Coding & Robotics in the Classroom

Coding and Robotics in the classroom is beneficial for students and can be used across all content areas. It is important to allow students the opportunity to play and interact with the coding materials before you implement them into the lesson. This promotes encouragement and puts less stress on perfection. Coding can be used all across the curriculum and is rich in STEAM strategies. Free programs are available; however, you can purchase BeeBots and other coding applications online. BeeBots are small robots that students can manipulate and code to follow certain paths and patterns. BeeBots can be used in math, literacy, science, and social studies. Teachers can set up a grid with multiple numbers and have students create a code that moves the BeeBot to the product, sum, or difference of a set of numbers. In literacy, students can map out the sequence of events in a story, show letter-sound correspondences, or even code the BeeBot to spell out spelling or high-frequency words. Students can map out the different life cycles or body systems in science, and can pinpoint locations on a map in social studies. The main reason for using coding and robotics in the classroom is to teach students how to problem solve, preserver through a tough task, think critically, be creative, and work as a team to reach a common goal.

Coding in Lower-Elementary

One thing about using coding and robotics in the classroom that surprised me is how much it impacts the learning of young elementary students. When I initially heard of coding in the classroom, my mind immediately went to upper middle and high school students. I am so shocked that pre-k students can use coding to identify shapes, colors, numbers, and letters. Coding at a young age promotes a gender-free environment. It shows students that girls, too, can enjoy programing and engineering. Another thing that stood out to me was how BeeBots and other coding activities normalizes trial and error. It is important that students know how to handle failure and learn from their mistakes. The teacher should normalize such outcomes because students will grow in their learning and strengthen problem-solving skills

I would love to implement these activities into my future classroom. All of the listed activities can be accommodated for any age group in any content area. Coding could be a great differentiation strategy for gifted students. Early-finishers could practice writing a code to a question from the reading passage. Once finished, they could try the code out for themselves, or challenge a friend to locate the answer on the grid. I would also like to use coding as an introductory lesson for longitudinal versus latitudinal lines on maps. This would aid as a visual tool that demonstrates the coordinates and connects the lesson to real-life learning experiences.

Why should we code??