Bee-Bots Downunder

Some new Bee-bot Fans

2009-08-04T19:07:00.011+10:00

My bee-bots are currently visiting the Year 1 students of Holy Family Primary at East Granville.

Over the next few weeks the students and teachers will be using the Bee-bots as part of their Mathematics lessons as they investigate representing Position in the Space & Geometry strand. We will also be exploring measurement concepts by estimating the number of steps Bertie Beebot needs to take to cover various distances we would like him to travel.

The Beebots also provide engaging play opportunities which support our Second Language Learners to understand and use locational and directional prepositions. So in planning simple journeys for our Beebot we will be focussing especially on using prepositions to describe the places that Bertie visits eg return from the flowers to the beehive; along the path past the gate

Click here to access the lesson notes from BOX.NET

Bee-bot Journeys at Sacred Heart Primary

2008-11-22T16:59:00.010+11:00

Last Thursday I had a wonderful Beebot lesson with some Year 1 children from Sacred Heart Primary School. We shared a procedural recount of a Bee-bot Journey and then deconstructed the text to locate the prepositional phrases indicating location or direction. The Bee-bot is a fantastic tool for teaching about prepositions in a meaningful context for ESL learners.

The students then jointly constructed a story map of "Bertie Bee-bot" and wrote the instructions to program the Bee-bot. We then tested our plan and of course it worked!!!!

The students then worked in pairs to construct their own Beebot Journeys using various Character Cards and Place cards to create a story map before programming their Bee-bots to take the trip. Below is an example from one pair of students.

The resources from this lesson are also available here

Bee-bot Resources for you

2008-10-14T15:17:00.005+11:00

Hi everyone

A summary box with lots of the Bee-bots resources. Please let me know if you find them useful.

Nicole

What will you call YOUR Bee-Bot?

2008-02-24T21:04:00.003+11:00

Welcome back to the school year everyone. I know lots of you are using your Bee-bots in the classroom over the coming weeks. Read in a Blog from Kellet School that the students there in P2 are busy naming their 6 Bee-bots. They have named one of them "Barry"

See http://www.kellettschool.blogspot.com/

I thought you may like to share with us what your Bee-bots are called.

Meet the Bee-Bots at NAVCON2K7

2007-10-01T18:03:00.000+10:00

This week we will be offering a workshop at the NAVCON2k7 Conference on the NSW Central Coast. Just to get you in the mood and those visual spatial skills and problem solving skills warmed up try this brainteaser.

Did you work it out? Tricky isn't it - especially if you have to perform the translations mentally - without any concrete materials such as paper cut-outs to manipulate. Come along and share your solutions at our workshop on Thursday September 4th at Gosford. Learn about the Bee-bot, an engaging manipulative, which can help build the skills needed to solve this brainteaser.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

Bee-bots are programmable floor toys which provide a “hands on” introduction to control technologies and support literacy and numeracy development in early childhood classrooms. Bee-bots also assist in the development of a range of interdisciplinary skills such as visualisation, logical thinking, problem solving, task persistence and working co-operatively.

In this workshop session you will:

• Learn about the Bee-bot experiences of teachers and students in Parramatta Diocesan schools

• Take a Bee-Bot Challenge – work in a small team to plan a journey then program your Bee-Bot to solve the problem.

• Sample the Bee-Bot simulation software

• Work in a small group to design a cross curriculum learning sequence using the Beebot

• View and contribute your learning sequence to the Bee-Bots Downunder Blog

• Preview the Pro-bot, the Bee-bot’s big brother, which is fully programmable with distance and degrees of turn and has inbuilt light, sound and touch sensors

Bee-Bots at St Nick's

2007-09-14T14:35:00.000+10:00

As soon as I pulled Bee-Bots out of the box, the children were intrigued. Their faces were full of wonder and inquisitiveness. They were instantly eager to learn more about these "strange creatures" and the enthusiasm and excitement was very much apparent.

I have used Bee-Bots for several activities - across all K.L.As.

I am currently in the process of devising some more activities and mats to use with Bee-Bots in future.

It was a wonderful opportunity for children to learn more about position and direction and apply this skill in different ways.

I found the Bee-Bots to be especially useful for the children in my "lowest" group - ironically named the Bees - to use as a part of their learning with the Teachers Aide and during their group times.

