Experiment and Create: Design Space
We're planning to do the McMaster Engineering meeting next week and the majority of it uses Scatch, a simplified coding program for kids. So I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the concept of coding before jumping into it.
Note: We had a porch pick-up this week for craft supplies and some printouts of the different cipher decoders.
- Science Scavenger Hunt: I found a list of ideas from this website and picked out 10 or so that would be fun and mostly related to physics/design.
- Exact Instructions Challenge: We've done this before but I had no idea it was an internet challenge now! We discussed where we find instructions, watched the PB&J video and then created instructions of our own on how to brush your teeth.
- Morse Code necklaces: I couldn't decide what kind of beads/cords to use, but then I found instructions for perler beads and I thought it would fit great. I sent home 80 beads each -- 4 colours, half flattened for dots and half left whole for dashes. They flatten in a 400°F oven for 3 minutes but it takes a bit of work to stand 1100 perler beads on end! I'm quite happy with how they turned out. Then we used one set to make our names and another set to a special word.
- Decoding Riddles: These are from an activity I made for Pathfinders/Rangers about 5 years. One part was decoding riddles so I repurposed them, not knowing if we'd get through them all or not. I sent home the code instructions for the different codes. They were able to figure out the first riddle and then I just gave them the other riddles to guess at, without decoding them.
Slideshow: Design Space - Analog Coding
