By Laura Trombley, 5th Grade-Shields Elementary
Recently, I was trying to find a way to incorporate coding into my 5th grade social studies unit on the Revolutionary War. After brainstorming with my instructional technology coach we thought that using Ozobots to map out the first battles of the Revolution would be a great way to combine both things. My students immediately took to this idea. First, they had to do some research to find out when and where each of the battles took place and the significance of the battle. Next, they created a large map of the 13 colonies and labeled each battle. Finally, using at least 5 different Ozobot color codes they had to program their robot to visit each battle site without stopping. This turned out to be a highly engaging activity. Students that typically sit back and let others control group projects were involved and doing much of the programming. The problem solving level required for this activity was very high because this class had not used Ozobots before. They had to try a wide variety of codes to get the robot to do what they wanted it to and on many occasions they had to try to figure out why something that should have worked didn’t. It was a great learning experience on so many levels and I can’t wait to add Ozobot coding to other content areas.
Swan Valley Instructional Technology 