It provided these children with something a little different which encouraged and stimulated them in their learning, whilst reinforcing various skills along the way. It was mostly used to help them with the following skills ... Talking and Listening Skills, Letter and Sound Recognition, Word Recognition, Language Skills and other cognitive skills such as position, direction, space, comprehension and problem solving.
*************************************************************
This reflection was provided by Di Touzell, Kinder teacher "extraordinaire" at St Nicholas Myra, Penrith.

Battle of the dancing robots

2007-06-21T22:05:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday 20 June, a troupe of student-built robots strutted their stuff on the dance floor as more than 100students from western Sydney Catholic schools took part in the inaugural Parramatta Diocesan Robodance Challenge .

The students, from years 5 to 8, worked in teams to design, build and program dancing robots with the help of their teachers and engineer Michael Schofield. During the Robodance Challenge, teams were rewarded for their hard work as their robots strutted their stuff on the dance floor.

The teams used costumes and props to enhance their robots’ performances. Students were also encouraged to dance with their robots. Challenge entries included ‘Dancing Queens’ - a dance-off between duelling cheerleaders from Parramatta Eels and Wests Tigers, bootscooting cowboys, Jaws and James Bond.

The students had a wonderful day. Winning teams were awarded beautiful silver Diocesan Student Achievement medals. It is anticipated that many of the teams will compete again at the NSW State Robocup Competition to be held at the University of NSW on 9-10 August.

The challenge is an innovative way to integrate science, technology and creative arts. The students are required to apply their problem solving skills and creativity across a number of subject areas to design, build and program the Robodancers. It is purposeful learning which is also engaging and fun.

So check out the team photos which were taken on the day!

Bee-bot Resources for Teachers

2007-05-16T23:33:00.000+10:00

A number of people have asked for access to the Bee-bot seminar presentation. I make it available for you here. Hope it is useful.

You may also like to download the Diocesan Teaching Ideas. These teaching ideas were developed by teachers who attended a professional learning day to consider the curriculum applications of the Bee-bot resources in their Bee-Bot Bundle.

We acknowledge the participating teachers from the following schools in Parramatta Diocese

Good Shepherd Primary, Plumpton; Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School; Seven Hills
Chisholm Catholic Primary School and St Michael’s Primary Blacktown South

Click here to download the collated Bee-Bot Diocesan Teaching Ideas and a recent article "Meet the Bee-bots" that I have written for the "Our Catholic Schools" magazine.

We can make our robots dance!

2007-05-13T08:11:00.000+10:00

In our initial exploration of the Bee-bots some of the teachers and children have been programming pairs of Bee-bots to "dance" to music.

This prompts me to share another exciting event with you all. On June 20th we will be having our inaugural Robo Dance Challenge. The day will allow our Stage 3 & Stage 4 students from 4 schools who have been participating in the Robotics pilot program during Terms 1 and 2 to demonstrate their learning. Early indications show that they have found the program stimulating and engaging. This day will give them the opportunity to come together with their peers from other schools and celebrate their learning.

The Robo Dance Challenge is a stunning integration of Science, Technology and the Arts. Participants program their robots to dance to music. Competitors are encouraged to decorate their entries and to motorise robot limb movements, to give their robots real personality.

The Dance Challenge is a real team effort. Students work in teams of two-four and are encouraged to think creatively about their presentations. Ideas may include robots dancing together in tightly choreographed teams, students interacting with their robots while they are dancing, students creating their own music to dance to, or students telling a story while the robots act it out to the music. In addition students are required to keep a journal documenting the design process of programming and building. The journal will then be discussed in a team interview with the judges as part of the competition.

Successful teams will then compete in the NSW Robocup in August.

Bee-Bot Seminar : what a buzz!

2007-03-26T19:48:00.000+10:00

Wow

What a buzz! This afternoon more than 90 Diocesan teachers came together to hear some of our teachers share their experiences when using the Bee-Bots in their early childhood classrooms. It was fascinating to see the range of learning that was possible for children at different levels. Teachers are so inventive and responsive to their students' needs.

A very special thank you to Robyn, Sara and Cherie for sharing your experience and expertise with us!

If you are interested in receiving a copy of the presentation from today's seminar, please email me and I will send it to you. My email address is Nicole.Sprainger@parra.catholic.edu.au

Thank you also to Sally Bailey from 2Simple Software for the demonstration of some of the great early Childhood Software. I enjoyed seeing the "Infants Toolkit" but my personal favourite is still "2Investigate".

Bee-Bot Maze....I wonder how they did that?

2007-03-25T19:02:00.000+10:00

Hello all

My colleague Judy O'Connell has located a class at Pencaitlind Primary School in Scotland, who have also been using Bee-Bots.

