In March, I spent time with some sweet little first graders as I introduced them to the Dash Robots their teacher received with a grant - just as COVID closed schools. She also had some of the task cards designed to introduce them to the robot, but as we reviewed them, we realized the students needed a more basic introduction and, most importantly, time to explore. I must say, while Dash is a pretty cool robot, I do not like that all of the materials that support instruction for this guy require subscriptions and additional purchases. And don’t get me started on Teachers Pay teachers! Y’all, I was a classroom teacher and bought so many things with my own money - and it’s only gotten worse for teachers over the years. Most teachers would LOVE to use the cool resources for the classroom that Wonder Workshop has, but when you have to write a grant just to get the equipment, finding a sustainable source for the additional subscription most likely isn’t going to happen. So after scouring the interwebs and reading numerous twitter and blog posts, I saw an activity that I could easily modify to create the perfect introductory activity! Needing inspiration, I went to the Dollar Tree, my go-to store for all things when creating activities for professional learning, facilitating meetings, and teaching the kiddos! On this trip, I found a four-pack of foam dice. ? I decided to make a Roll and Code activity! Using Google Docs, a table, a royalty free image of each side of a die, and a screengrab from the (free) Ozoblockly app for programming Dash, I created a very quick introduction to Dash. Since the teacher only had three robots, we decided to split the class in half and do this lesson over two days.
We started with small group instruction - each Dash robot had a pit crew of three. One to make sure Dash behaved (he’s a chatty little guy!), one to roll the dice, and the other to run the iPad and drag the code blocks over. Once the activity began, students rotated through each of these specific roles.
This proved to be the perfect way to let them begin. Once they had completed a few rolls of the dice and run the programs they built, the conversations shifted to, “what does this make him do?” and “I wonder how far he will go if we change the speed?”
I tweeted about it and have since shared the Roll and Code with a friend and colleague in a district to the north - and she has used it with her kiddos! They also loved it! By introducing coding in a non-threatening way, we effectively laid the foundation for the next lesson they were going to do with Dash and his launcher attachment!
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AuthorJeannie Timken Archives
March 2023
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