Eileen Malick’ Blog

Mitch Resnick is the Founder of the Lifelong Kindergarten program at the MIT Media Lab, and one of the creators of Scratch.

Scratch is an inherent programming language that makes it easy for children of all ages to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art, and share their creations on the web (Intro to Scratch from ScratchEd). In his TED Talk Mitch discusses the importance in teaching everyone to code, and introduces the new BETA version of Scratch called Scratch 2.0.

SCRATCH was developed by MIT for very young children to be able to program, but has been ear-marked as an elementary school products that is too simplistic for middle and high school students… but not any more!

The inherent SCRATCH programming interface is actually the key to 21st century education on the highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. SCRATCH’s drag-and-drop blocks resemble MIT App Inventor interfaces for creating apps on Android Phones.

You are not type-type-typing code, you are creating visual structures for complex computer science functions that you can transfer the understanding into other programming languages.

Basic Ideas of Scratch:

• Creating with Scratch
• Learning with Scratch
• Programming with Scratch

ScratchEd was created for Educators to be able to learn how to use Scratch.

Getting started with Scratch:

• Getting Started Guide
• Scratch Cards
• Scratch Tutorial Videos

You can also program physical robots with Scratch!
Robots are mechanical mobile devices with software programming and sensors, and SCRATCH and LEGO WeDos provide both!

A discussion you can have with your students is what makes a robot:

• Sensors
• Movement
• Energy
• Intelligence

Directly plug in the LEGO WeDo USB to the computer with pre-loaded free SCRATCH, and the drag-and-drop robotics components will automatically appear in SCRATCH. If you have a motor raising and lowering, you need to put an interface on the screen to explain what is happening, and if the interface is interactive, we are hitting the core-level of robotics understanding that originally was going over student’s heads with LEGO Mindstorm NXTs because the software-hardware-interaction was not immediate. The robotic LEGO WeDo components that work in SCRATCH are a Distance Sensor, The Tilt Sensor, and a Rotating Motor.

My Blog Post about Scratch-ing the LEGO WeDo

The combination of elementary SCRATCH and elementary LEGO WeDo can tap the interest of all students from the elementary all the way to the high school level.

UPDATE: Presenting SCRATCHing to the 21st Century at the DEN VirtCon 2012 with a special DEN VirtCon Scratch Gallery

SCRATCHing to the 21st Century Presentation Slide

The words “chemistry” and “polymers” strike fear into the hearts of high school students, so when the challenge presented itself to create an innovative week-long summer chemistry camp for elementary school children, Pam Yates and I had decided to “go hard or go home (to Atlee High School where we are science teachers)” to create the first pilot of it’s kind to see if very young children can understand a complex chemistry subject. Here are the overviewed activities of our camp:

Polymers

A [poly ("many") + mer ("parts")] is any material made from repeating parts of a simple piece of matter. There is an award-winning video called “A World Without Polymers? by Yvonne Choo” explaining a world without polymers and plastics.

Students are given time to reflect in their journals what the world would be like without polymers and describe the two types of polymers, natural and synthetic (plastics) polymers.

Students created polymer structures out of paper clips – linear, branched, and cross-linked and from the paper-clip structures learned how there structures make plastic properties such as flexibility and strength.

DNA

DNA is a cross-linked polymer structure that is found in all living things. Students used soap, salt, and rubbing alcohol to extract DNA from strawberries they mashed in a plastic bag.

Dawn of Plastics

Rubber from trees was mass-produced at the height of World War II. Experimentation of plastic compounds created Silly Putty (from Silicon), synthetic dyes, and Post-it notes. Students brought in a ball as homework to compare their properties. We also created gel balls (“spit balls”) and bouncy balls from kits where you add water to dehydrated polymers.

Code-Cracking the Recycle Codes

As homework students had to locate the recycle codes on plastics at home and bring it in to pair-share the next day.

http://www.projectgreenbag.com/pgbadmin/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/recycle_codes.gif

A good breakdown of what the 1 – 7 codes is “What Do Recycling Symbols on Plastics Mean? by the Daily Green.” We also discussed why our local recycling centers only accept certain codes (only 1 and 2). We talked about The Big Cleanup with Discovery Education featuring Philippe Cousteau, learning how plastic affects our waterways and how we can take action to protect our oceans.

