Dash-ing with Directions
June 5, 2019
Student Learning Outcomes:
Our goal for students in completing this grant work was to engage them in robotics as a vehicle to master social studies standards related to geography. We had an amazing year with this work. We started with teaching students the basics of coding Dash and led to our students understanding social studies concepts related to geography and history. We unexpectedly accomplished our goals for this grant by the middle of the school year. Students were able to demonstrate their knowledge of coding and geography by completing a project where students coded Dash to visit various geographical features on a giant map of New Hampshire. Students were able to share this learning with their classmates, other teachers in the building, and even a visitor from another school district. Our students mastered these concepts early on, and as a result we were able to dive deeper into social studies and computer science by adding a debugging history project. In this unit we had students pretend that Dash's time machine was broken, and Dash was going to the wrong dates at the wrong time. Students had to create a bugged program to share with a group, then other groups in the class worked to debug their program. After working with our third grade teachers and students on this project, it is clear that our students have benefited greatly from this work. We notice that the groups of students who participated in this grant are able to work more effectively in teams than students who were not part of this project. We also noticed that students were able to explain and teach others how to code and how to read a map. The transferable skills our students gained from this project will have a huge impact on this group as they move into fourth grade. Additionally we plan to extend our work to provide lessons for fourth grade classes in order to continue challenging these students.
Year 1 Reflection:
As our year comes to an end our work on this grant project is actually going to continue. This grant has led to our work and ideas being spread around the district. Over the summer we are meeting as a team of teachers to write more lessons using Dash and working to integrate Dash robotics into our K-5 Social Studies Units. We are calling this program Crossroads, and are working with a mix of classroom teachers and tech integrators in the district to write these units. Another tech integrator, Heather Drolet, from Christa McAuliffe School in our district has taken the lead on this project with me, and I look forward to the work we will produce. We plan to make these Crossroads lessons easy for teachers to use and integrate robotics into their social studies curriculum.
The work we have done through this grant project has far exceeded our expectations. We have not only helped students think about social studies in a different way, but also introduced them to robotics. The two greatest outcomes from this project are the level of teamwork that our students in this group are now capable of, and the fact that we have district support to continue our work on integrating social studies into robotics. After reflecting with the teachers involved in this project we all agreed that assisting students in developing teamwork skills was best part of our work on this project. By our last lesson students were able to work through a problem and give each other feedback at a level that we had not seen before. This was an unintended impact of the project which we actually feel may be the most important part of this work.
The only part of this project I would go back and change is to set our expectations higher at the beginning. A third grader can easily code dash to go to various places on a map after a few months of coding practice with Dash. We were all pleasantly surprised by the level of coding our third graders were capable of. I believe that our curriculum work over the summer will help us to fine tune these lessons and provide an even better experience for our students. I would also work to develop teamwork strategies starting on day 1. Third graders need a lot of structure at the beginning in regards to how to interact in a group, and I feel that we now have some great strategies for them to complete this work.
Receiving this grant and teaching these lessons was one of the best parts of my school year. It helped our team think about teaching team work, social studies and coding in a different way while providing an amazing experience for our third grade students. We are looking forward to continuing this work next year.
Our last project:
It is hard to believe that our year is coming to an end and we are in the middle of our last project with Dash for the year. Although our other projects revolved around specific social studies standards we decided to give students something different since we were able to meet our curriculum goals so much earlier than expected. We currently have students working to create a game that involves the use of Dash. We are having students work through the engineering design process to create the game. So far this mini project has been a great test of team work for our students, and I am pleased to say that they have risen to the occasion. Our teams are more effective than ever, and we are so excited to see the skills students have built around team work. We look forward to seeing what students have created!
April 5, 2019
Sharing with Other Schools:
Our students were able to share their project with the STEM Lab teacher from Pembroke, New Hampshire. Students worked on a debugging lesson to give this teacher some ideas for using Dash. In this lesson students were learning how to share and debug a code that was given to them. We noticed that this was a hard concept to think about because the solution was not as obvious as students anticipated. Out of our 12 groups only 2 groups were able to solve the puzzle in the allotted time. We are working up to students sharing and debugging programs that they created and plan to do more related to this standard.
