English-inspired science: Robotics in Year 6
19 Aug 2016
Inspired by their English text, Louis Sachar’s Holes, Year 6 use LEGO Mindstorms to program robots thought a series of challenges. In Science, the girls were learning to code, and Year 6 teachers Mr Dean Pomfrett and Mrs Karen Couter decided to create a practical challenge.
“Instead of just getting them to play with the LEGO robots, we got them to design a game with levels and challenges the students would work through,” Mr Pomfrett says. “Working in groups, they test their collaborative and problem solving skills.”
Each stage has a new level of coding on it, which get progressively more difficult, and features a new aspect of their English text. Once the girls have completed a section, they have to video their work, write a reflection, and provide a screenshot of the code.
Lauren of Year 6 says it’s fun to see the robot do what she has programmed, “sometimes you do worksheets in Science, but this you actually do in person.” Her group member Matilda says it’s an exciting challenge because none of them have programmed before.