Robotics education provides learners with practical experiences of understanding (Jung & Won, 2018). These technologies are seen as potential tools to creative new ways of thinking about teaching and learning (Alimisis, 2012). Robots are ideal in education as they can generate ideas that prompt creative thinking, and inspire the development of digital literacy (Okita, 2015).
Cubelets (2019) are a set of robotic blocks in which students can use to create different types of robots. Students can use the magnets on the blocks to connect them together and creatively build their own working robot. Each robot block has a certain purpose or instruction, and the children must use their computational thinking to strategically place blocks so that the robot can function. It can also be controlled remotely through the use of the innovative Bluetooth block. Students can also further their digital literacy by using Cubelets Blocky (2019) which allows students to code their robots to act on certain commands. The robot is just a tool, and the educational theory is what will determine the learning output from robotics (Alimisis, 2012).
Within class, we created some basic recipes and later started to experiment and create different types of potential robots. Below is an example of a video where we created a ‘lighthouse’:
Robotics in education incorporates STEM subjects such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Jung & Won, 2018), and offers major new benefits to education at all levels (Alimisis, 2012). This is evident when robotics are used to meet the outcomes of the science and technology syllabus, as well as the technology mandatory syllabus, in a fun, engaging and creative way. One of the objectives requires students to develop knowledge and understanding of digital technologies, which incorporates robotics, as stated in the glossary (NESA, 2017).
The four main outcomes of early stage one to three that require students to focus on this area of digital technologies include STe-7DI-T, ST1-11DI-T, ST2-11DI-T and ST3-11DI-T (NESA, 2017). In relation to Cubelets, it progressively focuses on identifying the components of digital technologies such as creating robots from a combination of different blocks, how certain instructions control each block, how that data is represented through code, and how it transmits that data to communicate between blocks. This content is also correspondingly evident within the stage four syllabus under the outcome TE4-7DI (NESA, 2017). Cubelets are a great way to foster creativity while teaching computational thinking and basic coding through robotics.
Reference List
Alimisis, D. (2012). Robotics in education & education in robotics: Shifting focus from technology to pedagogy. In D. Obdrzalek (ed.), Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Robotics in Education (pp. 7-14). Prague, Czech Republic: Charles University.
Cubelets. (2019). Cubelets robot construction for kids. Retrieved from https://www.modrobotics.com/cubelets/
Jung, S., & Won, E. S. (2018). Systematic review of research trends in robotics education for young children. Sustainability, Vol.10(4), pp.905. DOI: 10.3390/su10040905
NSW Education Standards Authority. (2017). Science and technology k-6 syllabus. Retrieved from https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/5ab69646-f1d4-404b-9c16-b39dfb0986d3/science-and-technology-k-6-syllabus-2017.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=
NSW Education Standards Authority. (2017). Technology mandatory 7-8 syllabus. Retrieved from https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/84369526-14e2-4fd3-acc0-98062f574a0e/technology-mandatory-7-8-syllabus-2017.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=
Okita, S. (2015). The potential of peer robots to assist human creativity in finding problems and problem solving. Teachers College Record, Vol.117(10).
Digital Creativity and Learning 