Welcome to the wonderful world of computer modelling. But, what is it? To Google!
Define: A computer simulation, a computer model, or a computational model is a computer program, run on a single computer, or a network of computers, that attempts to simulate an abstract model of a particular system.
So where do these two come into play and what do they mean?
Modelling is great in the real world for these things but
what about in school, how does this help then? It really helps put a child's
idea into action, the 'what happens if?' question is so relevant for in
computer modelling because children are given the opportunity to test and see
if their idea can work. For example,
design a fantasy car on paper and knowing you won't have the chance to actually
make it but computer modelling programs allow you to build a 3D car and
actually test it to see if it could actually work! How exciting. This will
aptly prepare children for the real world of designing cars or houses or toys
or games, its useful for architects, doctors and for building rockets (!), so many ways that these skills
learned in primary school can be applied later on in life. You get to test it
to see if it works!
What can you use to make these things then?
This is a program in which children have the opportunity to explore everyday basic scenarios. There are opportunities to dress babies or find the missing teddy. Here you can also design your own bedroom and even make a scary monster too. Plenty of opportunities for cross-curricular learning in these activities too; English, write a story about how the monster got here, Maths, how many chair legs are in the bedroom? Lots of potential with this program.
This program is where children are really allowed to use their imaginations to create stories or take part in little science experiments or paint pictures. 2simple also includes 2design in which you can make the cars (amongst others, see below!) and you can also create and explore other 3D objects too.
2design also links you to a website called Purple Mash.
Now for this you do need to have to buy a login but if it is bought through your school you will be able to get more than your monies worth from it! There are so many opportunities with this including making your own maze and then playing it. You can set your children challenges such as 'you have to have a 3 quadrilaterals in your maze' or 'you have to have 2 sums of 4 made with apples'.
That's not all you can do though, check out the website to see more opportunities to play, learn and create! There are games that fit into English, Maths and Science as well as many foundation subjects, there are themed design products around Hallowe'en and Christmas. Lots to play around with.
How about the less able children or those who are EAL or SEN?
Well, the TES provides a great range of games for SEN children and poissonrouge is great for both EAL and SEN as it is all visual.
Now what is this computer programming?
We've looked a little at this when the beebots took over but now we're looking at computer programming on an actual computer that stays on the computer, not machines as before. It is however another piece of software that helps you build on procedure techniques. I was really excited when I rekindled the ol' flame of WinLogo! Back in my day it was a little turtle that moved but things have progressed since then and the turtle is no more (maybe the kids are too cool for him these days!) but an arrow has replaced him. Logo essentially teaches children to list commands and control a make a design. There are commands such as forward (FD) left (LT) right (RT) pen up (PU) pen down (PD) etc and you can get your little turtle (arrow) to draw shapes and designs. Once you introduce 'repeat' you can get it to do some pretty amazing shapes and patterns.
'Scratch' is your next fill of computer programming! More for key stage 2 but here you will create your own interactive stories. You can download the software for free by clicking the name there ^ and its where you will choose a character, background, sound and animation and you can make your character do virtually anything, a treasure hunt, a maths hunt, re-enactment of a topic. Another great tool that is cross-curricular and can be topic based. You can share these online too so children can see each other's work.
These programs are great for a child motor skills and as mentioned previously, great for cross-curricular learning and will enhance and solidify their understanding of their topic.
Au revoir!
No comments:
Post a Comment