Some children built a maze using blocks and then they programmed their Bee-Bot to navigate his way through the maze.

I am very interested in how they "measured" the number of steps their Bee-Bot needed to find his way as there was no "grid" to help them.

You can read about their Bee-Bot Challenge on their school blog and view their photo slide show too. Click here to view the Pencaitlind Primary Blog

Wouldn't it be fun if we could exchange some Bee-Bot challenges with other classes as far away as Scotland? :-)

St Bernadette's Experience

2007-03-22T22:05:00.000+11:00

We have been very fortunate at St Bernadette's, Castle Hill, to have had Bertie Bee Bot with us for quite some time. The students were first introduced to Bertie (as we call him) during term four last year when they were in Kindergarten. Last year the students were exploring the ways Bertie could move and how to make him move. They developed a sound understanding of the need to give Bertie commands. They knew that Bertie was very clever and that he had a great memory, but more importantly they knew that Bertie was only clever when they told him what to do. This year the students are 'big' Year One children and have taken their learning journey with Bertie quite a bit further. We made a mat from different coloured squares and 'thinking' problems were created around the theme of Journeys. Bertie has two friends (which are just small soft toys) and he goes to visit his friends. The students have to determine the path or journey that Bertie is going to take to get to his destination. As we discovered there are always numerous paths and these are explored with great excitement and anticipation by the students. The delight in the students faces when Bertie does arrive at the right destination is priceless.
From a teacher's point of view, the Bertie experience has provided a wonderful opportunity for different learning styles and abilities to be showcased. Those students that are kinaesthetic learners can actually pretend they are Bertie and walk the path. The visual learners can walk the path with their body or just their eyes and place direction cards on the ground to visualise the journey. Those students who are able to complete their journey mentally can do so as well. I am fortunate enough to have a six year old student in my class who "blows me away" daily with his ideas and actions. One journey he mentally mapped out for Bertie had 18, yes, 18 commands!!! It is important that the students use whatever strategies that are meaningful to them to solve the problem.
Another strategy that I use in my classroom is to have "thinking time" once a problem is posed. During this time there are no waving hands. This gives all students time to think and strategise without feeling pressured.
As with most learning there are many miscalculations. We don't say "that's a mistake". Instead we call it a little 'hiccup' or 'challenge' and work our way around it, we never go back to the beginning and start again. That way students don't lose confidence in taking risks.
One of the most pleasing outcomes from our Bertie Journeys has been the development of collaborative thinking and co-operation. All students work together to get Bertie to his destination, no one wants to be the 'boss'. All around Bertie is a real winner at St Bernadette's. We would love to hear from anybody who may have great ideas for mat templates.

We can solve this problem together!

2007-03-09T18:43:00.000+11:00

The Kindergarten children at St Michael's Blacktown South have been introduced to Bertie this week. At first we navigated him around the "Treasure Island" mat together. We learnt about the commands forward, backwards, left turn and right turn. We used the dice and command cards and pretended to be Bertie ourselves to really understand this positional language. Playing this game developed a better understanding of the right and left turns that Bertie needs to make. He can't just slide sideways as some of the children first tried when programming him. During their initial investigations with Bertie it was rewarding to see the children posing problems and working together to solve them. One girl was very determined to program Bertie to travel from the ship to the waterfall. At first her partner was observing, trying very hard to share and take turns. Within minutes the pair were communicating- trialling, making predictions, changing commands, trying again. One started stepping it out, while the other programmed the commands into Bertie. Very soon a small group of children had gathered and all were making informed suggestions- building on the trials and errors that they were witnessing. What a sense of achievement they experienced when finally Bertie made it to the waterfall. There were high- fives all around. The children had worked collaboratively, and through their own experiences developed and used positional language, problem posing and solving skills and the ability to work co-operatively to achieve a goal.

Bee_Bot Seminar _Parramatta Diocese

2007-03-08T17:24:00.000+11:00

We are planning an after school seminar for Early Childhood Classroom teachers and Learning Technology Support Teachers in the Parramatta Diocese. It will be held at the Diocesan Assembly Centre (DAC) at Blacktown, Monday 26th March 2007 between 4:00-5:30pm. Our agenda is as follows:

1. MEET the BEE-BOTS : learn about these programmable floor toys being introduced to Diocesan Classrooms to support literacy and numeracy development.

2. This will be followed by a 2SIMPLE SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION. Sally Bailey will demonstrate some of this BETT award winning software from the UK including 2Create a Story; 2Investigate; and Simple City.

