Hello Dave, Sean shared your blog with me since both are studying the same Master’s program at Royal Roads University, and we are dealing with an assignment on learning theories. Your approach to the Arduino class resonates a lot with what I have done with little Pre-K and K students in science and math classes, and in every chance I get of helping them to learn something that is useful or catches their attention during the school day. For instance, I might gladly deviate slightly from schedule during a math session if someone discovers a jumping spider on the wall. The students already know that kind of spider is harmless, and they want to know more, so I show them some nice pictures of jumping spiders from the Internet, and we count the number of legs to compare it with our number of legs. Then count the number of eyes… after all, we are still dealing with numbers, right? And learning cross-curricularly.
The teaching moments are priceless, and I believe the students will remember them fondly.
Thanks for your post, and your talk during our symposium.