Computing project ideas

1. Computing project ideas Merton Park Primary School Nicola Schofield @nicscho nic.schofield@mertonpark.merton.sch.uk

2. Inspiration • IBM summer school – thinking more about data & the Internet of Things – Wimbledon Tennis & Bolzano • “The Circle” by Dave Eggers • The Human Crane activity from Phil Bagge (using lots of cards to enable recognition of repeats & procedures) • “How It Works” magazine • Observer Tech Monthly • Twitter links

3. The Internet of Things

4. The Circle by Dave Eggers • Fast, thrilling, compulsively addictive - The Circle is Dave Eggers's timely novel about our obsession with the internet. • When Mae is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Run out of a sprawling California campus, the Circle links users' personal emails, social media, and finances with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of transparency. Mae can't believe her great fortune to work for them - even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public ... • 'Tremendous. Inventive, big hearted and very funny. Prepare to be addicted' Daily Mail • 'Prescient, important and enjoyable . . . a deft modern synthesis of Swiftian wit with Orwellian prognostication' Guardian • 'A gripping and highly unsettling read' Sunday Times

5. How It Works magazine

6. Some “project” ideas/ starters... BA Digital Billboard A good session to get staff thinking computationally – have also acted it out physically with children playing the roles of the little boy, plane, trig points, computer etc

7. Scratching Clocks Naiara SophieLAlexLNathan Tim’s comments: “Approaches were so diverse and unexpected, I had assumed everyone would count up to 60 secs, then click over the minutes hand/digit and ditto for the hour. But some counted each hand separately eg 3,600 secs per hour; some moved the hour hand continuously; one bumped the minute hand round when the second hand touched it; one detected the minutes as the second hand touched the 12; some controlled using loops; some used variables. The next requirement after making a working clock was to be able to set it for any time, so the year 3′s can use it. This will show up the lack of early design, unless they used variables. Or will it?!”

8. Popcorn Maker • You can use Popcorn maker to “mash up” videos and music • There are some project ideas here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/make-something-awesome-with-popcorn Please don’t click to watch their examples • You could take a dance video, eghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-b_GJ4ltk&safe=active or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQLXUSENm68&safe=active and overlay it with some more modern music to the same beat. • Or take a video of a football match/ great goal and add in humorous speech bubbles or silly music • Help/ support is here https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/webmaker/popcorn-maker • Some of our ‘makes’: • Mad Scientist mix (Y4) • Mary Poppins mix (Y4) • Swan Lake Gangmanstyle • Popcorn Maker needs good bandwidth or the video and audio don’t sync well – good luck with that! • Music link – match beats etc

9. 2Paint a Picture Challenge • Watch the 2Simple Paint a Picture videos “The Dream” Y3&4 (3 videos) & “People in Action” Y5&6 (3 videos). • Find a full body shot of a sportsperson (safe search in Google image etc). • Use the tools recommended in the video and others you may find, to create an “action” photo. Try to ensure we can still see who is in the photo! Add action blurs, move limbs around. (physics, PE). • As an extension activity you could try to add your own background into the action photo. • If you’re feeling adventurous you could include a ball too. • Remember about transparency (chn to find ways of making background transparent – also useful for Scratch sprites - there are free online editors if no software available in school)...

10. Lyrical Flowcharts (music links – song structure) Original link from @stevebunce • Hey Jude • Total Eclipse • Jackie Schneider’s blogpost- It helps having an amazing music coordinator to try stuff out straight away!

11. Another music challengec/o @technoella (Bishop Gilpin School) • Code “Frere Jacques” using loops and repeats in Scratch: • http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/video/c/video_tcm4727638.asp (need login to Glow to access lesson plan but not necessary) • Example here- http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/12506711/#editor • Another here - http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1959426/#editor

12. XRay Goggles Book week- mixed up school website (html coding): • Mix up the school website to reflect a recent event. • Change text & headings, add images & video.

13. Table Football in Scratch • We gave the chn the challenge and the sprites, nothing else. Showed them real table football but no Scratch examples. This is what they are aiming for http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/23873583/(Project by @markhardisty, also credit to @andylolz) • Priya

14. Robin Van Persie’s Flying Dutchman goal against Spain Recreate the goal in Scratch animation: • Show children the goal on YouTube in slow motion, plus stills. • Show this & discuss flipbook-style animation • Challenge chn to recreate goal in Scratch, using images from Google, action photo editing etc.

15. Create a F1 Game in Scratch • Watch this together http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016612j & discuss. • Children watch this http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016j4g5 • They have to create a racing car game with 2 cars, a track, points and a timer. Use Scratch cards to help http://scratch.mit.edu/help/cards/

16. Pop Art photos • Discuss Pop Art • Watch this video clip about pixellationhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0166rgs • Watch the 2Simple “Paint a Picture” Videos Y3 &4 “Pop Art” (2 videos) • Using the tools recommended in the video, make a Pop Art picture of a football player/ other topic related image. (Make sure you find a good close up photo with clear features.) • Save this Pop Art picture, and add a frame to it using “2Simple Photo” program. Work out how to do this using your own resources! • Print the framed picture and add the name of your footballer • There’s also a Warhol app for ipads

17. Create an orrery in Scratch@keskids (Malmesbury) challenge • Thanks to @andylolz for this link http://t.co/ezrRjUFpvJ • We also coded eclipse scratch animations

18. Scratch London animation • Use a background of London and attach a song to play all the way through • Add at least 2 sprites which should move without using the “move” command (too easy and boring), need sounds attached and should interact with each other. • Sounds easy but really tested children’s basic skills, creating sprites etc. • Also finding (safely) and converting YouTube videos to mp3 for import

19. Blogged projects • Apple Watch decomposition & Health App coding • Eclipse coding • Facial recognition decomposition & coding • Fingerprinting • Scratch Ice Bucket challenge • Cicret • Morse Code coding • Shakespearian Insult Generator • Chef Watson

20. Some resources • Miles Berry Scratch Under 10 mins • Scratch ie (need to register but free) • Code Club projects • Scratch book by Sean McManus • Phil Bagge • Barefoot Computing