The Ozobot is a tiny, optical robot that follows and understands color codes and can be programmed with block coding. It offers one of the best introductions for young students to learn the foundations of coding without the need for a screen. It can also help them build towards learning other programming concepts by first mastering block coding. It’s become an invaluable STEAM tool and the Ozobot team has raised the bar with their Ozobot Evo Classroom Kit. With this new wrinkle to the Ozobot Evo, educators will be able to do a whole lot more. It definitely makes a worthwhile addition to your EdTech arsenal!
We will continue to offer the Ozobot Evo 12- and 18-bot kits with two major differences from the old versions. The kits will come with a charging/storage base so that all your classroom bots can recharge overnight in one place. This charging base fits seamlessly inside the included plastic storage bin and allows for easy organization.
The Ozobot Evo solutions have also stood apart in STEM education due to its free lessons and resources for educators. With the new kit, the Ozobot team will be releasing its highly anticipated Ozobot Classroom platform. The kits will include Ozobot Classroom licenses for students and teachers. Although we do not have all the details of the new system, we look forward to exploring Ozobot’s new STEAM learning management system, including its virtual coding, and sharing it with the teachers in our community when it is released.
Until we explore Ozobot Classroom, we tried out one of the Ozobot Evo lessons from their free Lesson Library. Teachers create these high-quality lessons themselves for other teachers to use. The free library makes it easy to integrate technology into other subjects like art, geography, or history. We chose the lesson “Magellan’s Journey,” which combines the journey of Ferdinand Magellan, programming, geography, and a touch of art. The lesson begins with reading and discussing the travels of Magellan, so we studied the path he took and created a map of the world that our Ozobot could follow and travel on.
This lesson incorporated the OzoBlockly platform to program our Ozobot Evo to follow the same path Magellan did. OzoBlockly is Ozobot’s version of a drag-and-drop coding platform, which is accessible right on the Web. It's a step up from the line following coding that Ozobot is also known for. We loved that we had the ability to do this project with either coding method and could see how this differentiation is valuable in the classroom.
The lesson even came with extensions for students who finish early or if the teacher wanted to expand the lesson. Students could create costumes for their Ozobots so that they would look like little explorers, create a documentary style video of their Ozobot traveling, or choose a different explorer to research and create a brand-new route. These opportunities for customization and expanded creativity are what make learning with the Ozobot Evo so enjoyable in our eyes.
Ozobot’s free lessons provide inspiration for engaging and creative STEAM lessons that students will love. The high quality of these lessons combined with the power of the Ozobot Evo has us excited to test out the new Evo Classroom kits as soon as we can! If you would like to explore Ozobot’s offerings and see how they might fit in your classroom, check out some of the options on our store below! And, follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more info on all of the latest in STEM education!
