Caleb Schmidt: Coder, CTE Teacher & Technical Coordinator

Sketchnoting: A Visual Approach to Computer Guts

As educators, how often do we see students doodling in the margins of their notes? That used to be me.

When I was in school, there was only one way to take notes. That was to copy them. Either from the teacher’s notes from the board, the key text from the textbook, or fill-in-the-blanks with vocab. I remember taking so many notes that I would have permanent indents on my fingers from the pencil. Looking back, I’m not convinced this pedagogy was all that effective.

From Puzzle Pandemonium to Purposeful Play: How a Little Competition Transformed My Classroom

Every teacher knows the feeling of navigating a class with little to no budget. So when I asked my principal about purchasing robots, I wasn’t surprised when the official response came via a text message: ‘Will this work?’ Pictured was a stack of Turing Tumbles. Not exactly robots, but it is a brilliant hands-on tools that teach the fundamentals of computer logic. Students place marbles (the input) at the top, and by arranging a series of ramps, gears, and switches, they aim to get a specific pattern of marbles (the output) at the bottom. It’s a mechanical, marble-powered computer.

From Doodles to AI: A Creative Robotics Lesson for the Modern Classroom

How do you kick off a robotics unit in a way that’s both deeply personal and cutting-edge? I found the answer by starting with a simple question “What is a robot?” and inviting a little help from Artificial Intelligence. The result was one of the most engaging, well-rounded lessons I’ve ever taught, blending writing, art, and critical thinking with a practical introduction to AI. As an added bonus, this was also a relationship-building activity.