Programming Practice Using Scratch for Each Grade of Elementary School
A method of teaching programming at elementary school is required. Scratch can easily practice the programming. This paper presents teaching materials by grade level using Scratch. For first graders, it is a teaching material for exercises of mouse operation. For second graders, it is a teaching material for exercises of keyboard operation. Third graders perform typing operations in Roman or English. Fourth graders create a program that tackles sequential processing. Fifth graders create a program that involves iterative processing. Sixth graders create a program that involves conditional branches and iterations. Each is combined with many subjects of art, music, national language and arithmetic. These materials were used in classroom practice with many teaching assistants. It is designed to be performed in 45 minutes. This paper also presents the results of classroom practice using these materials.
Classroom practices of low-cost STEM education using scratch
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is spreading in some countries. In Japan, it is hoped that STEM education is incorporated into school classes. STEM education is sometimes incorporated experimentally in school classes. It’s not performed in every elementary school yet. STEAM education usually uses robots and the equipment costs money. Only some teachers who get the equipment can perform STEM education classes. Therefore, I would like to propose a low-cost STEM education. In late years, I practiced some elementary school classes using Scratch. Scratch is a useful tool for programming education. I think that Scratch can also be used for STEM education. My proposed low-cost STEM education uses Scratch. In this paper, I show how to use Scratch in STEM education. Scratch can control drones and mobile robots. Low-cost drones and mobile robots are also present. I propose a class that combines this equipment and Scratch. It is also possible to conduct STEM education classes with Scratch alone.
Historias de mi barrio: contemporary art in a community at high risk of social exclusion
Abstract Historias de mi barrio is a piece of pedagogic research aimed at highlighting the way art can articulate the relationship between the educational context and a neighbourhood at high risk of social exclusion. The starting point for this study was to ask whether this type of research, centred around the arts, was suitable in complex contexts and whether it might eventually lead to pedagogic improvement. The results gathered, and indeed the work carried out by the artists and university lecturers involved, together with pupils 6–12 years old and their instructors in a state school, provide evidence of a positive answer – and notably of the necessity of knowing about the socio-economic reality of the student cohort when planning learning projects and of the importance of the arts as a crucial element in education.