Computational Thinking and a Lettuce Sale

Anna and Cody coming to you today with a blog post about our workshop in the Orchard Gardens! We were very fortunate to have Erica Huang join us in learning ‘computational thinking’ in the garden. At the beginning of this session we brainstormed some ideas, characteristics, and adjectives that came to mind when addressing computational thinking. The ideas of logical thinking, patterns, algorithms were shared amongst the group as a starting point. Erica then shared that we were on the right path and showcased a list of factors to consider when incorporating computational thinking within activities, curriculum and lessons (as you can see shown in the picture below). 

We started off with an activity where we needed to gather rocks and small sticks to represent the memory, bytes and functions of the computer. With the rocks representing ‘0’ and the sticks representing ‘1’ we made a 5x5 pattern in no particular order or method. Erica then made it into a 6x6 pattern with the use of more rocks and sticks. Erica then turned around to have us switch out a rock (0) for a stick (1) or vice versa to then have her make a guess as to which item was switched. Respectfully we shall keep this technique a secret to have you one day make some guesses… should you ever encounter computational thinking in the garden… 

In groups of three, we had two people acting as computer programmers and one person acting as a robot. The robot could only move and function based off of the instructions that the programmers had given for the robot. Our task was to lead our robots to an ‘item’ or ‘treasure’ of some sort based on the path we instructed them to do so (# of steps forward, turns, moving of body levels etc). This exercise brought forward great connections to the core competencies through its collaboration, communicating and social aspects. This was a task that we all felt could be possible in almost every grade level, ultimately giving students a playful activity to build their skills upon.

Vivian the robot going for her banana peel treasure. 

In the afternoon, we harvested some lettuce and garlic scapes and brought them out to the square beside the Nest to sell. This sale was “pay what you can,” meaning that the suggested price was 3$ per head of lettuce/bundle of garlic scapes, but you could also purchase it by a donation. This was a great way to share our harvests and talk to people about the Orchard Garden.