Geeksunite2

Can you design a home and convince local home builders to build it for members of the community who cannot afford a home of their own?

Students learn about local homeless situations and then design and build a home to combat the situation that many of their community members face everyday. Local community stakeholder groups (city council, home builders, and members of the local community) will have input and guidance for the students as they plan, design, draw and build their prototype home.

This project includes elements of measurement, angles, ratios & scale drawings, 2-D and 3-D shapes, area & perimeter. The students will partake in a design challenge that incorporates a real-world problem for them to solve around a local controversial issue. Students will have to collaborate together to design a home that city council, community stakeholders and local builders select to assist with local homeless concerns.

The ability to process information in an analytical and computational way will be in high demand as students enter the digitally skilled future. Because of this, teachers are now feeling the pressure to incorporate more coding and data analytics into their curricula. Imagine being able to use a university-level analytics platform — capable of big data processing, data visualizations, math equations, and text formatting — in your grades 5-12 class. And imagine this tool being cost-free, easy to use, and only needing a web browser to operate!

This is a real opportunity for simple, accessible, and interactive learning — we call it Callysto  (www.callysto.ca).

In this workshop session, teachers will be introduced to the federally-funded Callysto platform, and will get the chance to explore modules that have been developed for existing course curricula (covering, among other subjects, history, science, and literature). We will show you how to incorporate these modules into your classroom, and will work with you to customize modules to fit your specific needs.

Participants will need a laptop with an available USB port to connect and flash the micro:bit. A fully charged laptop and a power supply is also recommended. 

As part of this program Let’s Talk Science has developed a workshop specifically tailored to support our exciting new classroom Action Project - Living Space. This project will coincide with Canadian Astronaut David Saint-Jacques’ upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS) and is offered in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency, with funding support from the CanCode program.
During our workshop, participants will:
• Explore the online resources for the Living Space action project;
• Code micro:bits with MakeCode, a JavaScript Blocks editor, and incorporate custom sensors to record environmental data;
• Develop confidence incorporating computational thinking, as well as digital and coding skills into the classroom.