We finished up practicing our thinking skills by learning about Dudley the Detective, who uses clues and deductive reasoning to find one and only one correct answer. One way to practice convergent thinking is to practice computer coding/programming. Code converts human input into sequences that computers can understand. If the input is not correct, the output will not be correct. A great introduction to coding for 1st graders is the Osmo Coding Jam. The Osmo coding game allows players to snap together Coding blocks to create unique musical Jams and movements. As players move up in levels, they are able to explore even more advanced computational concepts like subroutines and nested repeats.
The actual snapping together of coding blocks is a great way to introduce coding in a very concrete way. Once students practiced this, they were ready to try coding with digital blocks. We moved into Scratch Jr. to try getting our "characters" to do what we programmed them to do... for example, "Can you make characters race?" or "Can you make a basketball dribble?"
Another way we practiced convergent thinking was to solve logic puzzles and math games.
. 
We also played hands-on games that practice using logic like Sodoku and Master Mind. If you have Checkers or Chess at home, these are also great logic games.
We will continue to use all of these thinking skills throughout our journey in Idea Lab. It's always beneficial to be cognizant of different ways of thinking and know our areas of strength and areas of development. Today in Idea Lab, we began a project-based learning unit centered around the world's oceans. We will use all of the types of thinking that we learned within this unit as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment