Bertie and the CLEAR button

Last week we also had a most enjoyable visit to a year 1 classroom at Chisholm CPS. There I had an interesting conversation with one of the Year 1 students. I noticed that, here, as in other schools we had visited, all the children were generally very well trained to clear the memory of the Bee-Bot before adding a new set of commands. Occasionally, when this was not done of course the new instructions are added to those given previously. When tested Bertie then has a much longer program and doesn’t do what the users expect.

When I questioned one of the boys “What happens to Bertie when you forget to use the clear button?” He replied “He just goes wherever he wants!” This was an interesting observation, as I have had the same response to my question in several different early childhood classrooms in various schools. It suggests that the children still do not fully grasp the idea that the Bee-Bot only does as it is instructed or programmed to do. This confusion between living and non-living things is often found in young children’s relationships with their toys such as dolls and teddy bears. In our case, because the robot has an equivalence to a living thing in the real world (namely a bee) and because we have named him “Bertie” the children have formed strong emotional attachments to the “Bee-Bot” and attribute life-like characteristics to the bot, wrongly perceiving “he” can decide things for “himself”.

This blurring of the boundaries is developmental and will probably peacefully co-exist with the children’s ongoing learning experiences until they develop the understanding that they control the Bee-Bot. As another child said “Bertie has a very good memory. He can remember up to 40 steps. I read it on the box!”

Hands on, Hearts on, Eyes on, Minds on!

From Good Shepherd School we moved on to St Bernadette’s School to visit a Year 1 Class were some children have had some experience with their Bertie Bee-Bot late last year.

The children were using a teacher prepared mat, a simple multi-coloured grid “Journeys” were being planned so that Bertie Bee-Bot could visit his friends “Sid” the teddy and “Pinky” the chameleon - some small soft toys placed on various squares.

The focus of learning here was definitely on problem-solving and developing visualisation strategies. Being more experienced with their “Bertie Bee-Bot”, the children in this class were using much more technical and precise language eg they were able to describe sequences in terms of the number of “commands” they had programmed and could provide accurate explanations for using the “pause” “go” and “clear” buttons.

The emphasis on thinking and problem solving was evident with the teacher modelling setting “challenges” for Bertie. eg “When you’re thinking about how Bertie’s going to get to see his friend Sid, I want you to make sure that one of your commands is PAUSE.”

Students were given significant “think-time” before any “solutions” were tested, thereby ensuring that all students were actively engaged in trying to solve the challenges. During this think-time, students could be observed devising paths and “tracking” by pointing with their fingers, head nodding or following with their eyes.

Students were also encouraged to use their creativity to generate alternate solutions, carefully reinforcing the idea that there may be a variety of solutions to a problem – essential knowledge about thinking and problem solving for young learners!

Bee-Bot as an assessment tool

The Kindergarten children at Good Shepherd School were only in their third week of school. However, thanks to their wonderful “transition to school” program held late last year, they were very settled and rearing to go.

Their teachers were aware that their students come to school from diverse
family, linguistic and cultural backgrounds and bring a variety of oral language skills and informal mathematical knowledge. “Playing” with Bee-Bot provided an ideal informal assessment opportunity to allow the teachers to observe each child and gather evidence of their understandings, as well as any “misunderstandings” they have! Information about the children’s oral language development and their understanding of simple mathematical concepts that were evidenced in this short 15 minute session included such as:

Can the students:

* count with one to one correspondence

* recognize “how many” in sets of objects ?

* comprehend and use simple and precise positional language eg forwards, backwards, left and right turn?

* “read” and “interpret” a short sequence using left to right conventions?

Our kinder children were primarily at a pre-programming stage. A trip into the playground was arranged for the children to become familiar with the program commands using the Bee-Bot sequencing cards. We quickly found that it was unwise to assume their understanding of terms such as “forwards” and “backwards”. Soon however, these “busy little bees” were busy “reading” short command sequences, orienting their bodies and pacing out the 3 step sequences. Some, but not all, were also ready to transfer these understandings and program short sequences using the Bee-Bot.

“Playtime” with the Bee-Bot certainly was lots of fun and an ideal assessment opportunity. Their teachers gathered some very useful information to inform their teaching and learning program. Our learners, on the other hand, were so engaged that we had a great deal of trouble persuading them to take a break when the recess bell rang!

Play is children's work!

This key tenet of early childhood education was very evident when Karen Ferrante and I visited Good Shepherd School this week. We were delighted to be able to meet some Kindergarten and Year 1 children who were having their first experiences with the Bee-Bot. These “play” experiences involved them using the engaging Bee-Bot as a context for exploring and manipulating mathematical ideas, and for developing visualisation strategies and precise mathematical language.

The Year 1 children, working in small groups, were totally engrossed. One group were working with Bee-Bot and the Race Track mat. They were coming to grips with negotiating left and right hand bends in the track. The group were taking turns to solve the problem using “trial and error”. There was much discussion as they worked together testing short sequences, debugging if necessary, and then gradually building these into longer sequences. Getting to the “Finish Line” was definitely within their grasp but it would require a significant degree of cooperation and perseverance.
Another group were using a teacher created shapes mat and a large dice. Their game involved rolling the dice and attempting to program the Bee-Bot to gather designated 2 D shapes – squares, triangles, circles and squares.

Bee Bot Bundles

Welcome back to the new school year and our Bee-Bots Downunder Blog. We now have five schools who are busy exploring the use of Bee Bots with their students in Kinder or Year 1 during this first term.

To assist them each school has been supplied with one of our BEE-BOT BUNDLES.

What is a Bee- Bot Bundle? Well you may ask?

Teachers participating in our project were each given a "bundle" which contains the following :
* 2 Bee-Bots
* a Picture Book featuring a story based on a journey theme
(such as "Rosie's Walk" or "Going on a Bear Hunt")
* 2 Foam Dice ( for number games)
*a Play Mat
(eg The Busy Street Map; Treasure Island Map; Race Track Mat; Shapes mat; or Alphabet Mat)
* a Transparent Grid Overlay
(each grid uses 15 cm squares to match Bee Bot's steps)
* a set of large format Bee-Bot Sequencing Cards
(to be used to familiarise students with Bee-Bot commands and for planning/recording Bee-Bot's travels.)
* a Resource Folder containing professional readings and teaching ideas
(to support the use of the Bee-Bots across the curriculum especially in the Mathematics, English,and Science &Technology KLAs.)

Next week we hope to start visting the schools to interview students and teachers and film them using the Bee-Bots - so watch this space!