Robotics on a Budget
Technology teacher Kimberly Hunter first discovered Ozobots
at an AoP Tech event. “They were so fun and so easy to use, I
thought they would be a great start for beginners,” she says.
Appealing as the robots were, Hunter wanted to try them out
before setting out to purchase a full set. The Ozobot Bit model
currently retails at $59.
Hunter had previously lent and borrowed supplies from
other schools, in addition to working with the Uncommon
Individual Foundation to try new tech. This time, she was
able to borrow a set of Ozobots from the Delaware County
Intermediate Unit’s lending library.
She ran a few trial activities with her fourth through eighth
graders using activities she found online. Younger students
used the robots to complete an Easter egg hunt, while older
students calculated the probability of Ozobots traversing
specific paths.
Fortunately, the robots were a hit. That year, the school’s tech
department ran a penny war drive to raise funds to purchase
the school’s own Ozobots.
Armed with a full set of 18 Ozobots, Hunter and her students
were set to explore everything the robots could do.
A New Way to Compete
— and Collaborate
Hunter soon found there was no shortage of ideas for using the
Ozobots to reinforce lessons about geometry, probability, and even
art — all searchable online.
Over the past year and a half, she has used the robots to conduct a
number of timely activities including a trick-or-treating challenge
and an Ozobot Olympics.
Younger students command the robots by coloring commands
on paper. Older students use iPads to code commands using the
OzoBlockly app.
Hunter’s classes typically work in small groups to complete a
specific task, such as stopping at each house on a drawn map to
gather Halloween candy as quickly as possible. For the Olympics,
students were tasked with creating an original sports-related
obstacle, earning points for creativity, robot speed, and teamwork.
“In addition to the lessons themselves, students are learning to
troubleshoot,” Hunter says. “Since they work together to code, they
have to solve problems by listening to one another’s ideas.”
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