Review of Robo™ Wunderkind Robotics Kit

I admit it. I am not a coder. I have dabbled with block-based coding, Sphero, and some other products, but the last real coding I have done was in 1972 when I created punch cards to count from one to ten for the IBM System/360 at my high school!

Pete Birkinshaw, Used Punchcard, https://www.flickr.com/photos/binaryape/5151286161

So, when Robo™ Wunderkind asked me to review their Education Robotics Kit for elementary students, ages 6 to 12, they were happy to hear I was no expert, since the kit was so easy to use! (Probably these early learners have much more recent programming experience than I have!)

Upon opening the box, I was presented with colorful cubes with electronics, wheels, buttons, lights, and more.

The overview book, which explained the role of each piece, was easy to understand and I felt confident I understood each component.

I took the items out of the box and arranged them in my workspace. I also charged up the orange Main Block with the included USB cable.

Each color block has its own role.

• The orange Main Block powers the robot, Bluetooths to the student's mobile device where they use the app, and controls all the other blocks.
• The green Connectors have electronics, and both hold blocks together as well as allow block to communicate with each other.
• The little green Lego® Connectors allow students to build up their robots by using Legos on the small baseplates.
• The red Button is a smart button, which knows when students press and release it.
• The yellow Light is just that...a programmable light source.
• There are two large green wheels and a small, articulating green wheel.
• The big red block is a Distance Sensor which measures distances to objects and well as detects sound.
• The darker blue Motors helps a student's robot to move around.
• The lighter blue block is a Servo which can rotate the robot to precise angles.
• The green and black Wired Connector can connect blocks that are not next to each other and help go around the blind sides of the blocks.
• There is also a little plastic pry bar which is used to separate the Connectors from the blocks, when breaking down the robot, in a way that protects them from too much force. Students under 10 may need some help when prying, since the Connector components fit rather snugly.

The first step was to attach the Main Block to the app on the mobile device via Bluetooth. It was a simple process that students, once shown how to do it, would be able to complete. At various times, as I built the robot and snapped on pieces, the app prompted me to tap the screen to apply a quick little update to the piece. In addition, there was a firmware update for the Main Block, too. These updates were simple to apply, and completed by tapping a button on the screen of the mobile device, so students will have no problem completing the task.

I then visited the Web site for a quick overview of the basics, and looked at some of the projects that were available.

The robots students create are controlled from an iOS or Android device. There are two different apps to support the robots- Robo Code and Robo Live.

The Robo Code app (iOS | Android) is the place to learn how to build, how to control, and to try building the sample robots in the tutorials. This is also where students can store, edit, and update their own projects. The sample projects showcase each of the robotic components, so students can learn about them and then experiment and create their own unique robots!

The Robo Live app (iOS | Android) allows students to remotely control their Robo Wunderkind robots by using a drag and drop interface to control the robot's actions like driving, turning, making sounds, and blinking.

I decided just to put some blocks together, based on what I had learned thus far, and came up with this simple robot. I actually clapped when it worked!

I then did a little digging in the projects in the Robo Workshop in the Robo Code app and made both a flashlight, which used the Light, and created an obstacle avoider that used the Distance Sensor block.

I had a ton of fun and learned how to both build and create code to make my robots do what I wanted them to do! I spent about 90 minutes reading the basics, creating my robots, coding my projects, and taking notes, photos, and videos for this blog post.

I feel the Robo™ Wunderkind robotics kit and the two apps -- Robo Code and Robo Live -- would be a great addition to a STEM program or a class that includes programming. The drag and drop interface to code the robots is easy to use and has sounds, effects, timings, and more to allow simple or complex programming for the robots. The kit includes enough pieces to make fun robots and make robots do fun things! 

Although the kit states it is intended for students ages 6-12, my recommendation would be to start with age 6 and go right up through high school. The Robo™ Wunderkind kit can be an introduction to electronics, programming, and coding at any age. (Even at my age!)

Getting a Robo™ Wunderkind kit for every four students in a class would allow collaborative building and coding, along with the creative aspects of design, the math computations of angles, and classroom contests with the robots! 

I received a Robo™ Wunderkind robotics kit to keep for writing this review.

Thinking processes and STEM

STEM, with its combined focus on science, technology, engineering and math, should also include the important skill of learning how to think. There are many models of thinking processes available to teach to students, each with a different focus or goal. I am going to showcase some of the most popular and let you, as the creative educator, pick the one that best meets the needs of your students. You might even decide to take the most relevant parts of each and develop your own model!

After you read about each model, ask yourself the following questions.

• How would I introduce this model into the classroom?
• What content in the STEM curriculum would benefit most from this model?
• What can I easily adapt to infuse this model?
• What would implementation of this model look like in the classroom?
• What would be my goal(s) for students when using this model?
• Where can I find additional resources on this model?

Model 1: Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, a revision of a cognitive thinking classification, was published in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl. Their goal was to move the elements of the classification from static to action verbs and combine the classification with four types of knowledge acquisition for students. From these two components, the cognitive process dimension and the knowledge dimension, teachers could create learning objectives and help students move through the levels of the basic taxonomy – Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating – and move them from the use of lower order thinking skills to the higher order thinking skills.

