In computing lessons, Year 1 children have been using BeeBots! BeeBots are small, programmable robots that help children to learn to use control, directional language and sequencing skills while coding.
BeeBots remember which direction buttons have been pressed and then follow the sequence in order when the ‘go’ button is pressed. Therefore programming a BeeBot to get from one place to another, using a whole sequence in one go, is a real challenge! The children have had several weeks building up these skills by followining short sequences of commands, making predictions about what different button sequences will do and devising their own shorter programs.
In this activity, the children played a game where one person chose a starting point and another chose an end point on the mat in front of them. Each square on the mat is the distance the BeeBot can move when the forwards or backwards button is pressed once. Next, they chose a route to get from the start to finish location and placed direction cards on the mat with ‘forwards/backwards’ cards on the lines and ‘turn’ cards inside the squares. Lastly, they pressed the BeeBot buttons represented on the cards in order followed by ‘go’. If they programmed it correctly, the BeeBot ended up in the right place.
I was really pleased that so many children were able to meet the challenge and by the progress they had made.
