What is a Bee-Bot?
Children love to play! Thus Bee-Bots are ideal tools to allow learning to occur without children realising they are learning the basics of something as complex as programming. Bee-Bots are fun little floor robots which are a great way to introduce children to the idea of basic programming. The robots are very easy and simple to use and can be programmed with a variety of simple commands such as 'go right 3, go forwards 5’ etc.
Children love to play! Thus Bee-Bots are ideal tools to allow learning to occur without children realising they are learning the basics of something as complex as programming. Bee-Bots are fun little floor robots which are a great way to introduce children to the idea of basic programming. The robots are very easy and simple to use and can be programmed with a variety of simple commands such as 'go right 3, go forwards 5’ etc.
As well as being useful for computing, Bee-Bots are also wonderful for developing children’s positional language, control and knowledge of instructions. In fact Bee-Bots have many advantages as they can also be used in Maths, Science, Geography and Literacy, and thus they are exactly the kind of cross-curricular tools the new computing curriculum emphasises the use of in schools. A good starting point of activities to use in the classroom can be found here.
I have also spent a few hours experimenting with a Bee-Bot and below are some videos of the track I made for the Bee-Bot to go around and the instructions to programme it to follow the track.
The Bee-Bot app is an app version of the Bee-Bot and involves children directing the bee to the flower by programming the steps needed. The app increases in levels of difficulty and the higher the level the more challenging the route to getting to the flower becomes. The app is ideal to use with children in KS1 and KS2 because of the increasing levels of challenge available on the app, which are depicted in the images below. As well as this, as iPads are becoming increasingly popular in schools, this app would be a useful resource if Bee-Bots were not available for use.
I found that Bee-Bots are highly effective in not only getting the children excited about their learning (as I was pretty enthused after using it for the first time!) but also as a wonderful tool for cross-curricular learning. I fully intend on making use of Bee-Bots for cross-curricular lessons on FPP, where I will be placed in KS1, and on my future practice.
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