March 28, 2019
An Exciting Time for Social Studies
After working on this grant project for the past six months, it has caused a great deal of excitement in our district around creative ways to teach Social Studies. With the support of the other tech integrators in the district and our Assistant Superintendent, we were able to develop a curriculum team to develop more lessons to integrate robotics into Social Studies. Our team is composed of classroom teachers grade K-5 and our tech integrators. We are calling this project Crossroads, and have started to develop experiences for students in grades K-5 to use Dash to teach Social Studies concepts. We are really excited about the possibilities this will bring for our students, and I am grateful to have received this grant so we could test things out before getting the curriculum rolling. I plan to share some of our lessons as we develop them.
Teachers learn to Code Dash in order to start thinking about how they can integrate Robotics into the Social Studies Curriculum.
March 18, 2019
Dash's Time Machine
We took a short hiatus from our project because we needed to revamp our lessons. As we went forward with our lessons related to mapping skills we found that students had mastered the coding and were ready for more. Last week we made the decision to start new lessons related to the computer science standard of debugging programs. We paired this lesson with a Code.org lesson in Media Tech that also helps students work through this debugging standard.
In our robotics lesson students are using the idea of a timeline to write a "bugged" program. We gave students a timeline of famous inventions to work with. Students have to write a bugged program where dash doesn't visit the correct date at the correct time. Students are using plastic spots and paper to create their program. They will use Dash and the iPad to create the program. Once students finish this part of the activity they will switch programs with different groups and try to debug the program.
Grant Impact:
Our team is thrilled that our students are such confident programmers. When we began our project we never would have imagined that our students would come this far and that we would have to change our focus to make things more challenging. It is exciting to see our students master the teamwork and the coding. After working through this project I have a new appreciation for robotics being integrated into the elementary curriculum.
February 17, 2019
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work!
It is refreshing to see our third graders embrace their teams! I think the best advice I could give someone working with robotics or any team problem solving task is to spend the time in the beginning teaching students how to work in teams. I think we often assume that teamwork will just come naturally for our students, and it really doesn't. Our work in the beginning with Kagan structures and guiding students on how to work together has really paid off. I have found several important things occurring in our lessons now that weren't present at the beginning. The first is that teams are able to divide up their roles without much guidance from the teachers. They can effectively share materials, jobs, and work towards a goal. This rarely happened when we first started. I also notice that students are not looking for help from the teachers as often. In the beginning students would not ask their group for help, they would immediately raise their hand for teacher help. Now students are respectfully correcting each other, looking towards their peers for help, and delving into the problem as a group. This is probably one of my favorite things to see because to me this represents a higher level of team work that wasn't there in the beginning. We are also seeing less teams fighting with one another. It still occasionally happens, but most teams are able to quickly work through their differences and focus on the problem at hand. Without this level of teamwork students would not get as much out of our lessons. It is exciting to see this gain as we move forward with integrating our robotics work into our social studies curriculum.
February 4, 2019
We got a Giant Map!
This was probably one of the most exciting day for kids and teachers. We ordered a Giant Map of NH through National Geographic. This map is large enough for students to walk on, and although our big group of 45 was a little too big to all fit on the map we plan to break up our group into stations next week.
Teaching Map Skills:
The first part of this lesson involved students going over basic features on the map. Students quickly noticed the different fonts, colors, and physical features on the map. Students asked great questions as they worked to understand the map. Having a giant map was a fun and engaging way for students to work on basic map skills. This was a far more meaningful way for students to work on there map skills versus having them work off a small paper map.
Coding Dash:
This was also our first day of coding Dash on the map of New Hampshire. We had students choose a town/city on the map and then code their robot to get to the town/city. Students are required to measure the points they are trying to reach in order to create an accurate code. We were impressed with our students ability to navigate the map and write their code. This was our first step at integrating Social Studies into this unit and felt that it was a huge success.
