St. Cyres Year 6 Sphero Transition Day
At St. Cyres School, we have a transition day for year 6 pupils every year. Like every other school, pupils from local feeder primary schools visit our school for the day, experience the lessons they will be taught and explore their new school.
This year, was time for something new, something no other school in our area has done. We decided to develop a Sphero transition day, where pupils will be introduced to using the iPads and gain an understanding of coding and provide them with a new perspective on Art. The concept was developed by myself, Damian Parker (Damian Parker )and Richard Hopkin (@HopkinTeach). We wanted to share our passion and recently gained knowledge with our future pupils and the wider community. The aim was to ensure they felt confident and ready to embark on the next part of their educational journey at an Apple Distinguished School.
At the intial planning stage we decided to choose one feeder school for the day. This was the first time we had embarked on such a project as individuals and felt we needed to use this initial day as a trial, we had no idea whether or not the younger pupils would engage in the activities. We have had great success with Year 9 pupils, but these are a core that have chosen to attend our after school coding clubs. We chose Dinas Powys Primary School as it is one of our largest primary feeder schools in the area. Our plan for the day was to run 3 main activities: Painting with Sphero run by myself, Coding Sphero run by Mr. Parker and throughout the whole process Mr. Hopkin was teaching the pupils how to produce a ‘Vlog’ of the day. Our Year 9 pupils would also be recruited for the day to help the Year 6 pupils, providing them with the opportunity to speak to existing pupils and build relationships with them prior to September. We were also supported by Tonwen Viner (@CyresKS3ICT), ICT Teacher at St. Cyres School, Mat Pullen (@Mat6453), a lecturer and Apple Distinguished Educator from USW and Scott Hann (@MrHannUSW), one of Mat’s students from the BA (Hons)Primary Studies course.
We started the day with a tour of the school, whereupon Year 6 pupils had to gather as much information as possible about the school in order to answer a quiz on their return. The quiz was an opportunity to introduce pupils to driving Spheros and develop an understanding of the challenges they may face when using them. To answer the questions, pupils had to drive Spheros to different areas of the hall that had been marked; if pupils got the question wrong, their Sphero would be eliminated.
Time to Create!
Once the excitement of the quiz had died down, it was time for me to introduce Sphero Art! Pupils were introduced to artists such as Jackson Pollock and Richard Long, where they made connections between the artists’ processes and the process they were going to be channeling using the Sphero. As an Art educator, I feel it is important for pupils to gain understanding of context when making art, and providing them with purpose. Creating is not about making Art for Art’s sake.
Pupils were provided with canvases in custom made frames. The frames ensured we didn’t have any rogue Spheros racing away across the hall floor, leaving a trail of wet paint! Pupils from Dinas Powys Primary School, were teamed up with our Year 9 Sphero Mentors, who helped to facilitate the session, and share their knowledge of using the Spheros to create Art. Our Sphero Artists used the drive control to create line and texture using the Spheros and paint. Pupils were totally engaged in the process and had the opportunity to record their processes using the camera app on the iPad. This provided them with content to add to their vlogs which were developed with Mr. Hopkin.
We wanted to give pupils the opportunity to create something that could be returned to school. Allowing them to share their story of the day through vlogs as well as the opportuinity to share the work they have created on their return to Dinas Powys Primary School.
Time to Code!
Damian Parker, Director of the Art, Design and Technology Faculty, led the session on Coding. To begin the session on Coding, he first introduced the students to Tynker. Tynker is a great way to teach block coding to younger pupils as the app looks more like a computer game, pupils select characters and adventures along the way. Pupils soon developed an understanding of block coding, with the support of our Year 9 mentors, so it was now time to code the Spheros.
Our first challenge for the pupils was to make their Spheros move forward and back at a very low speed. They were taught how to code the move command and how to adjust the angle to change direction using the Sphero Edu app on the iPad. Once the pupils understood how to use the app, our Year 9 mentors then placed Start and Stop mats at different areas of the auditorium to further challenge the pupils from Dinas Powys Primary School. The more able pupils were given extension tasks, adding coloured lights when moving forward or changing colour when returning home.
Time to Vlog!
Richard Hopkin, Music Teacher and Lead Digital Leader, introduced vlogging (video blogging) to the pupils. This is an area that has been facilitated by the introduction of 1:1 iPads in our school and an activity that many pupils at St. Cyres School enjoy doing. Due to each iPad having its own built in camera and editing apps such as iMovie, vlogging has become very popular with our students at St Cyres School. Over the past year, vlogging has been used in some lessons to document and evidence the pupils’ work as well as creating very engaging learning. The reason for inviting Year 6 pupils to St. Cyres School was to give them an idea of how we learn in our lessons, as a result, we felt the excellent work that they created on this day should be documented in the form of a vlog. The pupils then shared with their vlogs with the primary school, as well as giving us the opportunity to share them with St. Cyres School’s wider community through Twitter.
The Future of St. Cyres School
The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their day with us at St. Cyres School and we felt we achieved our aim of engaging the future pupils of St. Cyres School with the iPads and programming. These are the pupils that we will be teaching for the next 5 years, and we’re exciting to instill in them an understanding of technology and coding. With hardware such as Sphero, the possibilities for engaging pupils with coding is endless and we can’t wait for the next part of the journey with our pupils.
Images by Mason Guthrie, Year 10 GCSE Photography Pupil
