Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda UFSD
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- Overview
LEGO Robotics Club Introduces Students to Coding
A new after-school club at Hoover Elementary School is giving students an introduction to coding: the process of writing and troubleshooting the computer language used by apps, software, and websites. Best of all, it is doing it in a fun and engaging way using one of the students’ favorite toys: LEGOs.
Now in its second year, the Hoover Elementary School LEGO Robotics Club has been extremely popular with students. Nearly half of all fourth-graders – approximately 60 altogether – will participate in the after-school club this year. As part of the club, students construct a simple robot built from interlocking LEGO bricks and create a code sequence that guides the robot in accomplishing various tasks. This gives students an introduction to the simple coding systems of today’s world.
The motivation behind creating LEGO Robotics Club at Hoover Elementary was to address a nationwide challenge: the need to invest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. The U.S. is lagging behind other industrialized nations in math and science at a time when STEM fields are projected to increase significantly in the coming decades, explains Anthony Orzel, the elementary school science teacher behind the club.
The school’s goal was for STEM-focused education which opens students to new subjects, allows for different learning methods, and promotes creativity. The goal of LEGO Robotics Club is to introduce students to the concept of coding through self-determination and discovery.
“The goal of LEGO Club is quite simple: I want to introduce these students to coding and spark their interest in these ever-expanding fields,” said elementary school science teacher Tony Orzel, who created the club.
In recent years, the Ken-Ton School District has made significant investments in science education with dedicated K-4 science teachers and science labs in each elementary school building. The district is also making significant investments in technology; one of the three core goals of the district’s new 2018-2023 strategic plan, entitled “Ken-Ton Forward,” is to embody a culture of innovation by deploying technology-rich resources in all schools.
The 2017-18 school year was the first year that each elementary school had a science lab, and the Ken-Ton School District Technology Department provided each lab with 15 LEGO Education “WeDo” kits. The kits are from LEGO Education, a division of LEGO which specializes in providing fun, engaging, hands-on learning activities and lesson plans for schools that promote students’ curiosity, communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking-skills.
These sets combines the beloved LEGO interlocking brick with classroom-friendly software, engaging standards-based projects, and a discovery-based collaborative approach, introducing students to computational thinking and engineering principles in a fun and engaging way.
These resources proved so valuable that there was a need to incorporate them into student learning beyond the school day. There simply wasn’t enough time during the regular school day to use them to their full potential.
“So how did we solve that problem? We created an after-school club where we could focus a little bit more on these wonderful teaching tools,” Orzel said during a presentation on LEGO Robotics Club during a Board of Education meeting in January.
During the very first year of LEGO Robotics Club, approximately 45 percent of all fourth-graders took part. After assembling the robot, students use their iPads to control its behavior and movement through coding. The apps they use make coding easy and intuitive and develops students' fundamental understanding of core coding concepts.
“Coding your robot is quite easy to do,” said student Ahren Pavel. “The code tells the robot what to do and how to move. Each button controls one thing. When you put all the codes into one long sentence, it helps the robot complete a task.”
There are numerous benefits in addition to math, engineering, and programming concepts; the activities also incorporate problem-solving, project design, trial-and-error discovery, and perseverance. After they have built their robot, Orzel gives the students a task to solve, such as creating a code that will make the robot stop at specific places then go back to a specific location. If it doesn’t work out the way they want it to, the students keep working until they have found a solution.
“LEGO Robotics is basically about taking some LEGOs and turning it into this epic robot that can move around on the floor, on the table, anywhere,” said student Maria Mitchell. “Even if you try a certain code and it doesn't work out, you can try again.”