Play Code Learn – Dinosaur Steps

Play Code Learn: Dinosaur Steps introduces teachers and students to computational thinking and digital technologies through practical activities and programming with augmented reality (AR).

Students begin their learning journey by interacting with the unplugged kit, exploring the dinosaur world of Explorer Ed the robot, through a hands-on, play-based approach to introduce algorithmic thinking and computational thinking concepts. Once students have gained confidence writing their own algorithms and developed skills to follow and give sequential instructions, they progress to using the ByteEd App to deepen understanding of algorithms through programming (coding) and learn about innovative digital technologies with AR.

Key concepts covered in this kit

Sequence

Logical Order

Step by step instructions

Commands

Debugging

Decomposition

Teaching Portal: Support for teachers

A range of resources have been created to support the teaching of this kits in the classroom, including:

Interactive Website

An interactive website with activities and resources explaining ‘how’ to teach computational thinking to your students and how to integrate use of the Dinosaur Kit series in both STEM subjects and other curriculum areas.

Challenge Activity Cards

Challenge activity cards explore the main concepts of computational thinking for each kit, complete with answers explaining how each activity links to computational thinking.

Lesson Module

10-lesson unit of work (with 5 optional curriculum integrated extension lessons) to aid the teaching of computational thinking with students from age 4 to 8. Each lesson is supported with pre-prepared teaching slides and student handouts and resources.

Formative Assessment

Supporting printables for teachers and student assessment linked to curriculum.

Explorer Ed E-books

Downloadable ‘big readers’ for you to enjoy with your students. Can learners figure out where Explorer Ed will travel around the dinosaur land? Can Explorer Ed save the day?

Activities for ECE & Absolute Beginners

Introduce the basics to beginners in computer science through hands-on activities. Includes teaching activity suggestions and all printables for each task.

3D Printing

Introduce the world of additive manufacture with these downloadable .stl files of the Steps dinosaurs and Explorer Ed! Comes with teaching slides, helpful hints for printing, and teaching ideas with 3D models.

Video Tutorials for Teachers

Looking for more ideas on how to teach computational thinking and digital technologies? Need some more support with key concepts and how to use the Dinosaur Steps kit in the classroom? Professional development/learning to watch any time that suits you!

Dino Fact Cards

Printable fact cards for the classroom – use as you wish – with a blank template for students to create their own fact card for a dinosaur of their choice.

Dinosaur Steps teacher testimonials

“The Dinosaur Kit is a fun and effective way to get young minds engaged in computational thinking. Through play based learning, they can design their own algorithms to solve a puzzle, while also learning how to test and debug a simple program. The augmented reality features bring the dinosaurs and landscapes to life and children enjoy interacting with their dinosaur friends. It’s a great mix of hands-on and virtual learning. I would highly recommend this kit for any primary classroom or for play based learning at home.”

Julie McMahon

Digital Technologies Specialist

“I was really impressed with how the Play Code Learn Dinosaur Steps kit started with a jigsaw puzzle to engage my five year old learners. The clear imagery used is visually appealing and the size and thickness of the unplugged cards suit the hands of younger students. I can see this kit being easy to set up in the classroom, with minimal explicit teaching of the content, and it will easily hold student’s interest and attention with hands-on learning through play and an interactive app.”

Margie Hanning

New Entrants Teacher, The Terrace School, Alexandra, New Zealand

“My class recently had the opportunity to explore the Dinosaur Steps kit with Byteed. Sarah came into class and shared this with small groups of students, and they got involved in it. There was no need to try and have any behaviour management or anything like that, because the students were fully engaged and enjoyed what they were working on. I was impressed with the breadth of learning. There was a lot of literacy with what they were working on, also a lot about key competencies, heaps of problem solving, and a lot of resilience building within the tasks the students had to work on and the team work they were dealing with as well.

I was also reminded of the need to teach the language of the digital technologies curriculum. Students were working with algorithms and they were learning the step by step instructions that needed to go on behind the scenes. I think this will really build on loosely understanding online coding and other tasks and game making that they might work on. The Augmented Reality (AR) with finding out more about the dinosaurs at the end was a fabulous touch.”

Lara Moss

Year 4 Teacher & Year 3-4 Team Leader, Remarkables Primary School, Queenstown, New Zealand