A simple robot that teaches coding and sequences for children as young as 3
In the Spring of 2013 our library was making plans for a renovation. We went on field trips to other libraries and noticed things we liked here and didn’t like too much there. Really, we had small dreams: new carpet, improved lighting. We were pretty content with our department, we just really want to be refreshened. Then I had a conversation with our director and he said to me, “Encourage big thinking!” Well, dreaming is when I do my best brainstorming and one night (April 23, 2013 — I checked my Google drive), I woke up at 4 a.m. with ideas. I went downstairs and started typing. One of the things I typed was
create a STEM space: I don’t know what this means yet….robotics; digital media; creative, it could be as easy as a hands-on place to see Science at work. Maybe this would be just watching and graphing an avocado seed grow…
I haven’t read that in a while and I confess to be surprised by that particular verbage. Did I really use the word robotics? Where did I get that idea from? I notice I capitalized science. That was either a middle-of-the-night mistake or intentional–Science as a living breathing thing.
A follow-up to the Bee-Bot Review:
Yesterday on Twitter, my fellow robot enthusiast Sharon asked: “If you have a beebot, how are you using the cards? Feeling like they aren’t needed. Showing vs. doing, doing wins, right?” I responded, “I think you could use them to set up a route, point A to point B, if it advances one card-length.”
I didn’t want to leave it at “if,” so today I tested the Bee-Bot against the cards, and it does indeed advance one card-length. I’ve only used the Bee-Bot with the youngest of toddlers so far, and they truly do like pushing the buttons and watching things happen. As a way to keep them engaged a little longer, I’ve tried to get them to plan out Bee-Bot’s route, such as, “Have it move from here to knock down that stack of Legos” (appealing to their destructive tendencies). I think that’s when the cards become useful, as a tangible way to plot out a course and as a measuring tool for how far the Bee-Bot will advance.
