Robots

Makey Makey is an innovative invention kit designed to turn everyday objects into interactive controllers, offering a hands-on approach to learning about electronics and coding. By using alligator clips, you can connect objects like fruit, playdough, or even a human body to a computer. When you touch these objects, they complete a circuit and send a signal to the computer, which mimics the actions of a keyboard or mouse. This allows users to control games, music, and even robots in creative ways. Makey Makey is especially useful for teaching the fundamentals of circuits, programming, and physical computing. It’s widely used in classrooms and creative projects, making learning about technology both fun and accessible for all ages.

Now, this is the game related to our topic The Seasons

Micro:bit is a small, versatile programmable computer designed for beginners, especially young learners, to explore coding and electronics. It features a 5x5 LED display, buttons, built-in sensors (including an accelerometer and compass), and Bluetooth capabilities. The Micro:bit can be programmed using MakeCode (a block-based programming language) or Python, making it accessible for both beginners and more advanced users. By connecting it to a computer via USB, users can upload their programs and see their creations come to life. Micro:bit is commonly used in educational settings to create a variety of projects, from simple games to interactive robots. It helps users develop coding skills, learn about sensors, and understand the basics of electronics, offering endless possibilities for creative projects. Whether used to program simple animations or build more complex systems, the Micro:bit is a powerful tool for hands-on learning.

Cubetto is a screen-free robot designed to teach young children, especially those aged 3 and up, the basics of programming and logic. The robot comes with a set of colorful, tangible coding blocks, each representing a different command like “move forward,” “turn left,” or “repeat.” Children arrange the blocks in a sequence on a physical console, and pressing a button makes the robot execute the sequence of movements. This hands-on, visual approach helps children develop important skills in sequencing, problem-solving, and critical thinking, all while playing and interacting with the robot. Cubetto's screen-free design aligns with Montessori principles, emphasizing active, hands-on learning. It’s an engaging way for children to learn fundamental coding concepts and computational thinking without the need for screens or reading.

True True is a platform designed to help users create interactive, branching stories where characters react to the choices made by the user. Using a visual coding interface, users can write scenes, define characters, and create pathways that lead to different outcomes depending on the choices the user makes. This storytelling approach introduces basic coding and decision-making skills in an engaging way, without requiring prior coding knowledge. True True makes it easy for creators to build personalized, interactive narratives, offering endless possibilities for branching plots and character interactions. It’s a great tool for educators and creative enthusiasts to explore narrative design, user interaction, and the fundamentals of logic-based decision making in a fun, educational context.

Matatalab is an educational robot designed for children ages 3 and up to learn coding without screens. It uses physical coding blocks that children arrange on a controller to program the robot's movements. By pressing a button, the robot performs the programmed actions, helping children develop skills in sequencing, logic, and problem-solving. The system offers various challenges and activities, progressing in difficulty as the child grows. With creative add-ons like music and art kits, Matatalab also encourages creativity while providing a fun, hands-on way to introduce basic coding concepts.

2. Which one you found most useful to teach your topic and why.

For teaching the topic of seasons with the Cubetto robot, we find it to be a very useful tool because of its hands-on, interactive nature. Cubetto's screen-free design allows children to focus on the subject matter (in this case, the seasons) while also learning fundamental concepts like sequencing and logic. By using the robot, children can "program" Cubetto to travel through different seasonal landscapes (which we can create with maps or visuals) by arranging coding blocks in sequences that represent various seasonal activities, like "move forward," "turn left," or "repeat."

This allows kids to visualize the changing seasons while practicing problem-solving and computational thinking. For example, we could create a lesson where Cubetto moves through a spring, summer, fall, and winter environment, teaching children about the characteristics of each season, like weather changes or activities associated with that time of year.

By connecting a fun, physical robot with a thematic topic like the seasons, children can learn about nature and cycles in an engaging, active way that also introduces them to the basics of coding. This blend of learning both a subject (seasons) and a skill (programming) through play makes Cubetto an excellent educational tool.