Students at Elida Middle School put their brains to the test by learning how to program robots.
Sphero is a programmable robot used by the students to learn coding. In this coding lesson with 6th graders at Elida Middle School, they had to navigate their robot through an obstacle course. They use an app on the iPad to give commands to the robot, and all of the commands are built using code.
Kiara Cage, one of the students at Elida says, “We program them to do tricks and spin around, and they can change different colors and they just can do a lot of different stuff.”
The app used to program Sphero is designed to break-down and generalize the process of coding so anyone can learn at any age, but the app is also advanced enough where the students are able to go in and write coding on their own using JavaScript.
Paige Turner, the district media specialist at Elida says, “It’s our job to continue to promote lifelong learning, and we truly believe that this type of technology and program that we’re implementing in the library gives them knowledge about real-world things that they can use down the road.”
And for one student, learning how to program the Sphero is just the beginning of his journey into robotics.
“I love doing it because when I get older," says Dylan Petersen, "I really want to be a person who makes certain types of robots like these, animatronics to be exact.”
Whether students are programming the robot to travel at a certain speed and distance, or to change colors, Sphero allows students to create their own commands through code and see it come to life.
