As we do more than ever to create equitable STEM education, we’ve really embraced coding lessons that students can access from everywhere. One robotics tool that enables this is that highly intelligent humanoid known as the NAO Robot V6 and, with the virtual version, students in middle school, high school, college, and CTE programs can code in any environment.
EdScratch is very user-friendly and designed for students as young as 10 years old. Students can use it to explore the more challenging aspects of coding, such as changing the input commands within blocks and setting their own values for distance, time, and speed. Also, whereas EdBlocks is icon-based, EdScratch enables hybrid coding with the Edison Robot.
DJI’s drones are great for teaching coding and piloting basics. Having long been a staple of our STEM education offerings, these drones offer unprecedented levels of excitement and a ton of educational value for students. They can literally use one tool to learn about piloting, shooting video, and coding, making the Tello EDU a great value.
Students can program the Sphero BOLT Robot to roll around, program its LED lights, program its sounds, and add loops to repeat programs. When programming the BOLT, they can use the various programming blocks in the Sphero Edu app. With these blocks, students can build programs for the BOLT to run and build their CS foundation at the same time.
Using this tiny tool, students can start to learn all about computer science concepts and even drive the robot using their facial expressions. It’s a great option for getting started with robotics in the classroom and offers a smooth initial experience for coding during the school day or in an afterschool robotics club. Keep reading to learn more about it!
The NAO Robot V6 is easily one of the world’s smartest robots and arguably the most powerful STEAM solution you’ll find on the Eduporium store. This humanoid robot comes with a huge array of educational and experimental value and it’s ready to go right out of the box whether educators purchase a used NAO robot or a brand-new model.
With three different levels, students can try block coding, hybrid coding, and text coding while controlling a variety of the Root’s features. There have also been updates to the Root, including new Android and computer or laptop compatibility. We’ll introduce you to the iRobot coding simulator as well and explore its amazing features!
Though it’s ideal, having a physical robot is not always an option for students learning outside of the classroom and that’s why these various virtual resources have become so important. Among those is the Shape Tracer game from Ozobot, a cool, Web-based platform students can use to code a virtual Ozobot right on their screen.
For this week’s Rising Resources post, we took a deeper look at Hatch—an online platform that just about anybody can use to start building or fine tuning their programming skills. The Hatch platform helps make discovering coding concepts easy for kids as young as eight years old and includes various projects and challenges that help them progress.
We have awarded our final $500 EdTech grant of the year (and of the decade!), closing out 2019 with over $5,000 worth of technology contributions to schools and teachers around the country! For the month of December, we’ve awarded our grant to Ellen Peterson, a STEM and technology teacher at the Smithfield Middle School in Smithfield, VA.