Recycling Polystyrene Pellets (Styrofoam Packing Peanuts)

When Styrofoam is added to acetone (nail polish remover) it seems to disappear but becomes a melted type of plastic putty that you can mold into shapes that become hard plastic figures when dry.

Bioplastics

Bioplastics remove the necessity of using petroleum (a non-renewable resource) in creating synthetic plastics. We used whipping cream to create a bioplastic, and cornstarch can create a bioplastic. Only ingredient of cornstarch… Corn! We also created bioslime and puffy stickers using a biopaint. We also created home-made gummy candies using a kit that extracted the main polymer compounds from guar gum and seaweed.

Spider Silk and Kevlar

The new Spiderman movie was released the same time as our camp, so we discussed how modern scientists were trying to create materials as strong as spider silk. We had an officer bring in 3 types of “bullet-resistant” (as opposed to “bullet-proof”) equipment to discuss how Kevlar (a synthetic polymer) helps protect law enforcement.

Reflection

The use of journals after every activity/lab was essential for students to be able to incorporate what they have learned and be able to remember the objectives of the camp whenever they open their journals. Also Discovery Education media was essential in presenting all subjects in this camp.

I have a young son who enjoys the great sport of football, and I am a high school teacher of Computer Science. The two facts are normally not related, so for the sake of time I am not going to explain how I was tasked to create a video about the K – 8th grade football and subsequent conditioning camp.

I have used Animoto since 2008. I had lost a great deal of my pictures when my computer crashed a few years ago, so it was a delight to see some of my pictures still archived (and recoverable) on Animoto several years later (Note: NOT a football video http://animoto.com/play/tM1JUIX0S27HE2U2EVr0ug) I became a diehard fan, and as long as they offer free educator copies (http://animoto.com/education) I will continue to use this site as an example of why cloud-based applications are the coolest way to archive our valuable media files.

Given, Animoto is AWESOME in running your media to the music so you don’t have to. Animoto can also make a boring slide-based video look professional with it’s algorithms of effects, but no amount of video affects can replace better content. Several Animoto videos were created with lessons learned, so I will explain the iterations with pointers on making better content to your Animoto video.

Point A:  Get CLOSE with your camera… REALLY CLOSE… So you can get video with sound

There is a glaring difference between the team parents with camera lenses that stretch out more than a foot
versus my itty bitty digital camera that stretches out less than an inch
My video was less interesting because I am too far away. It is not economically feasible for me to attain an expensive camera with an extensive lens, and it is not nice as a parent to storm the field during a game, but for the football camp I told the coach ahead of time I was going to get really, REALLY close to everyone. If I allowed the audio to be played while I recorded several series of my first iteration of the football video
(especially the running sequence at the beginning of the video) you would hear me say something like “I’m gonna die!”
I also wore my school attire, so I would be recognized as a school official. You can get the needed audio sequences that make the video footage more authentic that you could not achieve with those far, far away telescopic lenses. Also being close gives you multiple footage angles and views that make for better video.

Point B: Don’t be afraid to say, “Could you do that again?” or “Can you repeat what you said, only BETTER?”

In the first iteration of my video on the first day (especially blue shirt lineman without sleeves) (http://animoto.com/play/sKC0DnllAVlrS79962aUYg) I discovered that some of the coaches never completed their sentences, and it was too late to ask for a repeat. Some of the video footage was just too long, even with the editing capability of adjusting the video in 10-second segments in Animoto. The sad microphone on my itty bitty digital camera amplified a slight breeze to make it sound like a hurricane-force wind.
A big difference between the first video (http://animoto.com/play/sKC0DnllAVlrS79962aUYg) and final video (http://animoto.com/play/lp1AXppnOWisgtNueGWozA) is when I found out the majority of the Captains on the Football team training the children were actually campers themselves many years ago, I redid the majority of the interviews. This is NOT telling people what to say (fabrication). This is asking people to repeat what they said before, and often it will be a better result.

Point C: The J.J. Abrams Effect is more Authentic than Traditional Tripod Videos

This is really just an elaborated Point A, except we’re talking about literally running alongside the kids. I call it the “J. J. Abrams Effect,” where the video is not completely stable (slightly shaky) and the sequences are short (No more than 4 seconds between transitioning between video clips even though Animoto gives you 10 seconds). The majority of effects of Animoto templates actually support non-stable video. An example of some stable, long sequences of video
are in this sequence
then remedied in this sequence
The most powerful video sequences are when I am running behind the campers in the obstacle courses (http://animoto.com/play/lp1AXppnOWisgtNueGWozA).

