longer time than we predicted to encode things by hand even if there’s a limited set of pixels. We had to do lots of counting using the grids we created!

We also continued working on Genius Hour projects.

September 2023

We read a story about a boy named Jasper who liked to play video games. We wrote about how it's important to find a balance when using technology. We also identified the theme of the story: We need to find a balance between using digital devices and engaging with the world around us. What does your family say about finding a screen-time balance at home? Here are some resources for discussing screen time.

We discussed how computers store and communicate information using binary code. Binary code has two conditions:

• 0 or 1

• off or on

• true or false

• positive or negative polarity (for hard drives)

• non-reflective or reflective (for DVDs)

We worked with partners to build a simple circuit and to make up our own secret codes using on or off.

We also kicked off Genius Hour. Students in grades 4-8 have opportunities during their Digital Literacy classes throughout the year to design and complete projects of their choosing. Schools across the world implement Genius Hour programs to support students in pursuing their own interests and explore their passions. The Wildcat Workshop, with its materials and emphasis on civic and creative uses of digital technologies, is a perfect space for this kind of activity.