Post date: Mar 7, 2017 7:40:16 PM
During the last WEST Grant cycle, Sue Traversi had the idea to put technology into the hands of our Delaney students. After determining what would work well with general education curriculum we settled on the Bee-Bot. After a great presentation, WEST awarded Sue the Bee-Bot grant! The Bee-Bot is a robot designed to respond to commands a student enters by pressing buttons on top of the Bee-Bot. The Bee-Bot can be used to reinforce various Math and ELA concepts. After giving students an overview of using the Bee-Bot in Technology Class they will be prepared to use it in the general education classroom. Here are some videos from Chickering Elementary School in Dover, MA to help you grasp how the Bee-Bots can be integrated into your classroom.
While the Bee-Bots are primarily a tool for Delaney students our Roderick students are not left out. During the May 2016 WEST Grant cycle Heather Fox was awarded a set of Pro-Bots. While similar to the Bee-Bots in that commands are entered via buttons on top of the robot, they are different in that the commands are more robust and the ability of what the robot can do and how it reacts are elevated to meet upper elementary and middle school expectations. Here is an example of how another Massachusetts school is implementing Pro-Bots in the general education classroom.
Heather has been working with students to understand how to work with the Pro-Bots so they are prepared to use them in the classroom.