Super Sphero Sumo Match

This year we shook up our 6th grade programming unit by working with Sphero Mini Robots.

The Students did a series of basic online lessons through SpheroEdu and then went on to the final challenge. The challenge was for them to program their Sphero Mini Robots to remain in a circle (roughly 1 Metre in diameter) and try to push the opponent out of the ring.
The first step however was to research Sumo Wrestling and make sure they understood the rules of the match.

Next, they applied what they had learned in ICT lessons to build a sequence of movements with loops to ensure the robot remained within the specified area for a certain amount of time.  They used variables to count log collisions and used what they know about angles, time and speed to write their code. They had to tweak the initial codes quite a bit as often they had set the speed too high. Most students either chose to use star like formations based on angles while others used geometric shape tracing.  The resulting competition when paired with some motivational music was very engaging battle of the bots. What a great way to end the school year!

I have included the video below. Just click to view it.

 

Alternative Link

Life skill – making spider cookies

Written and posted by the LRC Team

We work with other departments in the school, frequently in the LRC and this includes our Heads of Year in support of the Life Skills Program. The sixth grade coordinator recently expressed an interest in the work we were doning with the cooking club this year. The conversation ensued and we decided to put together a whole grade, cooking class. As you can imagine, this is not an easy task to pull off. We don't have a enough equipment for the entire 6th grade to use at the same time, so In the end we decided on a cooking class in which the students needed to follow a recipe to assemble a snack for themselves.

The students had a great time making spider cookies for the class and the teachers had a great time observing them and helping out when needed. The students worked in groups of six at stations, which were placed under cover (since the rainy season is now upon us). They worked as teams as well as independently, learned important lessons in perseverance and resilience when things didn't always go quite the way as they expected (usually this had to do with pretzel spider leg problems),  and learned a very important lesson about sharing spaces with others. In addition to this they worked through a recipe, used a diagram to guide their work and learned some of the basic expectations for working with food. 

The cookies were assembled from crackers, cream cheese, pretzels and raisins were used for eyes. 

It was the first time we introduced food preparation in a Life Skills class. We are planning to do a lot more cooking classes with year groups, probably on a rotational basis and also include some basic sewing activities for Life Skill periods next school year.

Please have a look at the media below to immerse yourself in this exciting activity and do also check out our photo gallery at Flickr.

Chicken Fajita Quesadillas

Once again, the LRC Cooking Club students had the opportunity to experience the world of cooking first hand. This week they prepared delicious quesadillas with chicken and vegetables. Prior to embarking on the practical work, a discussion was held on the correct and safe use of utensils, ingredients, methods of preparation, the importance of  follow all the steps to the letter, as well as the cleanliness and the importance of kitchen safety.

Nuevamente los estudiantes vivieron una experiencia más en el mundo de la cocina, en nuestro club de cocina semanal del LRC. Esta vez  prepararon unas ricas quesadillas con pollo y vegetales al gusto de cada uno. En primer lugar, antes de cualquier trabajo práctico, se les explico como usar los utensilios, los ingredientes, su preparación y el porqué es importante seguir todos los pasos al pie de la letra, así como también se les habló acerca de la limpieza y lo importante de la seguridad en la cocina.

In this class the students cut the raw chicken into fajita strips, the vegetables in julienne style. They learned to season to taste and measure the cooking time of both the chicken and the vegetables needed to render them crispy.

En esta clase los estudiantes cortaron el pollo en fajitas en crudo, cortaron los vegetales en juliana, aprendieron a condimentar al gusto de ellos y medir el tiempo de cocimiento, tanto del pollo como de los vegetales, para que estos quedarán crujientes.

The next step was to mix the chicken with the vegetables and to finish cooking them together.

El siguiente paso fue mezclar el pollo con la verdura y que se terminara de cocinar todo junto.

Once the chicken and vegetables are prepared, we continued with the tortillas by placing them on a skillet with a drop of oil so that they could brown a little. Next we added the chicken with the vegetables and some cheddar cheese.

Una vez preparado el pollo y los vegetales continuamos con el procedimiento de las tortillas, colocamos una tortilla con una pizca de aceite para que se doren un poco y encima de esta agregamos el pollo con los vegetales y le agregamos queso cheddar.

Then it was time to taste their creations and to share how delicious their chicken fajitas quesadillas had been.

Luego llegó el momento de probar la creación y poder presumir de lo deliciosas que les habían quedado sus chicken fajitas quesadillas.

It is wonderful to experience the joy of students working in a team and to share unforgettable moments when learning to cook in this class. It is a unique and enjoyable experience for all.

Es maravilloso experimentar en la clase de cocina la alegría de los estudiantes al trabajar en equipo y poder compartir momentos inolvidables al aprender a cocinar. Es una experiencia única y divertida.

