To promote the students’ development of important skills for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) the second graders are working with Ozobot Bits - small “Smart” toy robots. The Ozobot Bit is designed to provide students with opportunities to learn simple coding language while also encouraging students’ creativity and skills for problem-solving and deductive reasoning. The Ozobot device is programmed to follow black, red, blue, and green lines/paths which control the Ozobot’s movement and speed in different directions. The device has sensors that recognize color sequences and interprets them as commands for directing speed and movement. After learning to calibrate their Ozobots, the students started with an activity to observe the Ozobot’s navigation through the various color codes on lines. Building from their observations, the students quickly learned how to combine various line sequences to create “static codes” to alter their Ozobot’s direction and speed. The students worked in teams to design their own paths for their Ozobots.
