Curriculum Matters

ICT – Bee Bot Robots – Week 6

Bee Bots are very cute programmable robots that have simple directional arrow buttons making them a perfect STEM tool for introducing coding and the basics of programming in a fun, non-threatening environment.

Bee Bot robots joined all ICT classes this week and the students created mazes, race tracks, dance routines and obstacle courses to test them out. As the Foundation to Level 5 students experimented with the individually named Bee Bots many interesting ideas and thoughtful programs were developed. It was amazing to see how quickly even the youngest students adapted to spotting program errors (bugs) and were able to correct their programs to achieve a goal such as navigating a simple block maze or knocking a pile of blocks over.

Heather Cook

(ICT Specialist)

Level 6 Egg Drop

The Level 6 students have begun preparation for their annual Egg Drop in the last week of term. They will be caring for their own special egg and building a contraption that will hopefully see their egg safely survive an airborne trip over the volleyball net. Level 6 students will be donating Easter Eggs which will be put together into wonderful raffle prizes. All money raised from the raffle will be donated to the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal

The raffle tickets will go on sale from Tuesday 13 March until Wednesday 28 March. They will cost 50c each or three for $1 and there will be many prizes on offer. The raffle will be drawn at the final assembly for the term on Thursday 29 March at 1.45pm.

Thank you

Sue Ward, Bec Kennedy, Darren Jenkins, Denise Owen & Jo Hague

Level 6 Staff.

ICT at Jells Park Primary School

http://www.childwise.org.au/page/10/cyber-safety  

Do you always know what games your child is playing on line? Does your child always know the identity of the other players in multi-player games? Are you concerned about the amount of time your child seems to spend on their iPad or home computer? If my child is being bullied online, would they know what to do and how to handle the situation? How can I best help my child deal with these issues?

Often the questions above are very tricky to answer honestly, however they are very important components of keeping children safe on line. The older that students get, the less help they need using technology and the wider their exposure becomes.

During ICT lessons at school the students discuss cyber safety – how to recognise threats, how to react when they feel something is not right or makes them feel uncomfortable and appropriate behaviours when they are using online programs. There is a huge amount of suitable information online and over the next few newsletters I will suggest links to interesting websites to further parent’s knowledge and understanding of this serious issue.

Further information regarding cyber safety, including useful tips & strategies can also be found on the schools website. 

Heather Cook

(ICT Specialist)