We’ve kickstarted off our Sphero robotic and coding club! After the fabulous news that we were the successful recipients of a £5000 Digital Xtra Grant, we’ve been so keen to get started with Sphero that we’ve borrowed a kit from our South Rhins Partnership school friends until our equipment arrives – Thank you Sandhead and Drummore primary schools!
What is a Sphero, you ask? Well, Sphero robots have many different internal parts that make them work such as motors, LEDs, encoders, processors, a CPU and Bluetooth communication module for connecting to phones, and a gyroscope that keeps it oriented. A small, wheeled robot inside the shell climbs up the walls and pushes them forward, causing the ball to roll.
Sphero programmable robots help kids learn fundamental STEM concepts through play-based learning and educational STEAM activities. You can use Sphero robots to play games, create programs, or complete challenges.
Our first extra-curricular club activities focussed on using Bluetooth to pair our devices, orientating our Spheros and using direction and speed to control the travel of our devices. The children quickly mastered the balance between speed and control and were then able to navigate obstacles with increasing accuracy. There was some fun racing the Spheros in figures of eight round cones in pairs. We even had a play with adapting the colours of the led array.
Feedback from our pupils asked for more ‘tinker time’, so the second session gave the boys and girls the opportunity to do just that.
Our next activity will bring in the skills of selecting and using a range of coding blocks to ‘draw’ 2D shapes. This will incorporate thinking about angles, delays and loops.
Watch this space!
UNCRC Rights of the Child:
Article 15 – Setting up and joining groups
Article 28 – Access to Education
Article 29 – Aims of Education