First Ever-LRC Cooking Club

Tuesday of this week was the first class for students enrolled in the LRC Cooking Club. 

When when advertising the Cooking Club, that there was a lot of interest from grade 12 students. These student will soon be leaving home for university.  Cooking is a very important life skill, one that they will need in their lives as university students and adults. 

The students were very enthusiastic during the first class where they learned how to make an omelet. Initially, they had to deal with a few challenges such as learning to dice vegetables,  but they soon  got the hang of it. By the end students were very pleased to have learned how to cook a very healthy omelet for their breakfast.

Cooking Club helps students to develop in many different ways including:

• providing enjoyable learning experiences that focus on important life skills

• providing opportunities for children to improve their food preparation skills

• teaching children healthy nutrition practices in an enjoyable manner

• giving children the opportunity to learn about foods from different cultures

• providing opportunities for collaboration

• enhancing community partnerships around the issue of child health

• encouraging food security through promotion of affordable meal and snack ideas.

*Each week, students are given a list of ingredients and quantities to purchase for the following class.
**During lessons students will have to follow the LRC cooking class safety rules at all times.

DVA 2019

This year's we are celebrating the ABC DVA's 10th anniversary!

How time has flown since our first practice run in September of 2009!

The DVA is and has always been about celebrating and sharing outstanding audio video work by the students for the students, as well as the entire ABC community (campus and extended). That said, over the past three years DVA has opened the doors to other schools in the local community. This year's DVA includes submissions from Acton Academy in both Primary and Secondary categories.

DVA has grown incrementally in both scope and length over the years to the point where the decision was made to run it as two events.
As a result, this year's DVA will run over 2 nights instead of the traditional one night event, with Secondary launching the events on February 12th and Primary closing DVA on February 13th.

Over the years, the ABC DVA has gained recognition internationally, as well as nationally through the regular sharing of this important work through community outreach and conferences such as Library and Classroom 2.0, Winter STEAM Conference, the ISTE Conference and local events.

One of the greatest impacts DVA has had over these past 10 years however is the growth of a culture of  creation through which all  students have opportunities to learn new skills, apply them across situations and subjects and share their work with audiences in the community.

Voting opens this coming Friday the 1st of February and closes at 6pm on Sunday the 3rd.

Please go to our official DVA Website and our various DVA Flickr Galleries to learn more. 

Mercado de creadores: en el camino a STEAM Fest

Maker Market es el primer paso en el camino hacia STEAM Fest!

Cada estudiante participante de nuestra escuela y los invitados de otras instituciones, se inscribieron en un stand de mercado de fabricantes donde expusieron y vendieron sus productos creativos e innovadores. 

Dentro de sus productos se encontraban lapiceros decorados, llaveros, galletas, chocobananos, macetas con materiales reciclados reutilizables para las plantas suculentas, objetos diseñados con lápiz 3D, Slime, entre otros.

También participaron los alumnos de octavo grado quienes pusieron en exhibición sus prototipos que diseñaron y elaboraron en clase de ICT como parte del Proyecto de Innovación, basado en las SDG's (Objetivos y metas de desarrollo sostenible)de las Naciones Unidas.

Todas las ganancias recolectados son para donación a su organización benéfica de cada grado y de esta manera poder compartir su brillantez con los demás y hacer la diferencias en las vidas de otras personas.

Fotos en Flickr 

Conferencia Bibliotecas Públicas 2018

Today a group of our student makers and librarians had the great honour of presenting at the Public Library Conference, which is taking place at the National Theatre in downtown San Salvador this week.

This conference runs over several days and brings together librarians from all over the country to engage in important discussions and share ideas.

Our presentation was a bit longer than we anticipated, but we were able to pack in everything we had planned on sharing.  We spoke first to the group about free,  innovation tools that everyone can access and use to document, promote and engage in creative, innovative design work in their libraries. We spoke about the various projects that run through LRC, including support of school activities and events, theme weeks and department liaisons.  We also took the opportunity to offer useful tips, and a resource bank for those interested in building creative initiatives in their institutions.

The highlight of the presentation however, for much of the audience and for us as members of staff, came about halfway through when  our students stood up to speak about their social impact projects. The audience was blown away by the thought and initiative that students employed in designing and implementing their projects. They were decidedly impressed, just as we are, by the dedication and passion they demonstrated about their work supporting the  UN SDGs.   This is the second time the students have presented this work, the first being the recent Library 2.0 Social Crisis online conference.


It is truly inspiring to work with these students as they actively search out opportunities, invest heavily of their time and effort, and engage themselves both emotionally and academically in the practical implementation of their school values, in their quests to think globally and act locally.

Here is the link to the photos on Flickr including a short tutorial for attendees on how to build plastic bag sleeping mats for the homeless.