All Welcome. Afternnon Tea from 3:30pm. Details and registration form available for download.
Further enquiries EMAIL: Nicole.Sprainger@parra.catholic.edu.au

Bertie and the CLEAR button

2007-02-25T19:40:00.000+11:00

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!

2007-02-18T20:30:00.000+11:00

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

2007-02-18T20:20:00.000+11:00

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!

2007-02-18T19:40:00.000+11:00

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

2007-02-06T20:57:00.000+11:00

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!

Bee-bots in the classroom

2006-11-30T12:47:00.000+11:00

After our interesting day last Thursday I decided to introduce Bee-Bots to my Kindergarten class. The children loved them and were very keen to have a go. After some initial experimentation we used the shapes mat to practise our programming skills. Each child in the class was given the opportunity to program the Bee-Bot to move from one shape to another shape of their choosing. Whilst some children chose simple moves other children tried more complex moves requiring a number of turns. Our most common mistake was not pressing the forward key after programming a turn (the Bee-Bot turned in a circle a number of times).
After a while Peter set us a challenge: Could we make the Bee-Bot go around the outside of the mat until it reached its starting point? We decided to map our path using arrows to help us with programming. On our first attempt we went too far. We then decided to have Mary walk around the mat and record her steps and turns as she went. We then used this plan to program our Bee-Bot. On our next attempt we were successful. The whole class cheered. All the children were engaged in the activity. Alex asked if we could have the Bee-Bot again the next day and this time use the street map! This activity worked really well and the children used a lot of positional language as well as problem solving skills to achieve their result.

Fun with Bee-Bots

2006-11-23T14:39:00.000+11:00

I am sure that the Bee-bot will be great fun to use within the classroom. It will be great to see the activities that everyone comes up with to use with their classes!

Bee-bot planning day

2006-11-23T14:33:00.000+11:00

Today we met our Bee-bots for the first time. We played and got to know them. Mostly they stayed on the mats but sometimes they got a little stranded (user's mistake). We are looking forward to taking our little bots back to school.

Bee-bot

2006-11-23T14:31:00.001+11:00

I am looking forward to trialling some of the ideas in my classroom. I think it will be FUN!!!

Bee Bot

2006-11-23T14:31:00.000+11:00

I can see lots of opportunities for learning using the cute Bee Bot. The kids will love it.

BeeBots

2006-11-23T14:29:00.000+11:00

We came to a planning day not really knowing what to expect and what we were doing. Turns out Beebots is a great new tool for teaching children a range of skills from positioning to design and make activities. It is a fun, bright and inventive hands on robot that gives children an oppurtunity to explore directions. We look forward to implementing BeeBots into our classrooms in the near future.

What is a Bee-Bot?

2006-11-04T21:29:00.000+11:00

Bee-bot is a bright and colourful programmable floor robot suitable for students in Early Stage 1 and Stage 1. It enables young children to learn through play about control and directional language and provides a perfect "hands on" introduction to robotics. Easy to use with big arrow buttons and very robust, Bee-Bot is fantastic for children of all abilities. It moves accurately in 15cm steps and makes turns of 90°. It has a large memory of up to 40 steps. Bee-Bot confirms moves and commands with flashing eyes and signals the end of his programmed journey with "BEEP BEEP" sounds. Very Cute!

Your Bee-bot works best on smooth surfaces and is small enough to use on a table. A range of colourful floor mats make engaging contexts for learning. They include a treasure map, a street map and a race track. Transparent grids also support students to create their own obstacle courses and challenges.

Download and watch a video of the Bee-Bot in action or check out the Bee-Bot home page. Click here to download a copy of the Bee-Bot Comic flyer at Box.net

BEEP BEEP!

What's the BUZZ?

2006-11-03T18:41:00.000+11:00

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
BEEP BEEP! - BEEP BEEP!

A swarm of Bee-Bots have just arrived out Parramatta way. The Bee-Bots, programmable floor robots, have travelled across the seas from the UK and will now be finding their way to early childhood classrooms in four Catholic primary schools in Parramatta Diocese in Western Sydney .

The Bee-Bots project is being developed by Nicole Sprainger and Karen Ferrante, two Education Officers in the Primary Curriculum Unit serving Catholic Education, in the Diocese of Parramatta.

In the pilot program, teachers from the participating schools will meet to devise some learning activities and map them to the curriculum. They will then trial the activities in the next few weeks. We also plan to video and record some of the children in action with their Bee-Bots.

Guess Santa might get a few requests for Christmas!

Beep Beep!