Knock Knock Joke with the OLED Display #4707

This was a really fun and engaging lesson that the students would love! I would use this as is at first and have the students code the knock knock joke becuase it is a fun way to get the students to work on coding. For my older students, the next step in this would be to have students code review questions (or questions related to whatever content we are studying). After they code the questions they would then exchange their questions with a fellow student to “quiz” them on the material. This would be working on both coding as well as classroom content in a fun and unique way.

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  1. I would incorporate this lesson as a challenge once students are able to code a simple display. This lesson would also serve as an assessment of how students keep track of their lines of code and edits.

  2. A review of lines of code and text might be necessary for the students.

  3. I’d conduct a simple review of the display lesson and then move around helping students when required.

  4. Students should be patient, problem solvers, and creative. They should also demonstrate some mastery of lines of code.

Ozobots, Dash, and this lesson could work well as stations. It could allow students to see different types of coding or the progression to more complex activities. At my school, we’re discussing how to progress from Ozobots to Dash, and further.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
This lesson would fit in our curriculum when we work on coding. This would be an excellent extension of that. Students often do not see their code come to life and this would do that.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
I think the semantics of the code. In this lesson, it is simple enough to understand and explain. It also introduces code in a way that the semantics makes sense and is consistent enough to not confuse kids.
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?
During this lesson, i would be a facilitator. I like to walk around the class as students work and just assist where needed.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
Students would be working together. Success would be shown through that excitement they get when it works!

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I can see how the pins would probably be an issue for junior high kids. I have heard from a high school teacher that he shows his kids how to make their own wires. Not sure if that would help at all, but it’s fairly easy it seems to strip wire to make jumper cables. Good luck next year!

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)?
This activity would be a great, quick assessment to see how students are progressing with coding the sensor kit.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
My students might have to have some help coming up with knock-knock jokes to add to their code. I would probably allow them to use their iPads to look up school-appropriate knock-knock jokes.

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?
During this activity, my role would be to circulate throughout the classroom to observe my students and collect data on their progress. I would be able to see to what degree they have mastered coding the sensor kit and where they need more reinforcement.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
My students will show success when they complete the activity correctly. I would also challenge my students to tell me how and why the sensor worked, and to describe a real-world situation in which they would use the luminosity sensor in the same manner has they used it with the knock-knock jokes.

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I love the idea of having them code review questions. I don’t have tests in my class, but students could create review games for their other academic subjects. Thanks for sharing this!

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This activity was relatively easy for my 7th grader but would be a bit too challenging for my third grade students.

This is a fun lesson. I liked changing the text and seeing the interaction. This lesson reminded me about chatbots.

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Knock Knock

  1. Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
    This lesson would be a perfect follow up to the previous lesson. I like that they can create their own jokes – school appropriate, of course!
  2. Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
    Students may have trouble remembering school appropriate jokes. They can look them up like I did! 
  3. 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 see my role as more of a moderator making sure that the info they include is appropriate. This also allows me to help as needed.
  4. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
    Students are working independently but they will want to share their jokes with others. I might have them video their jokes to share with the class.

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 like the humor of this lesson. This one gets the students feeling more comfortable with the coding.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
This lesson is pretty straight forward after the last. It’s more coding just a few more lines are involved. Coming up with jokes may be the harder part! Hello google…

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?
Again one of facilitation while walking around the room. This is one most students will find accessible after the last experiment.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
Having fun! And maybe wanting to share their jokes with their peers.

This was another fun challenge! I do think the amount of code the students are presented with could be overwhelming at first - especially to newbies who have never seen or explored code before. Once the code had been broken down a little, I think the challenge of creating their own knock-knock joke is one they would enjoy.
If I were to teach this lesson I would spend some time at the beginning helping the students to understand the code and ask them to find the knock knock joke within the text. I would also only have the one joke on there to start rather than two as it is.
Students would be working independently at a computer station, but encouraged to talk to each other to figure out the solution. Their favorite part (i’m sure!) would be sharing the knock knock jokes they came up with to the group.


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)?

This lesson is just a more complex/in-depth one similar to the Hello World. How it would fit is really not much different than Hello World…it just adds more complexity.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?

I do not see any issues with lesson. Everything worked as described. There I am not sure how I would change it, because it is so simple to do. You are just running the code and possibly making a few changes. There isn’t any really questions to answer. I would like some sort of check to make sure the student completed the activity and understand the concept. The students would probably be more engaged because they get to create their own joke.

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?

As with the rest of my courses, I act as a facilitator for learning. Students learn through exploration and figuring things out. I try not to spend too much time in front of the classroom. I setup the initial lesson, explain requirements, monitor, and assist as required.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?

My courses are mostly project-based learning (PBL), so students are in charge of their own learning. Success would be a student being able to complete activity, understand, and be able to apply what was learned to future lessons.

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I agree this one, even though similar to Hello activity, would be more engaging for the students.

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Ozbots are fun little robots…a great introduction to programming and algorithms.

It’s definitely a building block on top of Hello World. They could see how many letters they can fit on the screen by adjusting the text size so taking those same concepts and expanding.

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This program was a great useful and natural extension from the Hello world activity. In my class I would probably add in some exploration questions as to how the light sensor changes what the screen does. I think that the focus should still be on the changing of text but guiding students to think about why and how the code is causing changes and allows for interaction would be helpful for more advanced students.

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This would be a fun way to get the students to program. They would have the ability to input their own knock knock jokes. Hence settling them into the programming maybe when they are scared of it.

Hello team, I was lost. I was doing different activities in other modules. But I am back on track. I am going to try to work ahead and then going back to the first modules. I was doing great connecting lights and using the light sensor.

Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum?
Since I offer some outreach programs for bilingual students, this could be a great activity to learn what is random, and how this algorithm works. I would start by conducting a lesson about the Japanese style of poem writing known as Haiku. After the lesson, I would make the kids to modify the program to generate random haikus.
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Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?

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?
As a teacher I would explain the background of the japanese style, then I would allow the students to research and explore how to compose these kinds of poems.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
The students will act as culture researchers and writers. I would also encourage the students to compose haiku poems inspired by technology rather than nature. Memes could be another fun alternative.

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I liked the knock-knock joke activity. I will be using it with my Middle Makers that are starting next semester. I will see them twice a week. They usually work on their own project, but this one will be more structured as some of the students are at a loss for ideas.