“Starting in primary school, children from all backgrounds and every part of the UK should have the opportunity to: learn some of the key ideas of computer science; understand computational thinking; learn to program; and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of excellence in these activities.” The Guardian
As part of today’s Digital Technologies tutorial we were made aware that Bee-Bot is becoming more frequently used within lessons in primary schools across Scotland. Bee-Bot is a programmable toy which can be used within lessons to introduce children to the early stages of coding and programming.
An example activity we were given was based on a lesson about money and linked numeracy and technology to encourage cross curricular learning. The numeracy activity’s objective was to teach the children to recognise coins and by using Bee-Bot within the lesson also taught the children how to use programmable toys. For example a child could be asked to identify the fifty pence coin by programming the Bee-Bot to move towards the correct coin. Another activity for more able children could be to introduce them to addition and subtraction of money by asking them questions, such as one pound take away fifty pence, and asking them to give the answer by programming Bee-Bot to go to the correct coin.
We were then asked in groups to create our own activity which also promoted cross curricular learning. Our group decided to link numeracy and technology within our activity with the hopes of covering the following experiences and outcomes within curricular for excellence:
Angle, symmetry and transformation at early level MTH 0-17a: “In movement, games and using technology I can use simple directions and describe positions.”
Technology at early level Tch 0-03a: “I explore software and use what I learn to solve problems and present my ideas, thoughts or information.”
Our activity involved using the grid, as shown in the above image, to ask the children to programme the Bee-Bot to move to a square which had a specific number of items. For example in the above video the child could have been asked to move the Bee-Bot to a square which contained one item, like the sandcastle. As the child did this you could ask them to verbally describe what they were doing in order to get the Bee-Bot to the sandcastle which would allow the child to start using directional language such as left, right, forward and backward. This activity also allows children to start seeing the relation between numbers and quantities. For example a child will have to understand that two palm trees represents the number two.
I felt using the Bee-Bot was a great resource to use within the activity because it would allow the children to physically see the Bee-Bot moving forward, backward left and right and so I feel it would give them a better understanding of directions and how directional language is used in context. Supporting this view are the Professional Development Service for Teachers as they have stated that using floor robots in classrooms have benefits such as: having the ability to develop skills like logical sequencing, measuring, comparing lengths, space orientation and expressing concepts into words. They also claim it benefits children as it encourages group interaction, collaboration and conversation. It is also a great way to link more subjects together as another group related their activity to technology, literacy and health and well being. Therefore I think that by being able to integrate all of these subjects within one lesson will enable the children to explore more creative ways of learning.