Point D: Mix it Up!

Just images in Animoto are a good video (http://animoto.com/play/uFVcgxK20ml9ly0fOqhDsQ).

Just video in Animoto is a mediocre video
A combination of images with video (especially after text sequences) makes a much better video, especially when you combine Point A through D (http://animoto.com/play/lp1AXppnOWisgtNueGWozA).

I have been Scratch-ing with LEGO WeDo kits, and my high school level students absolutely love it!
The LEGO® Education WeDo™ robotics kit is normally ear-marked as an elementary school product, and Scratch was developed by MIT for young children to be able to program, but the combination of the two has tapped the interest of my elementary school daughter, my middle school son, and my Computer Science students at the high school level.
Link: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/WeDo

LEGO WeDo USB and the ScratchEd Screen

An example program using LEGO WeDo with Scratch called updownduck.

But when you download the Source Code and view it within Scratch, you can understand the purpose of the programming.

Source Code for updownduck in Scratch.

Distance Sensor + Sprite

Motor + Scratch

These intro projects give easy-to-follow LEGO directions within the Scratch window.

My favorite section is the WeDo Starter Projects that provide downloadable Scratch files to utilize the Distance Sensor, The Tilt Sensor, and the Motor. We modified the motor project to lift a platform of LEGO Men provided from the WeDo kit. Our challenge was to create a way to make sure the platform stops at a safe level without knocking off the LEGO men.

Complex projects were created at the MIT Lab and you can download the Scratch Files:

• Submarine Rescue – interactive adventure
• Balancing Robot – I wish they would post the LEGO designs so we can build the same bot
• King Duck vs. Fatman Protagonist -interactive balancing and storytelling
• Caterpillar Love Story – AWESOME storytelling
• Skiing Moose Ferris Wheel – I wish they would post the LEGO designs for the arm-swinging moose

Many of these projects require teachers or upper-level students to build the components, but once built the storytelling capabilities are incredible.

The robotic LEGO WeDo components that work in Scratch are a Distance Sensor, The Tilt Sensor, and a rotating Motor. The new Science Standards of Learning in Virginia indicate students must have an understanding of probeware, sensor, and accumulate data. The LEGO WeDo components also give numerical indicators on the Scratch Screen of distances and tilt values that can be transferred into authentic data. When the distance sensor shows a value of 2, students can measure with a ruler the distance and chart the values. When the tilt sensor shows a value of 3, students can determine how many degrees equal a value of 3.

UPDATE: This Project has won a Governor of Virginia COVITS Award!

Innovative Use of Technology in Education

Winner: Atlee High School
For: Scratch and LEGO WeDo for High School

UPDATE ABOVE: Presenting SCRATCHing to the 21st Century at the DEN VirtCon 2012 with a special DEN VirtCon Scratch Gallery

SCRATCHing to the 21st Century Presentation Slide

There is a fabulous survey from the University of Phoenix called Education Nation Learner Profile Assessment which asks you a series of painless and animated survey questions generates a profile of your learning style:

NOTE: The survey times-out your percentages if you don’t keep selecting the option to keep your percentages screen.

As educators, the golden rule is to use a variety of methods in order to get the most effectiveness to your students.
When I tested myself, I was surprised to find I was solidly a SOLITARY learner, but in teaching classes with up to 32 students in High School and having very young children at home - learning best ALONE was not too surprising.
Most of my students tested in the Aural (Music) style, where they learned best listening to music, which is typically a no-no in the classroom.
NO ONE tested as a VERBAL (lecture-based) learner.
Here is where something called Authentic Assessment comes into play:

Q: When should I give this survey?
Ans: BEFORE you give (any) lesson.

Q: What do I do if two classes are OPPOSITES for a particular learning style and my lesson only utilizes one of the styles?
Ans: You should Authenticate or cater your lesson to accommodate both styles.

The key is that Assessment is Driving Curriculum and not the opposite, teaching to the test.

