Homework & News

I wanted to say thank you to all of my students for working with my substitutes over the week prior to and after Spring Break as there were was a death in my family as well as a wedding.

From what I can tell we are continuing to tick along mostly on schedule. Remember that you decide your pace but if most students have completed something and you are still working on it then you might want to consider putting some time into it outside of class.

It is important to keep up with your work because students will not be allowed to start their independent projects until they have completed all other assignments to at least the Satisfactory level.

Grade 7

• Students should have finished and handed in their Scratch assignments.
• Students are continuing to work on the Project Ignite tutorial and then moving on to their Tinkercad assignment. For this students are asked to create a 3D object that they will be sharing with me.
  • If students are wanting to print the object then its dimensions cannot be larger than 3cm (x or y axis) x 6cm (x or y axis) x 0.5cm (z axis)
    • Please also add the word “print” to the name of your file so that I know that you want it printed.
  • To hand it in click on  “Design,” “Properties,” and then name the file with the following format Name – Block – Assignment (eg. Jeremy – 7A – Scratch). Then click on “Design,” “Download for 3D Printing,” and click on “STL”. You then upload the file to Google Drive and share it with [email protected].

Grade 8

• Students should have finished and handed in their Tinkercad project.
• Many students have started to create a working model / prototype to solve a problem at Tom Baines school. You can do this by yourself or in small groups no larger than 3.

Grade 9

• Students are continuing to work on planning for their independent projects. See the last post for more information.

All Students

• Please check HomeLogic regarding your Name Tag Assignment. If it says “NHI” that means I did not receive it (either you did not hand it in, or that you forgot to put your name or block on it), “I” means that you likely did not hand in everything that was needed (the explore, plan, and design work including your prototype), and “COM” means that everything should be fine. Please read the comments and work on the areas that you are “Not Yet Meeting” so that we can see growth.

Grade 7

• Students are finishing their Scratch projects. Remember to hand them in clock on “File,” “Download to Computer,” and then name the file with the following format Name – Block – Assignment (eg. Jeremy – 7A – Scratch). You then upload the file to Google Drive and share it with [email protected].
• Once this is completed students will begin working on a site called Project Ignite that was developed by Autodesk and explores 3D designing through their software called Tinkercad. Click here to go to Project Ignite. To access the site:
  • Click Log In
  • Click on “More Providers”
  • Click “Google” and login using your CBE Google Account
  • Click on Projects
    • Search for “Learn” and click on “Let’s Learn Tinkercad”
  • You will work through the tutorial by following the information on the left side.

Grade 8

• Students are finishing their 3D Design Challenges. To hand it in:
  • Click on “Design,” “Properties,” and then rename the file using the following format (Name – Block – Assignment) eg. Jeremy – 8A – 3D Design)
  • Then click on “Design,” “Download for 3D Printing,” and click STL. This will download the file
  • From here go to Google Drive and upload the file and share it with me. [email protected]
• After you will be creating a working model / prototype to solve a problem at Tom Baines school. You can do this by yourself or in small groups no larger than 3. You will get more information in class.

Grade 9

• Students are starting to plan for their independent project. There is a lot involved when working through the entire design process to be able to create a project. Remember to use the checklist to help you with this and remember to collect evidence of your learning each and every class.
• It is often work to work by yourself but you may also work in small groups if you are taking on a larger project. You might want to decide who gets to take it home in the end though. Each person much do their own “Collecting Evidence of Learning,” but the explore, plan, design, and create can be done as a group.
• Here is a link to the Independent Project.

All Students

• Please hand in all of the explore, plan, and design work including your prototype for your name tag if you have not already done so.

Grade 7

• Once students feel comfortable using Scratch they will be doing one of the following:
  • Create a presentation that is all about you. The purpose of this is to have you start figuring out some of the tools. Below is the criteria for this:
    • At least 3 things about yourself
    • At least one clickable thing
    • An image of yourself
    • At least one movement
    • At least one custom sprite or background\
    • At least one sound
    • Another way of interacting with your presentation besides clicking on something
  • More Advanced – Create something that is useful (think of a tool / program that can help people with some aspect of their life)

Grade 8

• Once students feel comfortable using TinkerCad, through Project Ignite, and have finished the main tutorial they will be creating a 3D model of a tool or piece of equipment in the Construction and Design room.
  • To do this they go to TinkerCad and log in the same way.
  • The 3D model must be to scale and with an accuracy within 1 mm.
  • The more curves and angles an object has the more difficult it is to produce.

Grade 9

• Many students continue to work on their name tags. Those that have finished are now starting to think about their independent projects. More information will be given about this in the next few classes.

I apologize as I have and will be a way a bit in the next few weeks as we deal with a death in the family. Thank you for your understanding.

Grade 7

• Most students have finished, are are close to finishing, their name tags. Once this is completed students will begin exploring the visual programming language Scratch that was developed out of MIT. Click here to go to Scratch. You do not need to create an account to access it though it is required to save your work if you so wish.
• Please hand in all of the explore, plan, and design work including your prototype for your name tag.

