Head over to adafruit.com and you will find some cool ideas
Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
201–210 of 246 posts
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#202I've done a fun exercise with grade 5 and 6 students where you build a computer that can taste food.
It takes about 30 minutes and the students simulate the algorithm by walking around the class, so it's engaging.
Training the algorithm:
The students line up along one of the classroom walls. I name a food like broccoli or chocolate and the students walk across the classroom a distance (out of 10) that represents how much they like the food. Most students would walk further across the classroom for chocolate than broccoli for example.
The class then comes up with an median score that represents how much they like the food based on the position of middle positioned student in the class. For example, for chocolate, the middle positioned student may be 80% of the way across the classroom. For broccoli, the middle student may be 30% of the way across the classroom.
We then talk about the visible features of the food. Chocolate, for example, is in a wrapper, is brown, is rectangular etc. Broccoli is green, round, small etc.
Testing the algorithm:
After repeating this for 10-12 foods, we then take a food we haven't looked at yet. An apple, for example. The students individually write down their rating of how much they like it out of 10 (but don't tell anyone their rating). We agree the features of the apple and then calculate the score based on the score of the features from the 10-12 foods that we scored in the training.
The students then go to the position in the classroom that represents their rating and we calculate how much the computer likes the food.
Tips:
You need to carefully select your foods so you get multiple results for as many features as possible.
Class discussion:
There's lots to discuss:
Median, machine learning, bias etc
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#203I hear making a clock out of an Arduino goes over really well in the classroom environment. Just be sure to notify all authorities before attempting it.
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#204With a wireless phone charger and led and a coil of wire you can make a wireless led light up.
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
That one is not a technology one indeed. I intermingle some non-tech ones just to show that there are curious simple things everywhere, and that there's more than just tech in their lives.
I don't think you can truly answer that question without it being part lie. For one, we don't necessarily know the real reason, plus there's multiple reasons anyways, especially since it's taken on a life of its own and culture/history is part of it now.
What's more interesting than the answer to that question is the question itself. People live that way, taking it as granted, without ever asking. Merely putting the question before them is illuminating for them. In terms of actually asnwering, I do not have to go beyond what you have said, "it's taken on a life of its own ... part of it now", though I am prepared to dwell more into the history.
Btw, the students find that question a lot more exciting than the others. Perhaps talking about the opposite sex is subconsciously more appealing to them, especially at that age.
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#206Show em this! https://paveldogreat.github.io/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation/
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#207I'll throw in a vote for using p5.js to make some cool generative art. Setup is less than 5 lines of code, and you can make some really nice art.
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
>For drones, I like to ask: "how do you think the drone moves forward?" [over power the rear two, underpower the front] Careful - this explanation isn't just a simplification - it's outright wrong. Applying differential power to the front and rear rotors is how you initiate a pitch moment . You must reverse the pitch moment when the drone is at the desired attitude. This attitude may cause the drone to accelerate in…
Correct. BUT, I've found this level of detail is often too much for a 5 to 6th grade level audience. So I usually start with "what if the back rotors go a little faster?": it tips it forward, beginning a series of operations leading forward motion (like turning the wheel of a car away from center -- what happens if you keep it turned?) I've also found that words matter: "attitude", "differential", "pitch", "velocity"…
Spot on! The level of explanation and the intent behind the explanation hugely matter. An explanation that is correct but becomes inaccessible can become a demotivator for kids (not for all kids). An explanation that makes things too mundane can cause a consequent lack of curiosity.
A recent such explanation episode got me thinking more about this - I'd recently got a pair of noise cancelling headphones and wanted to demo it to my kids. In an inspired (or dumb) moment, I introduced it to them like this - "you know headphones play music right, this one plays silence." I'd like to think I caught a whif of both understanding and "what the .." in their expressions :D
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#209I was recently asked by a friend who teaches 5th graders to do something similar for their school's "career month." I tried a few different things, and found the most successful was showing them how to use a web browser's built-in developer tools to inspect the source of and make live modifications to web pages. My reasoning behind this exercise was: - I checked in with their teacher ahead of time and confirmed that…
> and make live modifications to web pages
don't you only need a single javascript line in the address bar for that? Something like: javascript: document.body.contentEditable = 'true'; document.designMode = 'on'; void 0
Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology
#210Take in a few Pocket Operators from Teenage Engineering and let the kids make some music!