Slice of Raspberry Pi: primary

Friday, 1 July 2022

Robotics for primary

Robots for schools

Once upon a time I taught primary and so I wanted to do a quick write up of the robotics systems that I've used and any resources that I know about. These are in no particular order and any of which could be suitable for your needs. I know that supplies can be challenging, depending where you come from so bear that in mind. Don't forget to mix and match lesson plans, most lesson ideas will work with all these robots.

Beebots - simple & effective younger years

On the floor with the Beebots

The original beebots is great for younger years, because the controls are on the top of the robot and are great for paired programming. They can be used to teach directions, solve mazes and draw simple patterns (Attach an actual pen or pencil.) There's many lesson resources for these robots and its well worth looking through the lesson packs even if you select a different robot.

Lesson ideas:

Suppliers

Singapore & Malaysia Supplier
UK Supplier
Beebot App (Doesn't need physical robot)

They're quite robust, but not indestructible.

Cosmo

This is a much newer robot and has lots of potential, so worth keeping an eye on. Supplies have been tricky to get recently, but hearing rave reviews. You can buy a lesson guide with the robot too.

Direct link: digitaldreamlabs.com/pages/cozmo

Dash & Cue

These have been designed from the ground up to teach robotics and have been used very successfully at our sister school in Malaysia.

https://www.makewonder.com/compare_robots/

Lesson Plan archive: https://www.makewonder.com/blog/tag/lesson-plan/

Lego

A lot of the fun is actually building this robot, so its great for an after schools club and completely reusable. However it takes a while to get to the programming and computational thinking, so that can be a limitation if used in class.

https://www.lego.com/en-my/product/robot-inventor-51515

Lego now have a full education system with STEAM and bricks with sensors, so that is well worth looking into. https://education.lego.com/en-us/learningsystem#the-lego-learning-system The quality is as you'd expect from Lego with prices to match. (Much cheaper in the UK rather than in South East Asia)

Raspberry Pis can make all sorts of robots

These are great, but be warned there are smaller parts and some robots will need a little bit of soldering. However if you are running a workshop and the students get to take away their project. These are fantastic. This is just a small selection of what's available:

Robotic ideas: https://raspberrytips.com/best-raspberry-pi-robots-kits/

Lesson ideas: https://www.raspberrypi.org/teach/

Gopigo Robot: https://gopigo.io/

Sphero

These have come a long way since the days, when the original Sphero was just so much fun to play as a remote control toy, but boring to program. They've extended their range included a lot of great lesson and plans and worked hard to make real programming interactions. I find these to be genuinely hard-wearing and have done well in all the classrooms I have used them.

There's now a great range of lesson plans:

Lesson activities: https://edu.sphero.com/cwists/category

Matatalab

This one is great fun, because it is board based.

Thanks to Sethi De Clercq for the recommendation.

https://matatalab.com/en

Kubo

Another board based robot that also looks very useful for teaching.

Thanks to Sethi De Clercq for the recommendation.

https://kubo.education/

Thursday, 5 April 2018

Getting Started With Computing Resources

Primary

For Primary I'd recommend the Barefoot computing resources and either making disposable robots such as what you can make with Raspberry Pi or using robots such as Dash and Dot which you are more robust. There's plenty of options on the market, so have a look around. I'd make the decision in Vietnam when you know what you are doing.

For primary coding, I'd recommend Scratch as the go to tool if they're on Computers. Otherwise, Hopscotch, Scratch Junior and the new Swift coding for iPads (64 bit only)

Secondary

For Secondary you should do Python for iGCSE and A-level or Java for IB. I've included a list of resources to help you get started. I'd also recommend getting a good book for Python and as you are in the UK, I'd recommend checking them out at the library and see which you'd get along with. Java is generally considered more difficult than Python so I'd be careful about introducing it at Key Stage 3. Some have managed it at year 9 with some good frameworks. I've made a versal course that introduces the basics to year 8 for Python. https://versal.com/c/9tw8gy/secret-life-of-algorithms

General Resources

Hodder Key Stage 3

For a complete UK Key Stage 3 curriculum, this series is very useful:

https://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/compute-it

(Interest disclosure: I am one of the authors)

Barefoot computing (primary)

https://barefootcas.org.uk/

Great site for students beginning to code

UK Computer Science Curriculum

https://community.computingatschool.org.uk/resources/3042/single

Dash & Dot Robotics

https://education.makewonder.com/curriculum