#snapcircuits

You take a smart STEM toy like Snap Circuits. Mix it with some game theory. Add a group of pre-service teachers. What do you get? A two-hour tournament of inquiry, hands-on learning, and straight up fun. Here's how it goes.

Step 1

Set the rules. Something like this: Instructions: Each team will battle it out to learn as much as they can about how electrical circuits work AND make connections between the way they are learning and James Gee’s reading from last class on games and play-based learning. Teams will have equal amounts of time to complete each circuits challenge. Points are awarded as follows: Completing the working circuit in the time allotted (10 XP) Identifying what each part of the circuit does and how electricity flows through it (3 XP per factoid or principles of engineering with source cited) Making strong connections to specific lines and concepts from our James Gee reading (4 XP per connection, including quote, explanation, and page number) After three rounds, the team with the most XP earned will be declared the victors. (The music of AC/DC will be played throughout.)

Step 2

Battle it out for three rounds, remembering that the real goal is to deepen players' understanding about how gaming and play-based frameworks create exceptional situations for learning. Use my Battle Log to keep track.  

Step 3

Tally points and declare a victor.

Step 4

Kids loves drama. Don't fight it; embrace it. I recently developed this prototype project for elementary school students where they learn about electrical engineering through narrative. Using a fantastic kid-friendly circuit board called Snap Circuits, kids are encouraged to personify electricity and to embrace the journey it takes around the board. If you try it in your classroom, or riff ons other K-12 computers science ideas here, message me. I'd love to see.

Project

Stories of Electricity

Description

How electricity operates is an important part of computer science because computers, at their foundation, run on rapid pulses of electricity. The logic of electrical engineering is inseparable from the logic of computers. In this activity, students work with Snap Circuits in order to safely explore how electrical circuits operate. They will work independently and in groups to build circuits and to write “stories of electricity” that use descriptive narrative writing to explain just how electricity, like a character on an adventure, navigates the circuit, what it does at important junctions, and why.

Guiding Questions