We always enjoy collaborating with our Kent State Child Development Center (CDC) and it is such a pleasure to welcome the 2017-18 CDC Kindergarten class to the AT&T Classroom.
This afternoon the kindergartners were introduced to Ozobot “Smart” toy robots. The Ozobot is designed to provide children with opportunities to learn simple coding language while also encouraging children’s 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 (also known as “OzoCodes”) and interprets the sequences as commands for directing speed and movement.
This afternoon the kindergartners learned to calibrate their Ozobots to be able to respond to the coding sequences. Next the children started with an activity to observe the Ozobot’s navigation using a single black color line and then observed the Ozobot’s navigation on lines with varying color code combinations. Building from their observations, the children began to experiment with combining various color sequences to create their own OzoCodes to alter their Ozobot’s direction and speed.
Later this afternoon, the kindergartners were introduced to PicCollage, a free app that can be used to create collages of photos taken with an iOS or Android device. Features of the app allow children to customize their collage by adding text, backgrounds, and stickers. As the children work within the various app features they gain experience with specific elements of visual and spatial design while creating a very personal and unique project. This afternoon the kindergartners learned to use the camera feature within the app to take a “selfie” and then created a digital project with their selfie image by adding stickers and a customized background.