Robotics at Norwood Elementary School Libraries

Donna Miller, Norwood Public Schools

Norwood Elementary Schools
Oldham Elementary (Donna Miller) 
Balch Elementary (Lora Roberts) 
Callahan Elementary (Aaron Reuland)
Cleveland Elementary (Annmarie Higgins)




We four elementary library teachers (Donna Miller, Lora Roberts, Aaron Reuland, Annmarie Higgins) in Norwood have started using various robots in our library programs to teach coding and computational thinking in our library programs. Last year we started with BeeBots in the lower grades.

In the spring we presented our tech dept with a proposal for additional robots. Over the summer, they purchased a class set of Sphero. We will be rotating both the BeeBots and the Spheros through the five schools throughout the year. We are using the Spheros with our 4th and 5th grades which was spearheaded by Aaron Reuland, who recently presented to our school committee.

---

Second grade students laying out the “code” for BeeBots.

Students using the Ozobots - creating a path for it to travel using color codes to adjust speed and direction. They are also creating a path to knock down the bowling pins.

In addition, we wrote a grant and received multiple sets of Ozobots so that each school has a set to use. We are launching these this year with our third grade students. This year is a learning year for all of us as we incorporate these into our curriculum and brainstorm ways to get teachers using them as well. Student response has been very enthusiastic.