I teach technology skills to students in grades K-5 at a public elementary school. I also have a small group of Tech Club students who apply to dive even deeper into learning and practicing their technology skills. Our school consists of a population of around 575 students. The school is situated in an area of lower socioeconomic status where 71% of the school population receives free or reduced lunch.
In this class students get excited about learning 21st century skills that will help them succeed in academics as well as in future careers.
Kids, of course, love using technology so it can become a sort of secret weapon in education. When using the right technology tools, students can learn so much content without even realizing they are learning because they are having so much fun. We focus on educating the whole student so that includes academic content and social skills. I'm lucky enough to see every student, K-5, throughout the week so every student in the school is my student. They are great kids with great potential!
My Project
I am seeking 4 Sphero Sprk+ education robots to be used for teaching my K-5 students computer coding and collaboration. Students will work in small groups where students will need to collaborate to complete projects. The projects they will do consist of miniature putt-putt where students will count how many attempts it takes to code their robot to avoid obstacles and make it in the hole. We will have mini Olympics where students will code a figure skating routine with their robots while being sure to keep it within the rink. We will also build a city where students will have to code their robots to navigate through the city to arrive at different destinations.
Students will need to take measurements for distance, figure angles and speed to complete each project with the Sphero Sprk+ robots which reinforces STEM content.
They will also collaborate with their peers to fix errors in code and exercise creativity in solving problems.
The Sphero Sprk+ robots will be an effective tool to reinforcing STEM content while teaching students to code and gain social experience working together with their peers. The students will be having so much fun coding with the robots that they won't even realize they are learning in the process. Thank you for your support!
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