Before I begin, I would like to introduce the amazing little robots that have entered my math classroom. For just over a year, I have been using Ozobots. If you are unfamiliar with them, they are small, programmable robots. It does not take very long to learn how to speak its language and give it commands.
The initial incarnation of the Ozobot allowed users to draw black lines on white paper for the Ozobot to follow. As well, the user could use a preset combination of green, red, and blue to tell the Ozobot to do a trick, or carry out a movement. These are referred to as OzoCodes. They may be simple commands, such as a u-turn, or more complex movements like spins and back walks.
The more recent version is the Ozobot 2.0. This latest version allows the user to create and upload programs, using a block coding system called OzoBlockly. Earlier this year, I was able to teach my students basic programming in about 1 hour. It is a very user friendly code that is great for classroom use.
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| Meet the Ozobot 2.0. |
Last week, it all began with a single question. The students have been working on their understanding of decimal fractions and I decided it was time for them to show the depth of their learning.
Design an Ozobot course that demonstrates your understanding of decimal fractions.
Students each received a large piece of paper. They quickly realized that they needed rulers and pencils. As they began the task, I started to see students measure out a distance that they then referred to as "one whole". I watched as they each came to the conclusion that they needed to break down their original measurement into various fractions.
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| Some students began planning their measurements. |
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| A student works to divide their original distance into fractions of its original length. They recorded both the distances and fractions for use later on in the project. |
Once their initial Ozobot course was designed and checked over, they proceeded to go over the pencil lines with thick, black markers (Mr. Sketch). I even had one student figure out that they could include the OzoCodes at predictable increments that were fractions of the original measurement. The student whose work is pictured below has used OzoCodes in their course to represent the denominators of fractions.
The second stage of this assignment was to translate their original program from paper to computer. Students who reached this stage, used their measurements to build their OzoBlockly program. In some cases, students used loops to cut down on the amount of commands they were giving the Ozobot.
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| A sample of programming created by a student. |
Once the program was complete and checked over, it was time to upload it into the robot.
Finally, we were able to run the programs students created, and see the creations come to life! This has been a great opportunity to give the students the freedom to express their depth of understanding of the concepts taught. I look forward to more opportunities to use this technology in my classroom.
3 comments:
Awesome work!
How was the student able to arrive at the five fifths comment from one whole? What direction was given to them to look for this? What was the question specifically?
Your efforts did draw out from your student's to make use of mathematics. Wonderful!
Thanks Anett!
This activity came after students had gone through some mini-lessons the few days prior (decimals as fractions and equivalent fractions). It was a chance for them to express the depth of their understanding. The student had taken the idea of 5/5 as a whole as a starting point for determining that he would need a measurable distance (whole) to cut into and fraction off of. He actually expressed that verbally to me and I quickly asked him to write it down on his paper so both of us would remember and he could refer back to it. For him, it was part of the planning stages.
As for the exact question, it was actually more of a statement. I simply wrote on my whiteboard, "Design an Ozobot course that demonstrates your understanding of fractions". I chose to give such an open question so that they could apply their skills as they saw fit. I have done more focussed challenges in the past, it just depends on what direction I want to explore.
I have found with the Ozobot challenges I have given in the past, as well as this one, students create some of their best works when given multiple entry points. In the past, I have created challenges to explore patterns, area & perimeter, probability, graphing, and angles, lines & shapes. They have been such an amazing addition to my classroom, especially with the release of the Ozobot 2.0 and the OzoBlockly programming.
Please let me know if you have anymore questions.
This is fantastic! Wonderfully done!
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