Learners learn new technologies in robotics
Crawford International Lonehill Preparatory learners have fun learning new technologies during robotic class.
Grade 4, 5, 6 and 7 learners from Crawford International Lonehill Preparatory had fun as they were exposed to progressively challenging learning experiences.
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The lessons included the use of spherical robots known as Spheros, and Lego Spike Education sets where different robots are built out of Lego and programmed to reach an objective based on specific contextual tasks. Also, Tello Drones were used for the simulation of real-life scenarios which could be positively impacted by the decision to use drone technology using the Drone Blocks App, and 3D printing focused on efficient solution finding through design.
The robotics lessons are part of the school’s academic programme in which learners have the opportunity to apply coding skills to real-world problems requiring critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
The school’s client experience officer Clarke-Mathers said, “It was not until the start of the 2023 academic year that robotics was offered to all students at the school as a class subject.
Also read: Introducing coding and robotics in the foundation phase
“Students are coding, debugging, and witnessing their creations come to life. Studies have shown that fun experiences in learning, trigger dopamine and endorphins, making the learning process pleasurable and rewarding and rewarded behaviour is often repeated.”
She said many of the skills that were tapped into during the contextual part of the tasks, added value to other subject areas in a suitable and effective transdisciplinary manner, highlighting the connectedness of various topics to programming technologies.
The development of power skills is a constant in these fun lessons with a focus on problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and organisation. These skills are transferable to other learning areas which is a benefit for the learners.
Robotics teacher Nathi Khoza said, “The most rewarding moments for me are when students have had me explain a task and they apply themselves with little confidence in their ability, and then they have that lightbulb moment when everything makes sense and even they are surprised that they managed to succeed and it’s how I know I’ve done my job – when they leave my classroom knowing more than when they got here.”
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