25 March 2018

Let’s get serious about Climate change


Let’s get serious about Climate change

This is most probably one of the hottest topics at the moment...

About three months ago, I finished editing 17 videos about the SDG’s.  
The unusual thing about this group of videos is not that they are all 
teachers who recorded the videos, but the truly amazing thing is that 
the teachers are from various countries from around the world who all 
met at the same place to record the videos.  Although there were language 
barriers as not everyone spoke a common language, we produced a video 
on each of the SDG’s.
(The videos can be seen at http://wsparrow.blogspot.co.uk/p/sdg.html) 


My philosophy is that one person can make a difference.  Regardless of 
how big or small that difference is, it can start with you and me.  The beauty 
behind this is if you make a small difference to one person, and that one 
person makes a difference to another person, exponentially, very soon 
it will be a huge difference. 

One of the group members who I worked with in creating the SDG’s, 
was Koen Timmers.  He is one of my greatest inspirational and 
innovative teachers that I know.  Last year he created a global project 
called Climate Action project.  (https://www.climate-action.info)


This was a digital group project where 250 schools in 69 countries 
worked together to learn about climate change.  The project ran over 
5 weeks and each week the students conducted research, brainstorms 
and discussed various ideas before presenting their finding via videos 
or online presentations.  This was a brilliant student centred approach 
where students where learning from each other from various parts of the 
world.

(Koen Timmers has once again created another global project that starts 
in April concentrating on SDG 4, 6, 7 and 11 and if you are interested, 

For me, I decided to allow my students a bit more free reign and allowed 

them to create videos about their own topics.  The students created videos 
about anything that they felt strongly about.  The videos in essence gave the 
students a voice to be heard, a video that allowed them to give their own 
views and opinions.  Although I gave them time to research their topics, 
this was not based on facts, but more about feelings or impressions that 
they wanted to convey to the world. 


The videos that the students created covered poverty, gender equality, 

health, peace, but the surprise to me was that the largest number of 
videos that the students created was about climate change.  Is this a 
sign of the times that even though I had not given the students a specific 
task, climate change came through as the most featured topic?

There are incredible resources that you can find online that you can do 

easily with your class and there are global projects that involve 
thousands of students and cover many continents. 

The choice you need to make is an easy one.
How are you going to make a difference?

How are you going to take action against climate change?
#TeachersMatter  #MIEExpert  #Education #RubinWorldEDU 

10 March 2018

Micro:bit Create a beating heart

Micro:bit Create a beating heart

Have a look at the different parts of the Micro:bit

Go to http://microbit.org and click on Let's Code.


Step 1
Create a beating heart

Watch the video below to see how to do this.

#MIEExpert  #MSFTEdu #technology #edtech #MIEExpert #TeachersMatter #coding

08 March 2018

BBC MicroBit

BBC MicroBit

Dice Roll Activity
Click below to see the video and code

Create a report on what you have created.

Create a New Google Doc
Rename the file name to yourname BBC Micro
Create a table with 3 columns 
Insert a screenshot of the program.
Explain what happens
What did you learn?

What could you have improved?
Choose a different program and do the same as above.


How does the block code differ from the python code?
Which is easier?
Which one can you do more with?

07 March 2018

Encryption

Encryption

Simple Encryption:

Public and Private Keys:



Open this worksheet: