The students in 2nd and 3rd grade participated in these classes.
At the beginning of class, students were asked what they knew about coding, and they shared a wide variety of thoughtful and creative responses.
It was interesting to see that, even though students knew the class would involve engineering and robotics, their ideas about coding extended far beyond technology alone. Their responses showed how children naturally connect new concepts to their own experiences and prior knowledge. By the end of the class students had an understanding that coding was telling machines or a robot what to do.
Students developed a clearer understanding that coding involves giving instructions to machines or robots in order to guide their actions and responses. Through hands-on engineering activities and experimentation, students learned that coding can take many forms and is fundamentally about problem-solving, communication, and designing systems to achieve a goal.
Students explored the basics of coding and engineering by learning how robots can be “programmed” to respond to their environment. Using Hexbug nanobots, students discovered that coding is not always done on a computer — sometimes it involves carefully designing and changing the world around a robot to influence its actions and movement.
Throughout the class, students used wood blocks and LEGO pieces to create obstacle courses and engineering challenges for the robots. They designed features such as traps, bridges, turns, tunnels, and escape routes while working to guide the nanobots toward specific goals. Students quickly learned the importance of problem-solving, testing, and redesigning as they adjusted their structures to improve the robots’ performance.
A major focus of the class was perseverance and the engineering design process. Students made predictions, tested ideas, identified problems, and worked through many rounds of trial and error to achieve their intended results. Through hands-on experimentation, students practiced creativity, teamwork, critical thinking, and early coding concepts in a fun and engaging way.