Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd
Upload
113 views

Module 3 Educational Robotics Examples Script

This document provides examples of educational robotics activities that can be used at various primary grade levels to engage students in STEM learning. It suggests starting with unplugged coding activities and games to teach basic programming concepts before introducing simple robotic kits. A variety of activities are described that use robotic kits like Bee-Bot and Lego WeDo to teach programming, problem solving, and other math and science skills in a fun, hands-on manner that captivates students. As children progress through the grades, the focus shifts to more advanced computational thinking concepts using more sophisticated robotic kits.

Uploaded by

Celatuchiac
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
113 views

Module 3 Educational Robotics Examples Script

This document provides examples of educational robotics activities that can be used at various primary grade levels to engage students in STEM learning. It suggests starting with unplugged coding activities and games to teach basic programming concepts before introducing simple robotic kits. A variety of activities are described that use robotic kits like Bee-Bot and Lego WeDo to teach programming, problem solving, and other math and science skills in a fun, hands-on manner that captivates students. As children progress through the grades, the focus shifts to more advanced computational thinking concepts using more sophisticated robotic kits.

Uploaded by

Celatuchiac
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Module 3: Educational Robotics Example Activities

There are many examples that demonstrate that we can increase the interest in STEM
subjects if we change the way in which we work, starting from the first grades of schooling.

Today I would like to give you some suggestions, selected from some of my lessons, on how
to make children grow many competences, starting from problem solving, math skills and
digital literacy, using unplugged coding activities, first, and some simple games and projects
involving also some robotic kits later.

Why use Educational Robotics?
Robots capture the interest of the students, because they are related with games.
Robots promote team working and collaboration among students, which are powerful
means of deepening the learning methodology.

In kindergartens and early-elementary classrooms, manipulative materials and games play
an important role in childrens learning, enabling children to explore mathematical and
scientific concepts (such as number, shape, and size) through direct manipulation of
physical objects.

Using Educational Robotics at Primary Level
To start out with I would introduce young students to a programming language, by making
them practice with a little game, to be sure they understand what is a procedure. After
such introduction we can then start to use robots.

Blind one volunteer with a scarf: he will be a submarine; ask another participant, the
pilot, to put his hands on submarines shoulders and drive it from one point to another,
following the instructions of classmates.

As we want to work only with lower level instructions, the only possible commands should
be:
- one step ahead
- turn that side (meaning by this, turn 90 on the right,)
- turn this side (meaning by this, turn 90 on the left)

After this first icebreaking game, it is now time to put on the floor some coloured circles for
the orientation game.

Participants are split in groups: one of them is the executor who moves over the game
surface, the others are the programmers, who have to compile the procedure to make the
executor move from the start and reach a certain target, while solving some problems and
completing levels, like in a digital game.

Little children love games. To help them become makers and build their own games, it is
possible, after practicing the coding hands-on activity on the ground, to introduce them to
the use of a simple programming language, like Scratchjr, and ask them to help the
seahorse to reach the seafish. Then, to fix the concept, some lessons will use the BeBot,

that is perfect because it uses the script forward, left, right making it moving through
colors.

Teachers can use robots to teach many subjects: they can develop, for instance, concepts
such as sensing, that is the perception of the environment by exploring the use of sensors
on the robots.
Of course, when working with little children, the approach is different. If we want to study
some facts about crocodiles, things are more engaging using distance sensors to make the
crocodiles mouth closing when an object is coming near. In the video you can see, anyway,
that the teacher has to make some little adjustments, stopping the program, to increase the
sense of mistery in the narration!

As children grow older, and learn more advanced concepts, the educational focus shifts
away from direct manipulation to more abstract formal methods. It becomes very useful to
employ some learning mediators such as computationally-enhanced manipulative
materials (Resnick) which aim to enable children to continue learning with a
kindergarten approach and helps them to learn concepts and grow competences that
were previously considered too advanced for them.

For example, the use of robotic kits like Lego WeDo, together with Scratch Programming,
improves the learning process, in fact the children can understand the link between the
hardware movement and the specific program that they wrote.
A simple activity that helps in this purpose shows simple effects of rotations and the
rotation direction

Working with older students, like those in the 4th or 5th grades, it is possible to introduce
cause-effects actions, like those that we gain when blowing into the microphone or using
the distance sensor.
The power of motors, and the turns of the mill, infact, depend on the intensity of the blow,
or the distance measured. Best results come when observing the velocity of wheels, while
blowing into the sound sensor of a Lego Mindstorm, while using the test sensor program
on the brick.

I hope these examples have provided you with an idea of why and how you can start to use
robots in your classroom.

You might also like