The Mazo Coding, Robotics and Green Screening Mentorship team has been working with Scratch to further their coding skills. Developed by MIT and available as a web-interface (online) or as a free download, Scratch allows students to learn the basics of computer programming in the form of block/puzzle piece coding.

Several Intermediate members have been learning how to code an interactive map of Canada to support Grade 4 students who are currently learning about our incredible country. One of the key expectations of the Grade 4 Social Studies curriculum includes identifying Canada’s provinces and territories and their capital cities….

With the help of Ryan Smith’s lesson plan/tutorial, the students were able to dabble and tinker and create a new plan tailored to Mazo’s French Immersion programing. They felt that students would demonstrate increased understanding using visual prompts/instructions.

Once those were complete, the Intermediate Mentors invited small groups of students to come and code their own individual maps of Canada. Under their direction, students learned how to code the app so that it would detect what colour the mouse cursor was hovering over, revealing the appropriate Province or Territory. What better way to accurately locate and name each!?!

In some cases, students added bodies of water, and some considered adding an interesting fact for certain provinces and/or territories.