Students deepen their learning journey by interacting with the unplugged kit, saving dinosaur eggs for the erupting volcano by instructing Explorer Ed the robot. Learners use a hands-on, play-based approach to grow their algorithmic thinking and understanding of computational thinking concepts. Once students have gained confidence writing efficient algorithms through repetitive commands and loops, they then use the ByteEd App to expand algorithmic thinking through programming (coding) and become creative with AR.
Key concepts covered in this kit
All the key concepts from Dinosaur Steps, plus…
Functions
Inputs / Outputs
Iteration
Efficiency
Pattern recognition
Prediction
Teaching Portal: Support for teachers
A range of resources have been created to support the teaching of this kits in the classroom, including:
Dinosaur Loops teacher testimonials
“The Dinosaur Loops kit is simple to use and very engaging for learners. It is easy for teachers to implement, with step by step, clear instructions, and you can feel confident no matter what your computational knowledge or experience is. The unplugged activities are a great way to develop learners’ curiosity and foundation knowledge into coding and the augmented reality aspect brings their creations to life and deepens their learning. It is an excellent kit, allowing learners to have creative, hands-on and meaningful learning experiences.”
“ByteEd’s Dinosaur Loops Kit is an exciting, engaging, educational tool that teaches ākonga [learners] the fundamentals of computational thinking and programming. The presentation of the resource with a mix of hands-on activities and Augmented Reality (AR) supports learning challenges where students have to problem solve, hypothesise, test and achieve success in both physical and digital formats. Have to confess I was hooked as much as the kids were!”
“Quite a few students had been part of trialling ‘Dinosaur Steps’ [last year] and were excited to explore the more ‘grown up’ version of Dinosaur Loops. Students were working in small groups and it was fabulous to see the way they worked together and developed communication skills so that each could participate and contribute (Key Competencies right there!). Communicating ideas to each other and exploring ways to communicate through their interactions with the Dinosaur Loops resource was a key learning I noticed in this experience. Students needed to be agile in their thinking – changing, simplifying and reworking ideas and instructions as they found ways to reduce the ‘instructions’ in their ‘code’ through the use of loops and repeats. The Augmented Reality opportunity at the end was very exciting and was a fantastic way to finish the experience.“
“We loved the Save the Dinosaurs game in our class. It is rare to have hands-on learning like this, that has students coding, but off their devices, communicating and problem solving with each other. The best learning came when I asked students who were familiar with the game to explain and lead students who were experiencing this for the first time. I found the use of correct vocab and giving clear instructions was of really good quality, and each student leader had different ways of using the game. Each group had a completely different experience. The app, with its animated features, is a great addition too!“
Other kits in the Play Code Learn Dinosaur series
