Kids Designing for Kids
We've just begun a project to get groups of kids together from two different schools and we're using Scratch to make the connection. One group of students is from a magnet school in Hamden, CT. They recently met with a group of kids in North Haven, CT who attend a school for children with special needs. The magnet school kids will be learning how to program with Scratch in order to design games for the North Haven kids.
The first meeting of the two groups was an overwhelming success! The magnet school kids took a field trip to visit the classroom in North Haven. They had a chance to tour the building and we talked about the similarities and differences between the two schools. When they visited the classroom, both groups of students loved sharing ideas for games. The teachers circulated through the room to help the groups identify learning objectives as well.
I hope to post again soon and update the community on our progress, including some of the student projects. Tips or advice appreciated!
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One of the design teams demonstrating their game. The girl in the middle is the one who gave the moving speech at the end of the celebration.
Looking under the hood.
One of the teams explains their game to the kids and adults in the room.
I enthusiastically write today to share about the culmination of our project. Last Friday, April 19th, the magnet school kids visited Village School for the world premiere of their video games.
We set up the celebration in the computer lab where we had each station set up with one team's game, although all the games were available to play from the desktop. The students arrived and we began by having the magnet kids show the Village kids how to play the game. Then everybody just played for a bit while teachers and administrators walked around and chatted with all the students. Once everyone had a chance to try a few games, we had the teams of students go to the whiteboard one at a time and demonstrate how to play their games and explain the code behind it. A common theme from all the teams was "it takes a lot of work to make a computer program!"
The highlight of the day came at the end when our principal gave some closing remarks. One of the Village students, a fourth grade girl, raised her hand and asked to say something. She came to the front of the room and said that she wanted to to thank the magent school for making the games. She also thanked the principals for letting the kids come to her school. It was a very emotional thank you and there were many tears in the audience.
To sum it up, this was a great experience. Looking forward, we're planning to do it again next year and possibly expand it to more kids and spend more time. This year, the kids largely learned to program as they designed their games, learning concepts as they encountered certain problems. While I kind of like that way of doing it with a small group, I don't think it would be realistic for a larger one. Anybody have any thoughts on that?
There's also talk of having our sister schools, another magnet and another self-contained school, implement this model. I really hope it works out - it really brought a lot of joy to all of us and we'd love to share that.
I recently created a Scratch account to upload the projects. They're still a work in progress, but coming along nicely.
scratch.mit.edu/users/acesSchools
Eric I am new to scratch myself and love it. I think the idea of joining two schools through an online project is a great idea. I noticed that you talked about the teams of students creating the games. This is so amazing because the age difference of the students working together. It is not something I see done often in schools in my area. I have seen older students beign tutors or mentors. I think it would be neat for the North Haven kids to send pictures of themselves or a pet perhaps to be used in the game. This would give them more of a connection to the game. What kid does not dream of being a character in a game! I cannot wait to hear more about how the project is going. Best of Luck.
Meagan Leas
Hi Meagan,
I really like the idea of having the kids send pictures to be included into the games - I'll have to propose it to the student designers, but I'm sure they'll love the idea.
Regarding having the middle schoolers working as a team with a third graders, I'm having mixed results but most of the teams are working well together. That's how partnerships go, though, so I'm happy with the arrangement. When we introduce a concept, I ask the younger kids to answer first and then the older ones respond after. As I type this, I'm realizing I could try this a little differently - more like a think, pair, share.
So, general update on the games for everyone:
The kids are working very hard but it's slooooow going. Some of the projects are too ambitious for someone new to Scratch, so we have been scaling some of them back. Furthermore, we've had multiple snow days and a month of state testing. One girl moved away. :( Fortunately, we have a great replacement. We have a couple Facetime sessions set-up so the kids can chat about how the games are coming along.
We've established a deadline and scheduled another field trip for the magnet school group. They are going to do their final presentation in the North Haven school on Friday, April 19th. There's still so much to do and it's only a moth away! Cross your fingers for us. :)
Hi Karen! We actually have quite a range working together on this project. At the magnet school, two kids are working together as a team - one third grader and one middle schooler. The students who they are developing the games for are between the grades of first and fifth.
Yesterday, we had a great time exploring the program and figuring out what Scratch can do. I'm optimistic that they are going to come up with some great projects that the Village School students will love. I'm going to have the Village School kids locate some images/photos that they'd like to see in their projects and send them over to the magnet school kids. I'll keep you posted on how it's going!
Awesome -- I look forward to hearing (and seeing) updates! :)
Hi Eric,
Thanks for sharing your experiences! What age range are the kids?
K