January 20, 2019
Teaching Precision and Directions:
There were two goals in this particular lesson. The first was to choose a target in the library and write directions on paper using cardinal directions. Once students did this successfully we added the second goal. Students then had to use the iPad to create a precise code for Dash to reach the same target. In this lesson we had students practice precise coding using measuring tapes and their robots. We discussed the importance in precision with coding and did a mini lesson on how to measure in centimeters. Our third grade students had some prior experience with measuring, but a quick refresher was important to the success of this lesson. Groups successfully completed the lesson, but we plan to do some more with with precision and directions as we prepare for our project using Dash.
Ms. Arnold conducts a mini lesson on measuring.
Student write out directions using a target in the library and a measuring tape.
Dashing into the New Year:
As part one of our grant project comes to a close it is a great time to reflect on the amazing progress our students have made. There are several things that I am most proud of when I think about our project. First, I love the buzz that our project has created around robotics. It is an exciting time to teach robotics because it has gained so much attention and support at the state level in New Hampshire. This has allowed our school to bring robotics to all of our students and not just a small group. Now, we have many students who have found an interest in robotics! The growing interest in robotics has led students to work better to problem solve with their team. We have noticed a shift in the amount of kids needing help with the problems we give them because they are becoming more cohesive teams. We found students turning to teammates for help instead of immediately calling over the adults in the room. Teamwork was our biggest challenge in the beginning so we devoted a lot of time and effort towards teaching teamwork. We have seen a shift in the way students talk to each other, and problem solve with one another. Teams are more confident and students are utilizing different strategies when they get stuck. After going through this process with our students I realize in order to run a successful robotics program a good amount of time must be spent on team building. Our students would not be able to solve more difficult problems if they couldn't figure out the team work piece. In part two of our Dashing Directions we will begin to integrate Social Studies into our lessons and will lead to a culminating project where students work to demonstrate their understanding of New Hampshire's geography with help from Dash. We cannot wait to see how our project progresses in the new year.
November 19, 2018
Code a Square
This week we are working on precision. Kids worked to code a square using Dash. The fun part of this challenge was at the end when kids who completed the challenge played their squares for the class. My favorite part was the excitement of this challenge. You can tell by the students celebrations at the end that they were so proud of themselves. At this point kids are more comfortable with the coding and starting to work better together in teams.
Once students dressed up Dash they had to code their robot to make a square. The difficulty of the challenge was that students had to leave their costumes on Dash in order to see how they impacted their robot. Students first made a prediction and then tried to use their robot. Some groups did have to make improvements to their costume so Dash could move. At this point we are noticing that groups are becoming more cohesive, even though we still have occasional struggles. This unplugged activity was a great way for groups to work together on something outside of the coding.
November 13, 2018
Unplugged Dash Dress Up
This week we decided to do something a little different with our Dash Robots and dress them up. We gave students a cup full of Lego bricks, paper, paperclips, colored pom poms, and tape for students to design a costume for their robot. Students used the engineering design process to go through the challenge, and designed the costume on paper before putting it on Dash. This is a process students are used to because we use it frequently in our classes. Students could only use the materials in the cup and had to work as a team to agree on their design. Once Dash was dressed up students did a gallery walk to view the other designs, it was a fun day and a different way to teach teamwork.
October 30, 2018
Practicing Presentations:
Presenting is an important life skill for our students. Our third graders are practicing presenting their code for their robot to solve our coding challenge for the week. This is another piece to preparing them for their social studies integration project. It is important for students to work on both their presentation skills and their listening skills. Prior to starting our presentations we reminded students how to be a good audience. This is a great group and they picked up on good listening skills right away. Here is a sample of one of our groups presenting their code. Our team was impressed by how our students could talk about their code and describe what their robot should be doing. The learning that has taken place so far is amazing, our students have come such a long way in being able to articulate what their code will do.
