Great things are happening with technology here at Orchard!

Great things are happening all over Cedar Falls, for sure, but have you heard about all the cool things that the kids at Orchard Hill are experiencing in their classrooms? Teachers are starting the year building their classroom communities and making sure that they are off to the right start with their learners. One of things that is helping to build that community is the exposure to some cool technology. Different grades have been playing “Breakout”, which is essentially an escape room in the classroom. Students are given a task to try and solve in order to open up a locked box. There are lots of clues that are hidden around the classroom to help students open these locks. There might be a directional lock, a 4 digit number lock, a 5 letter word lock, and a key lock all locked on the box for students to solve. Students must use the 4 C’s (communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking) in order to figure out the clues to break into the box. Talk about 21st century learners!!  Other classrooms are exposing their students to coding—whether it’s on code.org or through using Ozobots- the world’s smallest robot. Students are learning about static coding and are having to work together in order to code their robot to make it through a race track. With the critical thinking and collaboration between the students to complete this task, this is helping to ensure those higher order skills are present throughout the rest of the year!