After having read through all of the articles, I must say
that this past week’s topic of computational thinking was my favourite. I am not sure if I love computational thinking because most of my
career I’ve been a math teacher, or whether I’ve been a math teacher for most
of my career because I love computational thinking! ;)
Each of the presentations were particularly engaging this week. I appreciated the analogies for the
definition of computational thinking that Kim used to start her presentation. I must admit I was frustrated a couple of times
going through the Dr. Evil activity, but enjoyed the challenge. The video that showed how to use an algorithm
for passwords could be life changing for me…..we will see how it goes.
I was happy (and embarrassed) to finally learn what CAPTCHA
means. I never really gave the acronym
much thought before.
After reading these two articles, I had to share the content
with my two boys, as they enjoy computational thinking problems as much as I
do. They grew up playing chess, Rush
Hour, doing brain teaser games, Rubik’s Cube, Sudoku, Mastermind, Minesweeper, etc… I’m not sure if you have ever played Rush
Hour, but we have 3 versions in our home – junior, regular and deluxe. (Actually, I have the junior game in my
office for my students to play). After now completing two years of science at
UM, my older son has decided he does not want to continue in sciences but he wasn’t
sure what he wants to take. I was excited to tell him that Computer
Science might be for him (because it is NOT computer programming) and that he
should definitely take a course in the fall to see what he thinks.
I spent some time yesterday looking at the apps we have on
our school ipads, and Scratch Jr and Tynker are both there! My plan to integrate more computational
thinking into our classrooms next year is already started! I will spend some time this summer getting
familiar with them before I try to get my teachers on board. I fully agree with Wing (2006) that “we should
add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability” and that “computational
thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone”.
Check this online game out....
If you haven't played these games - you are missing out!
I'm going to search for the game Rush Hour!
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