CODING AND ROBOTICS
Coding and robotics sound like complicated subjects to teach. Right?
However, when you take a look at the advancements that have been made in the techniques to use to teach these subjects to younger and younger students, the value of these subjects being taught is obvious and can be extremely engaging and fun. The enthusiasm of the teacher in the video definitely adds to the students' excitement about the lesson content but what is so important to me about this video is that the students are learning about coding and robotics without knowing that they are actually learning some extremely complicated content.
By teaching coding and robotics content to younger students, the stigma of difficulty of this content can be removed almost completely. Mistakes are celebrated and encouraged because coding can always be corrected to become successful and robotics can be redesigned to make a better end project. When we find any type of content to teach where we can encourage failure then we are teaching our students to make their best effort and to learn from their errors and persevere. These are important skills to learn.
Using tools like BeeBots, Ozobots, and others like these, students are learning early in life that coding and robotics are fun and easy. The cost of these tools can become expensive but there are many companies that offer opportunities for discounts and even grants that can be applied for to obtained these tools for your classroom, grade level, and/or school. A little bit of work and research could pay off in big results by being able to have these items in your classroom. As an adult, coding and robotics sounds scary and difficult. What I learned from my research about this subject is that teaching these skills at a younger age demystifies the scary parts of this content and makes it seem so much easier.
Once students have had an opportunity to be exposed to simple coding tools, teachers will be able to integrate coding and robotics skills into other areas of instruction. Cross subject integration is always beneficial to any classroom. By using a clear plastic grid with a Bee-bot device, lessons can be taught in science, math, language arts, and phonics to increase engagement, learning, and overall classroom participation and success. Teachers and students are only limited by their imagination in ways to use these activities and tools.
I learned that KIBO is a great screen-free robot kit that is a great beginner tool to use with younger students to begin their robot building career. Students are able to design, create, and bring to life their own robots. Then, they can code their robots using their freshly learned coding skills.
There is simply no limit to how coding and robotics can enrich the everyday classroom experience!
As always, thanks for reading!
Shannon
No comments:
Post a Comment