This year the Woolworths Earn and Learn stickers have enabled the school to purchase a further 30 Bee Bots to be used by our classes. How very exciting for our students. We thank all families who contributed to this effort and a big thank you to Jenny Cullen for coordinating this at school.
So what are Bee Bots and how might they contribute to student learning? Here’s a report from Karen Sheppard’s class.
Little yellow robots that help students with basic coding skills have invaded the year 4’s in Room 9. In the photos you can see a little yellow Bee Bot that works by pressing its back to give it directions. The students have been exploring how to use them and investigating how they could work with the mats shown in the photos. The little critters and their learning mats were purchased with the Woolworth’s Earn and learn stickers 2 years ago. The year 4 class have been designing games and activities for the younger students to learn from. Giving instructions, working in a group, designing games and activities all while coding a robot are the main aims in using the Bee Bots. They have also learnt that behind every computer or program there is coding which gives instructions to tell the robot or person what to do. The students have also been looking at a coding website which is really challenging their instructional skills.
Here are a few things the students had to say:
They help us with an introduction to basic coding where we can use spinners and dice to make up games with them.
We get to tell them what to do and they do it, but if we make a mistake they crash.
They are great for learning places, maths, times tables and much more because we can use our imagination.
They help you cooperate with others because you have to listen to each other.
We made up a multiplication games with a dice and the snakes and ladders mat.
Using Bee Bots is a fun way to learn the basics of coding.
Leave a Reply