We spent some time planning our personal web page last class and today was the day to create it. Most students were able to easily add the HTML code to add the content of the site (although a few missing closing tags really created havoc!), but the CSS, because we haven't done it as much, was a bit tougher. Eventually, though, they all got it sorted out and most were able to submit today.
Today's group of lessons reviewed some of the CSS we've learned so far and added to it. The students learned how to change more font and background properties as well as adding a border and padding to their images to make them look good within the site.
The last part of the assignment was to plan their own website that we'll create next class. Each student filled out a sheet to decide on their topic and headings and then went online to find three images to include. Hopefully, this will make the creation of the personal site very smooth and efficient. What's the web without images? Today we learned how to include images in our web pages. Code.org allows us to upload images to their site and then point our links to them (instead of hosting the images on our own servers). While learning this skill, there is also a discuss about intellectual property (we don't want to break the law!), using alt text (for visually impaired readers), and how to cite an image. Nothing too complicated yet - that will come later. :) Maybe starting a unit the day before a week-long break wasn't the best idea? We just needed a minute to get back into Web Dev mode. Today we started with a review, creating a very small page containing a heading, paragraph, and a list (of course in HTML). Then, after a quick side-quest to review about our Digital Footprint, we started learning CSS. CSS is the code that tells our browser how to display our HTML. So if we want all our paragraphs to have red text, we'll make that change in our CSS code. We can change the fonts, sizes, background colors, and more - we're just getting started! We started with a quick Canvas quiz about AI, algorithms, searching, and sorting. Most received "proficient", and those who didn't will be able to retake after break. You'd think that having questions they had created would be an advantage, but it didn't really seem so! :) After the quiz, we started our next unit, Web Dev. For this, the students will be learning some basic HTML and CSS to create webpages from scratch. I looked around for different online options but we ended up back at Code.org. They really do a great job with teaching complicated matters in a digestible way, and they have their "labs", which provide a blank template to do any sort of assignment or assessment. The first three lessons introduced HTML, teaching paragraph, heading, and list tags. In our last lesson of our "miscellaneous" unit, we are learning a bit more about algorithms and applying it towards solving a problem. Our first activity was to write a simple algorithm to recreate a shape, using the provided "actions". This helps the student to realize how specific the algorithms need to be in order to be effective. Once we practiced our algorithms, we solved a popular problem (called the "handshake problem") by breaking it into the following steps: Define, Prepare, Try, Reflect, and Repeat. Once we'd solved the problem with 5 people, we then saw if our solution would work with 10 people. Once we knew it would, we then created an app to allow someone to enter any number of people and then tell them how many total handshakes would take place. Finally, we reviewed for our upcoming unit assessment (next class). The level 1-2 questions are multiple choice and were provided by each group after their AI Jigsaw lesson. The review allows the students to see those questions in a practice quiz (five questions at a time). The level 3 questions will be about sorting and algorithms, while the level 4 question will be about AI's impact on our lives. We started our class by contrasting binary and linear searching. There is an online guessing game, and with it, the students could try linear searching and binary searching to see which was fastest. Once we completed and talked about that part of the assignment, we learned five different ways a computer can be programmed to sort data: quick sort, insertion sort, selection sort, bubble sort, and merge sort. Each student had part of a deck of playing cards (2-10) and I had magnetic cards on the board. First, we mixed up our decks to be in a random order, then laid them out in a row (numbers facing up), and finally we sorted them using the particular sort we were learning at that moment. To a programmer, these might seem like common-sense ways to sort, but for most people, it's the first time they've heard of so many options. After our brain teaser, the students had 20 minutes to get ready to present and turn in the required materials. Then, one by one, each group presented to the class about their assigned aspect of AI. The presentations covered the history of AI, how it works, ethical considerations for creating and using it, and how different industries are currently taking advantage. For our assessment, the level 1-2 questions will be the ones provided by each group. Once we learned about AI, we practiced training an AI tool by using the Teachable Machines site. First, using three different objects, we used pictures (from our webcams) to train the AI and then tested it with a variety of different objects. Then, we tried using our voices to train the AI to see if it could tell the difference between different students. It's a fun site! Strand 2 (in our curriculum) has a few parts that haven't fit into our lessons yet, so this unit is sort of a "misc" unit to learn them all. To start off: AI! This is a topic that is constantly evolving, so we're going to get a feel for where we are currently with this topic. Rather than have me lecture about it, we have divided into four groups and each will research their assigned portion and then present to the class (next class). The topics are: 1) What is AI?, 2) Social Impact, 3) Ethical Implications with Creating AI, and 4) AI Impact on Business and Industry. I provided guiding questions to help focus their research and then each group will create a slideshow (to present), guided notes, and three multiple-choice questions for the unit quiz. This is the last class of 3rd quarter so we're having a catch-up day. A few students need to finish their "Do it" assessment from last class, a few need to make up the "Know it" assessment they missed, and a few need to complete several of our daily "brain teasers" to increase their score on that standard. If your student has been able to keep up, it will be a nice, easy day as a reward. For those who have been absent, it's a last chance before grades lock. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
Categories |