Forensic Computer Science (or Computer Forensics) looks at digital information like other forensic investigations “with the aim of identifying, preserving, recovering, analyzing and presenting facts and opinions about the information”

“Forensic Computer Science and Hacking are basically the SAME, except when you discuss the question of Custody.”
- Michael Ruiz, VCU

Digital information is literally, virtually nothing… Binary switches of electrical pulses. It’s because these patterns have copies and backups everywhere, anything you post online will remain.

“Remember the old saying what happens in Vegas stays on Twitter forever.” -R. Rushton Paul Jr.

Even if you delete? That’s where Forensic Computer Science comes into play to produce the information, whether you agree, or not. On Wednesday, February 15, 2012 leaders in the Forensic Computer Science Industry from the Richmond, VA area gathered together to discuss some of the industry’s latest trends at Tuffy Stone’s Q Barbeque Glen Allen, VA restaurant from TLC’s ‘BBQ Pitmasters’ Cool Smoke team.

Forensic Computer Science Meeting at Q Barbeque

Update: On Tuesday, February 28, 2012 leaders in the Forensic Computer Science Industry from the Richmond, VA area gathered together to discuss some of the industry’s latest trends at Tuffy Stone’s Q Barbeque Glen Allen, VA for Phase II.

Phase TWO of the Computer Forensic Science Session at the Q.

CD-ROM discs, DVD discs, and Blu-ray Discs look the same to the naked eye, but are drastically different when you compare the discs at the sub-microscopic level and explore the laser technologies that read their optical information. When it comes to Optical Storage, there are 3 general types:
CD-ROMs (read-only-memory) are commercial grade discs and use a metallic data layer. This layer is created using a molding machine that stamps pits (depressions) and lands (flat surfaces) into a polycarbonate substrate base. The metal layer is then applied to the base, creating the data layer. CDs are generally used for data and file storage.
DVD-ROMs (read-only-memory) are commercial grade discs and also use a metallic data layer. This layer is created using a molding machine that stamps smaller pits (depressions) and lands (flat surfaces) than CD-ROMs. DVDs are of the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs), but store more than six times as much data. DVDs are mainly used for video and data storage.
Blu-ray Disc (BD), sometimes called “Blu-ray,” is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the standard DVD format. Its main uses are for storing high-definition video, PlayStation 3 video games, and other data, with up to 25 GB per single layered, and 50 GB per dual layered disc. The disc has the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs. 

Light Waves Light is made up of a stream of particles called photons. However, light also behaves like a wave.
The wavelength of light is the distance from the crest or trough of one wave to the crest or trough of the next wave.

Lasers A laser is a device that produces a powerful beam of light. Laser light is different than white light. White light is made up of many different wavelengths. Laser light is made up of only one wavelength. As a result, laser light is only one color. Unlike the light waves in white light that spread out, the waves in laser light are all in step .
This chart shows that the range of wavelengths for each color in the visible spectrum is different. Another thing to note is that the wavelengths for laser light are in Nanometers.
Nanometers are a billionth of a meter. Optical Media is read by lasers being reflected off the pits or bumps of the Disc, creating a digital signal. A wonderful resource for kids talking about Nanotechnology is the Nanooze! page.
When the reflected signal laser bends away from the sensor the digital signal is OFF (0). 

Optical Media is read by lasers being reflected off the pits or bumps of the Disc, creating a digital signal.
When the reflected signal hits the optical pickup (sensor), the digital signal is ON (1).
Each wavelength offers one piece of data to a reflected light in an on/off binary 1/0 type of data.

Red has the widest range and the longest wavelengths. The laser diodes used in CD players and CD-R/-RW burners are infrared lasers with a wavelength of 780 nm.

A different red laser diode produces the beam needed for the smaller pit sizes of DVDs. In order to decrease pit sizes further to pack more information on a disc, engineers have to move beyond red lasers into the Blue-violet laser range for Blu-ray. This is why Blu-rays cannot be viewed with the same technology as CDs and regular DVDs.

Each wavelength offers one piece of data to a reflected light in an on/off binary 1/0 type of data. So the smaller the pit sizes means an increased frequency or an increased amount of pieces of information available on a disc. 

Optical Media use the information from lasers reflected in the pits in order to retrieve data. The incredibly small dimensions of the pits make the spiral track on Optical media extremely long. If you could lift the data track off a CD and stretch it out into a straight line, it would be 0.5 microns wide and almost 3.5 miles (5 km) long!
The fundamental job of the Optical Media player is to focus the laser on the track of pits (or bumps since it’s coming from the opposite side). The pits/bumps reflect light differently than the “lands” (the rest of the aluminum layer), and the opto-electronic sensor detects that change in reflectivity. The electronics in the drive interpret the changes in reflectivity in order to read the bits that make up the bytes.

