Specifics: A Valuable Learning Experience
The LEGO Education SPIKE robotics kit was one of the most impactful tools I encountered in this course. It blends physical building with coding, offering a hands-on approach to problem-solving and critical thinking. Using this kit in class allowed me to see the intersection of design, engineering, and computational thinking in real time. I must highlight the incredibly low barrier to entry for this tool. It opens the doors to analogues of surprisingly sophisticated technologies. The kit’s drag-and-drop “block” coding interface was intuitive enough for beginners yet robust enough to introduce more advanced concepts such as loops, Booleans/conditionals, and sensor integration. This flexibility demonstrated the importance of differentiated instruction, a principle I’ll carry forward in my teaching practice.
The big idea from this activity really was “accessibility”. The barrier of entry for robotics otherwise is quite high. What this activity really helped me keep in mind though, was that some students really need time to bring their vision to reality. During my experience working with this tool, I was quite frustrated as I couldn’t fully realize my vision within a reasonable timeframe. Check out my rushed attempt at a 6 legged spider!
Working with this tool really was a blast from the past. I reminded me of the classic MINDSTORMS kit I used almost 15 years ago. I absolutely loved working with this tool. It was much more sophisticated than the version I used when I was in highschool in the late 2000s.