Ozobots are tiny line following robots that are causing quite a stir in our elementary classrooms. Ozobots are a part of our Grandview C4 mobile makerspace that teachers can check out to use in their classrooms.
I had the opportunity to introduce Ozobots to third graders in Ms. Weatherly's class at Belvidere and third graders in Ms. Swartz and Mr. Dean's classes at Martin City and here is what I learned.
1. Students want to play to learn
My teacher instinct was to plan out every detail of the lesson to introduce what Ozobot was, how it worked, the rules, and go step by step of the process of coding with Ozobot. This immediately went out the window when I put the Ozobots in front of the students. They didn't hear a word I said because they wanted to start exploring on their own. As soon as I stopped talking, that is when the magic happened! Students were engaged, drawing different lines, and watching what their Ozobot did with different color codes.
2. Start simple
Start by showing students how to draw lines and for the Ozobot to follow, then let the students try. They will eventually want to do more than draw lines when you tell them they can do color combinations that tell the robot to go turbo speed, do a tornado, jump a line and more. Thats when you can hand out a code sheet. Giving students the chance to explore on their own, and through their exploration they will be excited to show you what they have learned.
1. Students want to play to learn
My teacher instinct was to plan out every detail of the lesson to introduce what Ozobot was, how it worked, the rules, and go step by step of the process of coding with Ozobot. This immediately went out the window when I put the Ozobots in front of the students. They didn't hear a word I said because they wanted to start exploring on their own. As soon as I stopped talking, that is when the magic happened! Students were engaged, drawing different lines, and watching what their Ozobot did with different color codes.
2. Start simple
Start by showing students how to draw lines and for the Ozobot to follow, then let the students try. They will eventually want to do more than draw lines when you tell them they can do color combinations that tell the robot to go turbo speed, do a tornado, jump a line and more. Thats when you can hand out a code sheet. Giving students the chance to explore on their own, and through their exploration they will be excited to show you what they have learned.
A student at BV uses a color code combination to tell the Ozobot to spin around.
3. Connect to curriculum
Once students understand how the Ozobot works, it is then time to tie in coding to your curriculum. Ozobots has a website of lesson plans written by teachers, as wells as activities, contests, and resources. There are a wide variety of teachers now sharing out their lesson ideas all over pinterest as well. There are an endless amount of ways to use Ozobots in your classroom.
4. Ozobots App
Once students get used to the idea of coding with lines, students can use the Ozobot app to start block coding. With this app, students can complete coding challenges, code their ozobot to go through mazes, or code their ozobot with block coding or lines. This app is great for our 3-12 grade students.
Diane DeLaTorre
Once students understand how the Ozobot works, it is then time to tie in coding to your curriculum. Ozobots has a website of lesson plans written by teachers, as wells as activities, contests, and resources. There are a wide variety of teachers now sharing out their lesson ideas all over pinterest as well. There are an endless amount of ways to use Ozobots in your classroom.
4. Ozobots App
Once students get used to the idea of coding with lines, students can use the Ozobot app to start block coding. With this app, students can complete coding challenges, code their ozobot to go through mazes, or code their ozobot with block coding or lines. This app is great for our 3-12 grade students.
Diane DeLaTorre
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