Grade 6 students at St. Patrick Catholic School have had the opportunity to join the brand-new Lego Robotics Club this year!
New to St. Patrick, the Lego Robotics Club engages students in research, problem-solving, coding and of course, building robots.
“It is so important to offer a variety of extracurricular activities to students in all grades. Students need the opportunity to develop skills in areas that they are interested in and to explore new areas. It is important to engage students at school and sometimes this engagement comes in the form of a club,” shared Janice Hamilton, grade 6 teacher and teacher supervisor for the club. “The Lego Robotics Club gives students the chance to connect with others, problem solve, collaborate with each other and with other groups and to have fun. It is so nice to see the groups celebrating each other's successes and asking each other questions.”
To bring this initiative extracurricular to fruition, Hamilton, along with Andrea Winkler, library technician at St. Patrick and supervisor for the club, borrowed Lego Robotic kits offered by the Wellington Catholic DSB IT Department. Students were then provided with the Lego kits, a selection of How To videos from YouTube, and a support sheet with programming block descriptions.
“It is our first year trying it out, so it is a bit of a learning curve for us. We hope to continue to create these learning experiences for our students in the months to come.,” said Winkler.
The club also provides a direct connection for the students to the Ontario mathematics and science curriculum.
“Coding was recently added to the math and science curriculum. I believe that when we provide opportunities for students to code, we are preparing them for the future. We are living in a digital age and students need to be able to understand the technology around them,” said Hamilton. “This club allows the members to play with programming or code in a non-threatening environment. They are not being graded or tested. They are simply trying something new while gaining valuable knowledge.”
The students have been hard at work for about 4 weeks now, each group choosing a different robot to build and code.
“Andrea and I work as supervisors and consultants. Our role is to help students discover and learn in their own way. We help them focus on one step at a time, whether that is building, testing, or programming. We want to see each group making progress and celebrating their successes,” said Hamilton. “For the first few sessions, students focused on building the robots. Now that most groups have their robots built, they have begun to program them. They are learning to use block codes to program the robots to move, dance and speak. So far, the groups have been successful at having the robot complete 1 or 2 movements, but our goal is to program the robots to do much more complex things. The drag and drop block codes are user friendly, enabling students to quickly learn the program and its functions.”
So far, 12 students have signed up for the club, although they hope to add many more to join in on the fun.
To follow along with the Lego Robotics Club at St. Patrick Catholic School, please visit https://twitter.com/StPatrickGuelph.