The smaller the distance between tracks or the pits, the smaller the wavelength of light required. Likewise the smaller the pit, the smaller the wavelength of light required. 

The combination of pit sizes, distance between tracks, and wavelength of lasers is why Blu-rays cannot be viewed with the same technology as CDs and regular DVDs.

How is the world feeling or reports worldwide in the past few hours?
Jonathan Harris gives a talk about Visual Observations of the Web at TED Talks and describes them as “Passive Observations.”
The We Feel Fine Project scans the world’s blogs to collect snapshots and blurbs of writers’ feelings. Diameters of dots are correlated to the length of feelings. Some dots revels snapshots submitted with this “passive observation” of feelings. You can manipulate the metrics to reveal the amount of similar thoughts of a particular location, gender, and even weather.
The Universe Project turns current events into constellations of words and pictures. News items instead of feeling are visually observed.
Both sites explain that we possess a deep need to express ourselves and that we have much more in common that we choose to believe we do.

Title: Progression of the Numa Numa YouTube
Description: Students learn how a simple music video released by a Former-Russian-Province Boy Band can generate a global exchange of ideas in the form of YouTube Videos.

• 2003 – Eastern European Band O-Zone releases a song titled “Dragostea din Tei”
  YouTube link (2003 link removed for licensing purposes) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRx5PrAlUdY
• 2004 – 19 year-old Gary Brolsma of New Jersey hears the song and records himself lip-sinching to the lyrics with his new webcam
  A Japanese Cartoon Copycat Video is released at this time
• December 6, 2004 – Gary uploads the video to internet video site Newgrounds.com
  He calls it the ‘Numa Numa Dance’
• January 2005 – The video is seen by millions of people
• 2005 – Video sharing website YouTube launches
  Gary’s Numa Numa Dance Video on TouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60og9gwKh1o
• The ‘Numa Numa Dance’ inspires thousands of copycat videos… and is eventually downloaded over 700 million times itself
• Chinese Cartoon YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8skO9d6lg4
• Japanese Dance YouTube Video (yes, that is a man): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ysz8HqoE-k
• Chinese Dance Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_OKCMbm2Ts
• Korean Dance Music Video
• US Navy Numa Numa Video (content questionable)
• Balan – Sugar Tunes (Numa Numa) Compilation Video:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5y4wehtHgw
  Integration: This evolution of YouTube is  unique way to get students thinking about how IT brings about a global exchange of ideas.
  2009: Gary Brolsman conducts the MSU Marching band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0HuAxwNQXs

2012 Update – Title: Progression of the Gangman Style YouTube
Description: The elements that created the Numa Numa craze as the world’s first official viral video follow a similar progression in the Gangnam Style series originating in Korea:

• Gangnam Oregon Duck Parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDpgzn7KuzE&feature=share&list=PLB4BFC327F84645FC
• Gangnam Style Mother and Son Dance Duo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E87q5ads_Gc
• Gangnam Style combined with a Dance Party Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SFMUVA4KqQ&feature=related
• Mythbuster’s Grant Imahara’s Gangnam Style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rw0NpIBgdI
• US Naval Academy Numa Numa Video (content questionable… again? )
• Ohio University Marching Band Gangnam Style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSvVwylGtes
  New (12/16/12)! NASA Johnson Style (Gangnam Style Parody)

In Wired Magazine July 2008 issue, in an article called “The Darkest Knight” Christopher Nolan wanted to latest Batman sequel a realistic feel with as little digital effects as possible. So far the movie is shattering box office records.
So is less digital technology better is some cases?
As a Computer Programming teacher, life is good having your own computer lab, until it’s standardized testing time when the students test online and you are kicked out of your labs for a few weeks.
Here was the challenge: How do you teach about digital technology and computers without having access to a computer?
Welcome to Computer Science Unplugged, a FREE resource for Computer Teachers K-12 with activities to teach how computers work without access to computers.
Below is a Binary Numbers Activity Unplugged.
Update: The reason why I think most people enjoy the Music Video “Here It Goes Again” by OK Go is because of it’s unplugged nature.