Making for Learning: Robots and Math - An Opportunity Lost?

I visited an elementary school one day during hour of code week.  In a small room off the library, a small group of kindergarten boys were working with the programmable Robot Mouse.  They used the kit to build a maze out of pieces for the mouse to follow. Then they used the set of cards to indicate which way the mouse should go to complete the maze.  Discussion ensued about the steps the mouse would need to follow -- move forward, turn right, move forward twice, turn left, etc. Placing the cards on the track helped to make the path steps more obvious, then they were stacked up in order.  The students followed the stack and pushed directional buttons on the top of the mouse to program the route, and then another button to get it to start. The first trial went well for the first few turns, and then the mouse went the wrong way.  Being in kindergarten they were more anxious to use the trial and error method to get the mouse to follow the path, but the instructor persevered with questions, referring them back to the cards and track.

This activity not only engaged students, it included multiple representations of the real-world scenario - concrete building blocks toward a deeper understanding of mathematics.  The track was a model of a two-dimensional path. The cards were a sequence of steps like a program. The arrows on the cards represented motion as vectors. These are basic concepts, and there are lots of ways to build on these with manipulatives, diagrams, and other scenarios appropriate to the age group.

In another class, fourth graders were working in groups of with Spheros.  There was a duct tape track, two legs of a right triangle (adjacent and opposite).  The objective was to program the Sphero to go down the adjacent side, stop, rotate 90 degrees, then go down opposite side and stop.  Also, as an extra, figure out how to program the sphero to change color at each stopping point. The steps had to be entered into an iPad in order to program the Sphero.  Many groups worked on the problem through trial and error, and when they completed it, they were given a different track to follow.

The total time allocated to each class was about the same, but it seems to me that the fourth grade students missed out.  There was no apparent evidence of connections to other representations of the motion, connections to mathematics, or extensions to other learning activities.  Without intention, linking to prior and future learning, the time was a engaging throw-away, an opportunity lost.

The same activity could have multiple learning opportunities attached, creating concrete foundations for future learning in STEM.  For example, the students could:

measure the distances represented by each leg;

plot the track on a piece of graph paper, to scale;

convert the directions to compass headings and plot the orientations on a 360 degree axis;

experimentally determine how much time it would take the Sphero to travel one meter at various speed settings, and graph the results;

use a programming tool like Scratch to program a sprite to do the same motion (computer modeling);

use the graphs to come up with a method to have the sphero travel the hypotenuse, post their prediction, and run the test….

Of course, if this is the only activity the students do with the sphero, it will not generate deeper learning.  That would entail a scope and sequence, using these multiple representations, to build on prior knowledge with new activities.   

For those of us who have been around forever, the original concept of scope and sequence integrating a robot and two-d motion is not a new idea….stemming from Seymour Papert’s work over 50 years ago.  Unfortunately, a cursory review of the STEM activities listed online for the Sphero only showed a few that had connections to deeper STEM concepts….more seemed designed to keep the students interested during the spring…

….another opportunity lost.

If we are going to use engaging devices such as Spheros then we should not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the additional learning that can be attached to these activities.