Richmond Elementary Says GoodBye to Cubelets!

Students at Richmond Elementary School (RES) had a great month exploring Cubelets.  Students in Grades K -4 had a chance to explore them through after school programming as well as during school choice times and in the enrichment classroom.  We decided not to name the robot...as each time we built it, it seemed to have a different personality.  We wonder if the next school will come up with a great name?!

Here are a few helpful hints from our time with the Cubelets (we also included these on cards to travel with the robot):

*  There are some great lesson plan links at:  http://www.modrobotics.com/education/#lesson-plans

*  We used the following video (short and sweet) to give students an idea of the various ways the could manipulate the six Cubelets (and to challenge them to think beyond these seven ideas!) Students enjoyed how each robot had a name and they paused the video and tried many of the ideas:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uULIlZFD6uE

*  We found that with six Cubelets and one power source that it was challenging to have more than two students building a robot at a time.  (This was a challenge, because the building was so fun, and in high demand.....but if we added more students then no one got to follow an idea through to completion...especially the first week!)
    *  One way we addressed this was by having Legos and the Lego extenders in a different space. This allowed students to build and design add on features while they were waiting to  build with the Cubelets.
    *  We explored the idea of having students draw designs out....but the creativity was more limited than if they built and tested directly on the Cubelets!

*  We had a flashlight accessible in order to further play with light sensor.  We also had a dark space in the classroom so students could move their designs in and out of the light without disrupting other class projects!

Overall we really enjoyed our time with the Cubelets, and students were sad to see them leave.  We are very grateful to the Vermont Robot Rodeo, and our sponsor Game Theory for this opportunity to learn and explore with a new tool!  We would love to add these to our classroom in the future, and are looking for ways to fund a kit of our own.

We are also excited to watch this blog and see what great things the next school creates.Happy Trails Cubelets!!! (Perhaps we will meet up again at Dynamic Landscapes??!)