As part of our Technology Experiences and Outcomes, all learners should have experience of “developing problem-solving strategies, navigation and co-ordination skills, as they play electronic games, remote control or programmable toys” TCH 0-09a/ TCH 1-09a.
Today at Saint Matthew’s Primary School, I delivered a lesson on giving instructions and positional language. Learners from Primary 1 to 3 discussed different places they can find instructions and what they are used for. They also played Simon Says to consolidate their understanding of the commands forward, backwards, right and left. From there, the children were asked to open the Beebot app and work through the game, programming the Beebot to move onto the flower.
The children had to use problem solving skills and collaborated with others to find the correct sequence of instructions to complete each level. At times this was tricky as they had to think about the direction the Beebot was facing and not the position they were in.
As groups worked on this independently and with teacher support. Small groups had a chance to give instructions to a physical robot, Dash. This was a great way to demonstrate to younger children the realistic outcomes of programming.