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pkrp-about

In this programming activity, learners will build an interactive Scratch program to present information and stories about te iwa o Matariki, the nine stars of Matariki, in an interactive presentation.

Learners will draw on skills in research, digital technologies, literacy, and oratory to create their virtual display boards. They can work independently or in teams to investigate the topic, draft reports, arrange images, capture sounds, and code a Scratch program to bring it all together.

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This activity is a Scratch version of the Makey Makey-based Interactive Display Board project, offering a way to do the project entirely in Scratch, without the need for any Makey Makey hardware or additional craft supplies.

Please use this Matariki-themed extension guide together with the base project activity guide as a framework to support the concepts, goals, and outcomes.

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  • Writing an event-driven Scratch program

  • Managing multiple elements within a single program to create a cohesive interactive system

  • Systematically testing and debugging

  • Understanding that program behaviour is determined by code and that changing code changes outcomes

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  • Designing and creating a purposeful interactive digital outcome

  • Making intentional design decisions

  • Working through a structured multi-stage production process

  • Evaluating the finished program as a functional interactive outcome

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social-sciences

Exploring the cultural significance of Matariki

english

Researching, evaluating sources, distilling information, writing, creating, and delivering multimedia content for an audience

arts

Designing a visual presentation to create a coherent and engaging digital environment

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  • Commit to the activity as an intentional unit plan by spreading the workload over multiple sessions, focusing on research, design, programming, construction, and reflection.

  • Especially for younger leaners, work towards a class project by breaking into nine groups and assigning one star to each. Then guide the class to come together and input their portion of the project into the program until the class has a collaborative final presentation to share and explore together.

  • Set the size of the star sprites to values that represent their relative brightness (magnitude) of the stars so that they look even more like the cluster. (For reference, you can use the radius values in the Data Table Solutions from the 3D Matariki Star Map activity.)

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  • Get hands-on crafty to create a physical interactive display board with Makey Makey based on the same topic using the Matariki Extension activity guide.

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Teachers should consider:

  • Device Preparation as a pre-lesson task, including charging batteries, loading applications, and connecting to the internet.

  • Group Assignments and logistics, including supporting student collaboration and content focus.

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Take steps to make sure device use is safe, supervised, and purposeful throughout. This activity involves accessing the Scratch coding platform and potentially using the internet for topic research.

  • General Guidance

    • Set clear expectations around safe and purposeful device use at the start of each lesson.

    • Support ākonga to know that if they encounter content that feels inappropriate, confusing, or upsetting during their research that they can flag this with kaiako without concern.

    • Remind ākonga of your school's digital use agreement before beginning any lesson that involves the internet or a third-party digital platform.

  • Before the activity

    • Consider reviewing and pre-selecting a set of reliable, age-appropriate sources, rather than open internet searching.

    • Familiarise yourself with Scratch (scratch.mit.edu) and the settings that control how saved projects are visible publicly to others.

  • During the activity

    • Supervise internet use throughout, circulating actively to monitor and support ākonga.

    • Use the FACT framework in the template activity guide as a live tool during research.

    • Discuss openly what is and isn't appropriate to include in a Scratch project.

    • Encourage ākonga to treat all sources about Matariki, particularly those representing mātauranga Māori, with respect and care as it’s part of a living, culturally significant body of knowledge.

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>>> y4-6 | Y4-6 | 4+ Lessons (Guided, Group Project)

  • Lesson 1 — Assignments & Research

  • Lesson 2 — Script Writing & Audio Recording

  • Lesson 3 — Scratch Programming

  • Lesson 4 — Debugging & Refinement

  • Lesson 5 — Sharing & Reflection

>>> y7-8 | Y7-8 | 3+ Lessons (Guided to Independent, Group Project)

  • Lesson 1 — Introduction, Research & Script Writing

  • Lesson 2 — Audio Recording & Scratch Programming

  • Lesson 3 — Programming, Testing & Debugging

  • Lesson 4 — Sharing & Reflection