Over the last year, Beck Elementary has been building its inventory to kick off and launch a campus STEAM Lab. As an extension of the classroom, this lab allows students and teachers to make cross curriculum connections and extend their thinking in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The most popular additions to the lab have been the LittleBits, Keva Planks, and Ozobots.The Ozobots, specifically, have been kid tested and teacher approved as a way to promote critical thinking and problem solving. These codable robots can inspire students to design a path using color coded markers that demonstrate, imitate, represent, or even illustrate a particular concept. The sky's the limit with these tiny bots. Teachers have collaborated with the campus Library Media Specialist, Jenny Martin, and one of the campus GATES teachers, Shelly Moses, to design rich learning opportunities focused on content across grade levels.
Bulleted below are just some of the innovative ways the Ozobots have been integrated into classrooms over the last year:
- Science:
- demonstrating the sun and moon’s orbit around Earth; which then led to students exploring solar and lunar eclipses
- illustrating the phases of the moon
- representing the life cycle of a plant; from seed to flower
- modeling various types of weather
- Math:
- practicing the use of a number line for addition and subtraction
- identifying various ordered pairs on a coordinate grid; creating a path that would connect those points
- explaining the function of the hands on a clock as the minute hand moves around a path
- Language Arts:
- creating story mountains to show conflict in stories
- analyzing character traits and emotions on a story mountain
- sequencing a retell of a story; beginning, middle, and end
- Social Studies:
For more lesson inspiration check out the Ozobot lesson library portal and follow the Beck Elementary STEAM Lab on Twitter. Happy coding!
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