Ultimate Back Packing Game
Backtrack For Lost Object
October 21, 2018
Organizing Mails Insertion Sort Algorithm
October 23, 2018Pack your bag like a logical STEM master.
Use the daily routine of packing up your backpack as a change to get all STEM together. It’s the Ultimate Backpack Packing game!
How long?
20-25 minutes
What you need
- A backpack
- You and your kid
- School materials
- Notebooks
- Pens
- Pencils
- Sticky notes
- Tape
What age is it for?
4-10 year olds
How to Play
You're busy. Do you really want to spend your morning packing your kid's backpack -- or worrying that something was forgotten? No problem! This activity brings the computational logic to the art of backpack packing. You're going to play this game with your kid to teach them how to prepare, sequence, and plan -- and then (hopefully) they will be organizing their backpack responsibly every single day for school.
Step 1: Planning
Have your kid list out what they need during the day at school.
It can include stuff beyond what they just dumped out. What do they need? And ask them -- why do you need this?
Use the conversation to help them prioritize and think through their backpack content plan.
Step 2: Thinking Through
Now it's time to get logical -- here is where we become less destructive, more thoughtful.
Talk through with your kid -- what do they need most often? What do they need first or last during the day?
Have them think through where the best place to put the item is, depending on when they need it, how often they need it, and where the thing best fits in the bag.
.Step 3: Packing Checklist
Prompt questions, writing and drawing makes his/her planning needed materials to be more visualized, now.
Now ask more questions about what materials does he/she need. Let him/her think aloud.
Now make the final cut! Refine that list down to what should go in the bag, what shouldn't.
Step 4: Packing Time
Finally, time to pack these things in the backpack, in the smartest possible way.
Be sure to appreciate the work of packing art that they create! When your child finishes the packing up his/her backpack, ask them what it felt like. Was it easy? Was it hard?
Also, challenge them to think through what they could do to improve next time they need to pack their backpack? Is there another step-by-step instruction model they could create, so they can always prepare their backpack well?
Bekir M.
Doctorate in Education
Originally from Turkey, then Pittsburgh, now California
I got my Doctorate in educating kids how to code, and how to think computationally so they can thrive in STEM. I have been researching how Offline Activities -- where kids aren't in front of a screen, but are playing in the real world -- can help kids get core concepts of coding.
Learning Outcome
Ultimate Back Packing activity helps your child explore planning and reflecting, computational thinking concepts, and practices. By computational thinking stages, it will help them learn "Decomposition" and “Pattern recognition”. They will have to break problems into small, specific tasks and then sequence them correctly. Additionally, allow opportunities for child to review and rethink their packing practices. Most importantly, child learns prefetching and caching.