A series of robots the size of tennis balls are circulating through the Richmond School District’s elementary and high schools, teaching students about computer programming and the coding behind the technology so widely used today.
Sphero, the little robotic, is controlled by block-based coding written by students on an iPad app called Tickle, and Chris Loat, the district’s teacher consultant for technology integration, is loving the children’s reactions.
“It’s a really neat thing to watch kids learn to do this, and they catch on to it incredibly quickly,” he said. “It’s empowering for them to program it with a code and realize that they’re able to control a sphero or a robot, with the coding they’ve done.”
Many students in the district from Grade 1 up to Grade 9 are being exposed to Sphero, an open-ended app whose task complexity changes depending on the age of the kids using it. While they’re learning about repeat statements and writing coding functions, they’re also developing their soft skills, Loat said. “What I really like about this program is that they’re learning skills like cooperation, critical thinking and problem solving, too.”
In the process, they’re writing codes that will make the Sphero move in different directions, navigate along a specific path, change colours, change directions or hop up and down. Students write the code depending on the challenge presented to them, engaging problem solving and trial and error along the way.
Block-based coding was specially designed for kids to learn basic coding skills, Loat explained.
“It’s not the hard coding people in the real world are doing. It teaches them the process of coding and a little about the computer programming and coding behind all the technology our society uses.”
The school district has around 60 spheros, all of them introduced in September 2016. Loat will be spending three weeks per school and will visit at least half of the schools in the district over the course of the school year.
“The kids will have several opportunities to work with the spheros during that time,” he said.
“First we’ll introduce it to them so they can learn how the block-based coding app works – basically, it’s like putting puzzle pieces together. After that, we’ll provide challenges for them to accomplish in teams or pairs.”
