Key points:
When our high school started offering a robotics course to its students this year, it was a big deal. I had used a gamified coding platform in my previous district and thought it would be a good fit for my new school.
During COVID, the platform provided a virtual option so students could still participate in robotics, and I have been using it ever since. Although it was a difficult year to do anything in person, the computer science and coding platform helped keep our students interested in robotics.
I was also familiar with the vendor's robotics competitions and felt they would enrich the robotics program we wanted to start here. When I took on this position, we didn't really have anything related to robotics, so we were looking for ways to get 8th graders into a CTE pathway.
The plan has worked very well so far. Here are five ways our gamified coding and robotics platform helps prepare students for success in college and the world of work:
1. Aligns with state standards. Texas has adopted curriculum standards that are used in all public schools in the state. Adopted by the State Board of Education, the current Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards describe what students will learn in each course/grade. With full alignment with the revised TEKS for technology Applications and strong teaching support for interdisciplinary lessons, the coderz The courses make it easier for educators to integrate computer science into learning core subjects and provide teachers with the resources they need to build a solid foundation for technical and engineering careers.
2. Flexible curriculum that integrates with other platforms. We are currently using the vendor's Cyber Robotics 101 and 102 along with physical Lego SPIKE educational kits. Coding is in Blockly and students can also use Python LEGO. We are just getting started in robotics instruction and plan to make more extensive use of the computer science and coding platform in the near future. We use the platform in conjunction with LEGO, because they both work similarly and emphasize our robotics course. Those two platforms meet our TEKS standards, so we use them together.
3. Provides students with real-world knowledge and experience. The robotics course is currently an elective offered to eighth grade students and includes lessons and paths that students must follow to collect energy cells. We're using that to help us teach them about following safety guidelines and how to stay safe when it comes to hazardous materials. For example, students must consider whether it will be safe for a human to transport a cylinder of acid from point A to point B, or not. If they program this robot to transport it from one place to another and dispose of it properly, students learn that a robot can perform the task safely without putting a human in danger.
4. Meets students where they are. We really like the platform's student-paced learning and how it easily adapts to the needs and abilities of individual students. A new student who had no prior experience with coding or robotics (and came from a different school) was able to walk into the robotics class and start learning right away. At the same time, the teacher was able to continue the lesson for the rest of the class, while the student caught up through a self-paced program.
5. A turnkey platform that is easy for teachers to learn and use. Our platform offers a turnkey computing and coding platform that guides students through the learning process. It is mainly about non-intervention on the part of the teachers. With each lesson the student does the programming and if done correctly they get the credit and move on to the next part of that lesson. It's that easy. Teachers can also configure the platform's curriculum differently based on student needs, including a purely chronological sequence (1-15) or one that allows students to complete lessons in any sequence they wish.
Start small, grow as you go
In the future, we plan to encourage students to work a little faster through the program to complete Robotics 101 and 102 before graduating. This will help prepare them for success as they enter high school. I would tell other districts that are just starting out with their own robotics and coding programs to start small and avoid taking on more than they can chew. That's why we opted to use Cyber Robotics 101 and 102 from our online provider first, with the plan to add more courses in the future.
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