Borrow a Bee-Bot!
I can borrow Bee-Bots to use in my classroom? In Butte County, California, you can!
Laurie York and Janet Brownell have managed the popular BCOE Educational Technology Exchange of the Butte County Office of Education since 2018. Butte County is located 65 miles north of Sacramento, California, in a rural area of the state. The county is home to 14 school districts, encompassing 91 public schools and 18 charter schools. It is also home to an active technology lending program for the county’s teachers.
Each year, the BCOE Educational Technology Exchange sponsors an EdTech Showcase, where teachers can drop in to explore all the technology in the lending library. Over 30 different products and many books are available for teachers to borrow. Click to see a slideshow of their many offerings.
Teachers can borrow Bee-Bots, Blue-Bots, Pro-Bots, Tuff-Bots, and a host of other technology products for three weeks at a time. The Bee-Bot are their most popular robots and many teachers borrow them multiple times. The Bee-Bots come in a backpack of 14 and the loan also includes printed and blank mats appropriate for the students’ grade level.
The EdTech Team of Laurie and Janet love the Bee-Bots because they are versatile, offer a good way for teachers to start with robotics, and are easy to pack up and transport. Architectural drawing tubes keep the mats protected during storage and travel.
Often, smaller school districts can’t afford to purchase robots, so teachers can borrow them at no cost from this program. After gaining hand-on experience with the robots some schools then purchase them for their STEM programs. It’s a win-win program for teachers of Butte County!
Laurie and Janet point out that only teachers from their county can borrow from their Educational Technology Exchange, but have offered to help other districts that may want to create a similar program.
Contact Information
| Name | Laurie York and Janet Brownell |
| Position | Educational Technology Coaches |
| School | Butte County Office of Education |
| Location | Oroville, CA |
| edtech@bcoe.org | |
| Website | https://www.facebook.com/EdTechBCOE/ |
| Tags | Bee-Bot, Blue-Bot, Pro-Bot, Tuff-Bot, California, Library, STEM/STEAM |
| Age | All grades |