THORNTON ROBOTICS

At Thornton we have a family of robots called Mekamons.  Our Prep ICT teacher took the mekamons to a local state primary school who do not have robots for the children to learn coding and sequencing.

Aims

The aim of this partnership was to share our robotics resources with a local primary school to ensure primary students have the opportunity to learn coding.

The identified need was for local primary students to experience learning robotics in the classroom.

Critical factors for success are the learning opportunities and resources provided to ensure students learn efficient coding.

Seven year 5 and 6 pupils in a local prep state school.

Background

Through existing links between Thornton and Finmere C of E School.

Thornton Head of ICT in Prep shared with local schools that we have mekamon robots and teach our students coding with these robots and how much the girls enjoy it.  The local school asked if they could see the robots and our teacher offered to take the robots in and run extended lessons for the students on how to make the robots dance, move, respond using coding.

Resources

The mekamon robots are a critical resources as well as an ICT subject lead in Prep.

Yes all resources required are school resources; the robots and the teacher.

Teaching Staff - 1 subject lead for a cumulative of one day.

We do not ask for any financial contribution from the partnerships school.

Impact

Participating students gave voluntary feedback on the day such as:

"WOW this is amazing"  "I can't believe we are doing this - I've learnt so much".

There has been no formal assessment of impact.

Pupil Involvement

All pupils involved were from the partner state primary school, all in Years 5 and 6 and there were 7 students in total of mixed gender.

Frequency

This was a one off event.