Grade 8

• Most students have finished, are are close to finishing, their name tags. Please hand in all of the explore, plan, and design work including your prototype for your name tag.
• Students were asked to submit the following information about their name tag:
  • Who you made it for
  • What you did – Think about the design such as size, depth, shapes, colours, etc. not what the objects are.
  • Explain why you made the choices that you did
• Once this is completed students will begin working on a site called Project Ignite that was developed by Autodesk and explores 3D designing through their software called Tinkercad. Click here to go to Project Ignite. To access the site:
  • Click Log In
  • Click on “More Providers”
  • Click “Google” and login using your CBE Google Account
  • Click on Projects
    • Search for “Learn” and click on “Let’s Learn Tinkercad”
    • If you did this last year then please search for “Every Day Objects” or if you wish to try something else search “Learn Circuits” and this will act as a brief introduction to working with simple circuits.

Grade 9

• Most students have finished their prototypes are beginning to work on creating their partner’s name tags.
• When done students are asked to submit the following information about their name tag:
  • Who you made it for
  • What you did – Think about the design such as size, depth, shapes, colours, etc. not what the objects are.
  • Explain why you made the choices that you did
• Please hand in all of the explore, plan, and design work including your prototype for your name tag.

Grade 7

• The students continued working through the design thinking process to create a name tag representing who they are.
• For next class please have your prototype finished so that we can begin / continue working on the final version of the name tag. Below are the requirements as discussed in class.
  • Draw you your plan/design to scale.
  • Show your design from at least two different perspectives (remember everything has thickness)
  • Include measurements of the different elements, not just the overall size
  • Must include name and block
  • Cannot be larger than 8cm x 8cm x 3cm.

Grade 8

• The students continued working through the design thinking process to create a name tag representing someone else.
• For next class please have your prototype finished so that we can begin / continue working on the final version of the name tag. Below are the requirements as discussed in class.
  • Draw you your plan/design to scale.
  • Show your design from at least two different perspectives (remember everything has thickness)
  • Include measurements of the different elements, not just the overall size
  • Must include name and block
  • Cannot be larger than 8cm x 8cm x 3cm.

Grade 9

• We completed mousetrap “cars” today. Some were much more successful than others though as the students found out the real purpose of this challenge had nothing to do with building.
• Please reflect on what you did and saw by responding to the following questions:
  • What did you contribute to supporting your group with the challenge? (Basically, what did you do to help your group?)
  • What worked and did not work with what your group did?
  • What did other groups do that worked well?
  • How could you use something that you learned during the challenge in another class?

Points of Reflection

• Appraise our Learning = Thinking about: what worked; what did not work; changes you made; what can I / should I do next; general thoughts; and what I still need to learn
• Communicate / Demonstrate our Learning = explaining / showing what happened or what I did; provide reasons / rationale for your choices; providing evidence to support your ideas / thoughts (the why for the what)

Grade 7

• We discussed the four outcomes that students are assessed on in Construction and Design. This was followed with some time to appraise their own work as well as the work of their peers. The students were provided the opportunity to improve upon, redo, or submit their work as is.
• We began exploring the Design Thinking Process by working through the empathy, define, and ideate stages as we explore ourselves and how we can represent ourselves in a visual form.

Grade 8

• We discussed the four outcomes that students are assessed on in Construction and Design. This was followed with some time to appraise their own work as well as the work of their peers. The students were provided the opportunity to improve upon, redo, or submit their work as is.
• We began exploring the Design Thinking Process by working through the empathy, define, and ideate stages as we explore a partner and how we can represent them in a visual form.

Grade 9

• We continued working on the mousetrap powered vehicle. Remember that you can either try to make it go the furthest, make it go the fastest, or both.
• It took the students longer than expected so we will be testing them out next class.

Life Skills 9-29

• Explore, find, and bring in a piece of evidence showing violence in the media. Make sure to be prepare to discuss the type of violence you think it is and why you think it fits with this type of violence. Here is the website explaining and providing examples of nine different types of violence. This is to be ready for our next class, Wednesday, February 24.

Grade 7

• We completed our tallest structure challenge today. Some were much more successful than others though as the students found out the real purpose of this challenge had nothing to do with building.
• Please reflect on what you did and saw by responding to the following questions:
  • What did you contribute to supporting your group with the challenge? (Basically, what did you do to help your group?)
  • What worked and did not work with your group’s structure?
  • What did other groups do that worked well?
  • How could you use something that you learned during the challenge in another class?

Grade 8

• We completed our bridge challenge today. Some bridges were able to hold much more weight than others though as the students found out the real purpose of this challenge had nothing to do with building.
• Please reflect on what you did and saw by responding to the following questions:
  • What did you contribute to supporting your group with the challenge? (Basically, what did you do to help your group?)
  • What worked and did not work with your group’s structure?
  • What did other groups do that worked well?
  • How could you use something that you learned during the challenge in another class?

Grade 9

• We continued working on the mousetrap powered vehicle. Remember that you can either try to make it go the furthest, make it go the fastest, or both.
• You are encouraged to bring in your own supplies such as recycled material as I am only providing limited supplies.