3. Field Activity 03

Coding for Trout Movement

For field activity 3, students in my Coding for the Environment elective are coding to collect data on trout movement at different points in the day. We’re investigating whether trout exhibit more movement during different classes in the multipurpose room.

We have been working with Microbit to collect data, and I planned to have students code to answer this question in Microbit. After spending time at my Node with colleagues and receiving guidance from my supervising teacher, I decided that Scratch would be a more straightforward tool for students to use.

I shared a basic code using video sensing to track trout movements with students, and we brainstormed ideas to make the code more efficient and effective. Students spent the first class working on building codes to answer the following questions:

Can multiple sprites contribute to the same data log? Can one sprite that fills the entire screen work as well as multiple sprites? Which sprite shape works best? What movement level is most effective at catching increased trout movement?