Planning
Initial planning involved narrowing down the research questions, planning data collection and analysis techniques and researching the most appropriate robotics kits. 10 Lego WeDo 2.0 kits were purchased from Spectrum Nasco. This company was fabulous to deal with and even sent a tester kit to ensure we had the technology capabilities and it was the right fit for what I wanted for the initiative.
Benefits of the Lego WeDo 2.0
-Lots of different possibilities (compared to other Robots that just roll)
-Lots of different possibilities (compared to other Robots that just roll)
- -Guided tutorials and challenges built directly into app
- -Very user friendly for elementary
- -Expensive - roughly $ 300 a box
- -Lots of little pieces that can get lost
- -Requires 2 AA batteries, unless you get recharge pack but you will need outlets to charge
My Facilitator from TIA - Thomas Walsh
Tom helped me to narrow down my focus of the project to focus on science and learning through experimentation. Tom really drove home the idea of students getting challenges and then designing and testing different solutions to solve the challenge. We spent much time discussing how coding was really all about experimentation. Guessing, checking, carrying our procedures, revising...etc are all part of coding. Tom came in with my students on three separate occasions to talk to my students. He brought great activities with him that got my students really thinking about the words "predicting" and "variables". We has whole class discussions, demonstrations and he even gave some design challenges for them to work on in teams. The kids really enjoyed this, and I was inspired too. The kids even kept asking: "When is Mr. Walsh coming back?"
Tom helped me to narrow down my focus of the project to focus on science and learning through experimentation. Tom really drove home the idea of students getting challenges and then designing and testing different solutions to solve the challenge. We spent much time discussing how coding was really all about experimentation. Guessing, checking, carrying our procedures, revising...etc are all part of coding. Tom came in with my students on three separate occasions to talk to my students. He brought great activities with him that got my students really thinking about the words "predicting" and "variables". We has whole class discussions, demonstrations and he even gave some design challenges for them to work on in teams. The kids really enjoyed this, and I was inspired too. The kids even kept asking: "When is Mr. Walsh coming back?"
Data Collection
We decided on the following methods of data collection during our planning phase:
We decided on the following methods of data collection during our planning phase:
- Student work samples
- Teacher observations/notes
- Student survey on science attitudes conducted pre-implementation and post implementation
Resources
- Code.org - has fabulous course programs that students can go through at own pace. Teaches fundamentals and terms through challenges that are fun and interactive. Teacher can track student progress through teacher dashboard
- Coding Projects in Scratch - Jon Woodcock