October 13, 2018
Learning to Work Together to Code:
After working on our project for the past 4 weeks we are noticing that teamwork seems to be the biggest struggle for our groups. Over the past two weeks our team has been working hard to put structures in place so that even our teams that struggle the most can find success. I brought up this problem in a few different meetings with teachers and administrators over the past few weeks and was directed to Kagan Cooperative Learning. In this book the authors give many different ideas and structures for team working together. We chose to use the structure of giving social roles within the team(Kagan, 2009, p.11.9). Our roles for the week included Material Manager, Recorder, Presenter and Manager. We noticed the structure of giving students roles stopped some of the disagreements within the groups. We also added a brainstorming component for groups to discuss before jumping into the coding. These two pieces made this our most successful lesson yet. Below is a video of one of our teams discussing how they worked through the problem this week even though it didn't go as expected. We have noticed our students becoming more successful with the coding and teamwork this week and can't wait to see them progress even more.
720p.movSeptember 21, 2018---Getting Started
Our School: Broken Ground School(BGS) is located in East Concord, New Hampshire. We are an elementary school with roughly 380 students in grades 3-5. We have about 14 different languages represented at our school, and a large population of New American students. Last fall we were awarded a robotics grant through the State of New Hampshire and found that the addition of robotics to our school has sparked a great deal of interest around this subject. Robotics is currently part of our 21C after school program, and we have 2 competitive robotics teams including a FIRST Lego League team as well as a Girl Powered VEX team. Several teachers have integrated robotics into the classroom at various points during the school year. We applied for the Chris Nelson Memorial Grant because we felt like a great next step for our school is to integrate robotics into a subject like social studies so we could reach even more students.
Our Team:
Dana Foulds- Tech Integrator
Annie Arnold- 3rd Grade Teacher
Lindsey Elefante- 3rd Grade Teacher
Our Project:
The goal of our project is to bring Social Studies and Computer Science to life for our students. We will start by introducing lessons to kids on how to use Dash robots so that kids are comfortable with the coding. Simultaneously classroom teachers will work with students to introduce Social Studies standards related to understanding the world in spatial terms. Once we feel students have mastered these skills we will introduce a project based learning assessment where students code their robot on a classroom size map of New Hampshire. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of both Social Studies and computer science through this project.
Day 1:
Set Up:
After charging, updating and setting up our robots we were ready to go. We decided to meet as a big group, about 40 students and 3 teachers. Although this sounds like a lot of 3rd graders at once we felt it was worth a try. Through our grant we were able to purchase 10 Dash robots and we have students working in groups of 4. We organized the robots by assigning each group a robot, an iPad, and a box to use as a home.
Our Lesson:
Right away you could feel the excitement as the third graders entered the room. We met as a big group initially and went over expectations for our project. Students at our school are used to using technology because we are a 1:1 district. Third graders have used iPads in K-2 and now have Chromebooks to use in class. Most students in the group had never programmed a robot before and few had experience coding on the iPad, but most have completed a Project Lead the Way unplugged coding lesson called Rosie's Runtime Game. This was a big help in deepening their understanding of how to program a robot. As we finished discussing things like failing forward, and how to work through the engineering design process one excited student raised his hand and said, "I feel like a Software Engineer!" It was the perfect way to segue into our first coding mission. For our first lesson students paired their robot to their iPad and started the beginner tutorials in the Wonder app.
Teaching Teamwork:
Group work is always a challenge to teach. When working with robotics I like to use a structure to ensure that all students get to touch the robot and the iPad. Especially when working in groups of four this is important. We require students to use the structure where one student has the iPad and codes the robot while other look on. Once the student finishes the code successfully they pass the iPad to the student next to them. Students continue to rotate the iPad in a circle after each step to ensure that everyone is involved in the process. This seems to work as a great way to introduce team work, especially when the materials are something really cool that everyone is dying to touch. For our first lesson this worked great and we didn't witness any teams fighting with each other. We plan to keep students in the same groups throughout this project.
Our first day was a huge success and all of us (teachers included) can't wait to see how our students progress through this project.
Post by Dana Foulds