That is a fantastic tip! Thank you. It is so nice to have a program that makes it simple to make visual accommodations!
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Iāve seen some teachers display the code on the screen projector to make it bigger from their computer. Iāve also seen teachers use a magnifying glass to see the pin numbers as well. Feel free to post more ideas here!
I love it! Itāll be great to have the students experiment with it.
So fun! i did this with my 8 year old daughter and we told each other āKnock Knockā jokes through the coding! Hers was āInterrupting Cowā "Moooooo! " Mine was more complicated and required me to add lines of code for it to work. I did āKnock Knockā āWhoās there?ā āBananaā āBanana Who?ā āBananaā āBanana Who?ā āBananaā āBanana Who?ā āOrangeā āOrange Who?ā āOrange you glad that I didnāt say Banana?ā Love this and it is easy to figure out the coding to manipulate the display! 
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This was a fun activity that my kids would enjoy, but the opportunities for inappropriateness would be important to manage!! I donāt get why Challenge 2 is there - arenāt there already two jokes? Maybe a more interesting challenge would be to see if the students can make the program cycle through three jokes.
I think I see where we could trigger the accelerometer, right below luminosity it is defined as acc. But what would be put in place of lux? (ie lum.lux ~~ acc.??)
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I enjoyed this challenge and think my students would too. It would be a great way for them to see that they only change a portion of the code and it is important to pay attention to detail and not delete any of the important symbols! I couldnāt quite figure out making the sensor work, but Iāll keep playing with it
I enjoyed this, however I was unable to do challenge number 3. I could change the font, change the words and everything but could nāt figure out how to make it work automatically nor āblockā the sensor. I agree with explorer 9134. It is way to easy for inappropriate things to be put on the screen with my students.
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Agree that challenge #3 didnāt make sense, the blocking sensor is what it already does. I think this was a hold over when we may have had the jokes triggered by accelerometer / gforce shake? I dropped the #3. I think a challenge could be to change the sensor detected (IR heat/cold) or change the condition statement for luminosity to change on very bright light (like flashlight on phone). This lesson is generally a getting started lesson and think we will drop this from this lessonās challenges. Thanks!
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Very cool, Iām going to try to change the font size too!
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This challenge was FUN! Interactivity at its best. It gives students the ability to share their creative spirits in a technical way.
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This is a challenge my students would love! They would love creating, then coding to share their own knock-knock jokes. However, I did have a few issues/questions about this lesson:
I did not see a Challenge #3 that others are talking about.
Only 2 challenges are showing up for me.
Also, cannot get the link for the Lesson Guide to work. āTo access more information about this experiment such as NGSS alignment, pacing, essential questions, and inquiry-based teaching practices, check out the Lesson Guide.ā I get message saying Sorry, the file you have requested has been deleted."
Last question (for now) if you change the text size how do you get display to show all the text on the lines?
Please disregard my issue about not seeing Challenge 3 that others were talking aboutā¦ I just read your reply here about dropping that from this lesson.
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I agree completely! Love that students can be creative with this lesson!!
So fun to just change a few lines of code and have my own jokes! Love it. I know starting with something like this would allow students to experience success early on without a lot of stress and or confusion. It seems like it is fairly difficult to mess it up. I like that in early lessons. I also like the laser pointer lessons included as sensors/detectors. It is something a few of my students would really be interested in, and would spark them to think of different ways to implement the sensor. Great idea!
Quick, easy lesson. Connecting learning with jokes is always a great way to get elementary students engaged. What I like about these lessons for elementary is that they are not required to create the entire code from start to finish. Modifying an existing code and adding lines to it is a less daunting task for younger students who are just being exposed to coding beyond robotics.
I would probably work this lesson in as a follow-on after I teach coding using Pro-bot robots with my fifth graders. Showing them how the display code is generated will give them a deeper understanding that a robot really is a computer and not just a toy.
Until I could get additional funding to purchase more kits, I would have to use this as a center activity, or as a whole-group activity using the projector and screen.
I was confused by the two jokes, also! I do believe my students (with teacher guidance for appropriateness!) would love this. I am know for my STEM jokes I post in the hallway each week, so that would be a great connection for them.
My answers for this activity are nearly identical to those I posted for āHello Worldā (Iāll re-post those following my comments on this activity).
I do feel that the activity is too basic for most 4th and 5th grade students, as well as many 3rd grade students; however, they would LOVE finding knock-knock jokes to code. For students who really have an interest in coding, Iād like to see them investigate this string, make changes like they learned in Hello World - actual text, font size, screen position, etc. Iād then challenge them to write their own unique code from scratch to display a new joke or riddle.
Post from previous lesson āHello World:ā
Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
I would love to do more coding with the students. I may make it part of a rotation for beginning coding. Having only six desktops, only a few of the 25 - 35 students I have in my room at a time could participate, but there are other beginning tools they could explore at other stations (i.e. Ozobots, DASH, etc.)
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to successful?
It wouldnāt be appropriate for K - 1, but likely 2nd - 5th grade could easily manage as it is simply a swapping out of text. Their reading and keyboarding skills are advanced enough by then that most could participate successfully.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
I would demonstrate (amendment - and obviously discuss the various pieces of code) , post cheat sheets to help them identify specific pieces of code and understand what they do, monitor to make sure they are coding properly and have additional challenges for high-achieving students to test that are not included on the cheat sheet.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your studentās role during the class. What does āstudent successā look like?
In my mind, because Iām not a classroom teacher but a specialist, the answer is always the same for what student success looks like no matter the activity - the student has tried the activity, perseveres, problem-solves, turns base knowledge into action and thinks creatively.
I enjoyed this activity making knock-knock jokes. The students can demonstrate their creativity and see the importance of looking at the details of the code. Giving them parameters that the joke needs to be a math joke and that the joke has to be appropriate for school. Also, let the student explore what else they can come up with besides knock-knock jokes or coding so that it makes more than two cycles.
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This would be a great hook for students as the stress and confusion is very minimum on this unit. I think this will allow the students that are timid about coding open the door for them to then take challenges in their coding.