2nd Grade Coding Magnets
Second graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about magnets and magnetism (SOL2.2), so today, students in Ms. Edmonds’ class used Wick to code a magnets activity. First, I showed them a finished sample so they could see what they would be creating. Basically, they will have a person, a magnet, and two objects–one that’s magnetic and one that’s nonmagnetic. Then, they will use code to make the person smile when the user clicks on the magnetic object and frown when the user clicks on the nonmagnetic object. We reviewed different objects that were magnetic and nonmagnetic, then we got started. The students used the drawing tools to draw a person, a magnet, and two objects. I showed them how to change the objects into buttons (click the finger icon) and we added some code to the buttons. I like how Wick uses real code, but they keep it simple by including a code library that students can choose from. So instead of typing the code, they just click it. Our code for the buttons read: mousePressed gotoAndStop(2) for the magnetic object and mousePressed gotoAndStop(3) for the nonmagnetic object. Next, we duplicated Frame 1 (right click on it) and changed the face in Frame 2 to be smiling. We did the same thing for Frame 3, but changed the face to be frowning. Finally, we tested our code to be sure it worked and clicked File>Export HTML. That’s it! They just created their own interactive magnets website, which is really impressive for 2nd graders! You can see all of their activities here.