Grades 4 - 8
Robots & Making
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Robots and tangibles are cool! There are lots of free coding environments, but robots can help make the coding concrete. Only you as a teacher can decide if the cost for tangibles has value.
Here we have critiqued a few newer robots.
The iRobot® Root® coding robot makes learning to code easy and natural in any environment, at home or at school. Children can code their Root® robot to draw artwork, play music, respond to touch, light, and sound, and more, all while exploring the fundamentals of robotics.
No matter your students' experience with coding or robotics, the innovative, free iRobot® Coding app makes coding easy with 3 Learning Levels. Begin with graphical, drag-and-drop code before advancing to hybrid code and finally, full-text code. Using tangible, hands-on experiences to teach coding and strengthen computational thinking skills, Root® makes a perfect addition to any school or learning environment.
Coding Concepts: Sequencing, spatial reasoning
Activities:
Check out Root's online coding environment and try the tutorials for Bump Drive and Forest Adventure Activities. Note: Try clicking level 2 on the bottom left once you start exploring the code!
Affordance
Learn how iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum works with block coding
Cross-curricular activities using visual arts, music, storytelling.
Brings conceptual coding into the realm of functional coding.
Simple enough with increasing complexity that it can be used for all ages, pre-readers and up
The Root moves and turns accurately- 15 cm is one unit, a 90 degree turn is 90 degrees not 88 or 91 degrees. This is important to move on grids
Limitations
The educational level model is $200 USD not including premium educational level membership fees.
Meet k8, your robotics kit for learning STEM and Computational Thinking. Designed to be an accessible entry-point into the world of robotics, k8 is a great educational tool to promote problem-solving, creativity, and digital literacy in an easy and engaging way. k8 is the best friend of new explorers in the wonderful world of robotics.
Activity:
Resources:
Affordance
Relatively inexpensive, complete robotics kit for a micro:bit
Numerous activities to code after the robot is complete
Limitations
Micro:bit not included but a fairly inexpensive additional purpose
Requires extra micro:bit if you want a remote control
Resources:
Milk Monster Robot for micro:bit
Create simple robots using a micro:bit, some scrap materials and a few electronic components! Students can expand on their bots by changing the appearance or what the robot does by incorporating their own creativity with art and modifying their code.
Activity:
Affordance
Web based coding environment.
Can program simple projects with a virtual micro:bit but will need a physical micro:bit to build a robot
Less than $25 for a single micro:bit
Limitations
Many accessories available to expand on the micro:bit to add things like motors and sensors to build a robot but it can start to become expensive https://canada.newark.com/c/embedded-computers-education-maker-boards/micro-bit/prl/results
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