Welcome to Coding and Robotics! Our day started with a “Lego Icebreaker.” Each student built a mini sculpture that represented themselves and/or their interests. During our morning meeting, each student presented their sculpture and introduced themselves. It was a great way to get to know one another and find shared interests. I also conducted an informal pre-assessment to determine each student’s experience with coding and robotics. This data was used to form differentiated groups to teach specific skills during learning stations.

The real-world scenario for the week is that students are starting a toy company. Today, teams collaborated to develop a name and logo for their company. Each company made a poster with its logo. Tomorrow, they will add a mission statement. We watched a video of how Lego mini figures are made and had a great discussion about automation and the impact of robotics on factories and mass production. The students made astute observations about how people design and program machines/robots that make life easier.

Lego Spike Prime robots are the central focus of this course. Today, students worked with a partner to follow steps to build and program a break-dancing robot. Earlier in the day, students did an “unplugged” coding challenge where they took turns pretending to be robots and followed code written on sticky notes to dance. This helped them understand the coding aspect of the LEGO Spike challenge. Students worked so well with their peers, and our room was full of dancing robots!

It was a pleasure to meet the students today! They are eager to learn and work so well with their new classmates. I am excited for the week ahead! Here are three prompts you may use to discuss the class with your child: