CIC: Semester 1, Week 7: Educational Robotics

A few years ago, there was a great fashion for educational robot toys for classrooms. Are they just a gimmick, or can they also serve a useful educational purpose? This week there will be a face-to-face class to try out some robots during the face to face class. 

1. We will look at three different robots: Sphero, Ozobot and Marty. Watch the following videos for an introduction to each. 

Sphero 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8LmEkI_0c 

Ozobot 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBdBG1TSgR8 

Marty 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWXgllNHvS0 

2. Investigate the cost of each robot, and find some examples of teachers who have used them with their classes (try Twitter for this). Note down some questions about the robots, or aspects which you would like to try. Based on what you have found out so far, which do you think would be most suitable for a school with a small budget which wants to do interesting STEM projects? 
3. Come along to the live class on Thursday morning to try out the robots in collaboration with the other students. Try out the aspects of the robots which you were curious about when you did the research. 
4. Sometimes educational robots don’t quite live up to their advertising. Did you and the other students encounter any problems with the robots? Based on what you saw in the demo, have you changed your mind about your choice of robots which you’d recommend to the school in question 2?