Alpha-Robotics
Bee-Bots are being piloted with kindergartners
and pre-kindergartners, first and second graders in seven Boston Public
Schools as part of a K-12 Engineering Pathway Grant initiated by
TechBoston, the district-wide office that overseas technology
integration in the schools.
Judy Robinson, STEM Curriculum Consultant from Alpha-Robotics leads Bee-Bot introductions. She has led both teacher training workshops and in-class presentations on using Bee-Bot in the classroom. She finds that both students and teachers are excited about using Bee-Bots and quickly learn to program them.
As part of introducing Bee-Bots, Alpha-Robotics
has developed a number of customized materials for use in Boston Public
School classrooms, several pictured here. These include special mats,
programming blocks, and image cards. These materials allow use of
Bee-Bots in many different areas and channel the motivation Bee-Bots
inspire to teach a variety of subjects, from mathematics to language
arts.
Students in Boston Public Schools are ethnically
and culturally diverse and Bee-Bots have proven especially good at
cutting through language and cultural barriers. Judy was especially
enthusiastic about her experience with the students and teachers in a K1
and K2 Vietnamese sheltered English class. She reports, “The students
have done a spectacular job of programming the Bee-Bot to travel on
different paths on any mat. I would say about 80% have created
complicated programs.”
Contact Information
| Name | Judy Robinson |
| Position | STEM Curriculum Consultant |
| School | Boston Public Schools |
| Location | Boston, MA |
| judyrobinson@alpha-robotics.com | |
| Website | http://alpha-robotics.com/bee-bot.html |
| Tags | Bee-Bot, Massachusetts, STEM/STEAM |
| Age | Pre-K to Grade 2 |