Anderson and Krathwohl defined the Knowledge Dimension as a place for student to move from concrete through abstract knowledge, and through the four categories of factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge.

We are all familiar with the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy classification of the cognitive processes.

However, the most useful part of helping students move through these levels, as they learn something new, are the more specific verbs that fall under the six broader categories in the pyramid image.

In 2008, Andrew Churches mapped the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to the use of technology to help students move from the lower to higher order thinking skills and published Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy.

Additional resources for Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

• Link to a useful handout that outlines more about this thinking skills process
• Keywords and questions at each level of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.
• Apps and tools to support Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

Model 2: Computational thinking

Computational thinking (CT), as defined in Google’s “Computational Thinking for Educators” course as a…

…problem solving process that includes a number of characteristics and dispositions. CT is essential to the development of computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines, including the humanities, math, and science. Students who learn CT across the curriculum can begin to see a relationship between academic subjects, as well as between life inside and outside of the classroom.

https://computationalthinkingcourse.withgoogle.com/unit ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=u_JWGzIAdNo

Traditionally, the broad overview of Computational Thinking was “an approach to solving problems in a way that can be solved by a computer”. The model has students thinking like a computer scientist in areas across the curriculum. Computational thinking is not programming or coding. It is the formal planning process that occurs before the programming or coding occur. As Higson outlines in this video , computational thinking is the process by which students use their knowledge of what computers can do to help them solve problems.

There are four traditional components in the process of computational thinking, as outlined on the BBC Bitesize site –

• decomposition – breaking down a complex problem or system into smaller, more manageable parts
• pattern recognition – looking for similarities among and within problems 
• abstraction – focusing on the important information only, ignoring irrelevant detail
• algorithms – developing a step-by-step solution to the problem, or the rules to follow to solve the problem

The computational thinking process is different than the Bloom’s Revised taxonomy thinking process because it is not hierarchical. Each of the four components are equally as important in the thinking process of solving the problem.

Additional resources for Computational Thinking

• Bringing computational thinking to K-12
• Jeannette M. Wing: Computational thinking
• Lesson plans across the curriculum using CT
• Computational thinking across the curriculum
• Resources and support material for computational thinking

Model 3: Design Thinking

My favorite definition of design thinking is from Kricia Cabral on the Scholastic site, who states “design thinking is a creative problem-solving process that calls for thoughtful solutions to real-world situations”. Design thinking is a thinking process that can work nicely for the STEM curriculum topics as well as across other content areas.

There are many, many design thinking models, all of which promote a similar thinking process. Following are images and links to some popular models. Libby Hoffman included some of the ones below in a blog post and I have added additional models that I think are well-stated and useful.

• The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (Stanford)
• The IDEO Model
• Google Design Sprints
• The Tallyfy Model of Design Thinking

The Launch Cycle for K-12

My favorite model for K-12!

• Resources and materials to support the design thinking model

Do you have a specific thinking model you use with your students? Have you developed your own? Please share your thoughts, links, and resources on Twitter! #kathyschrock

Resources to support STEM

I like this definition of STEM from WhatIs.com:

STEM is an educational program developed to prepare primary and secondary students for college and graduate study in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In addition to subject-specific learning, STEM aims to foster inquiring minds, logical reasoning, and collaboration skills.

I prefer this definition because, in addition to including the curriculum content areas, it emphasizes inquiry, reasoning, and collaboration skills. Not being a science, mathematics, or engineering technology teacher, I won’t be recommending sites to support the curriculum side of STEM in this post, but I will cover the career readiness and skills needed to excel in a STEM career.

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ENGINEERING AND INVENTIVENESS

At the 2014 ASEE Annual Conference, Glancy, et. al., presented a paper entitled “Examination of Integrated STEM Curricula as a Means Toward Quality K-12 Engineering Education“. In this document, they outline the components of a quality K-12 Engineering Education curriculum.

• Process of design:
  • Problem and background: identify the problem and research it
  • Plan and implement: brainstorm solutions, judge the importance, and create a prototype
  • Test and evaluate: create hypotheses and design experiments to test the prototype; reflect and redesign
• Apply science, engineering and mathematics knowledge: utilize all three disciplines  for  interdisciplinary study
• Engineering thinking: independent and reflective thinking; learn from failure
• Conceptions of engineers and engineering: understand what an engineer does
• Engineering tools and processes: become proficient in engineering processes, techniques, tools, and skills
• Issues solutions and processes: understand the impact of their solution on the issues and vice versa
• Ethics: think about the ethical situations in the practice of engineering
• Teamwork: participate as a contributing team member
• Engineering communication: Learn how to effectively communicate understandings to others

I have been conducting some workshops surrounding the theory of inventiveness, which targets many of the same aspects as the curriculum above. The University of Iowa holds an “Invent Iowa” event each year, and they simplify the inventiveness process.

1. Inventiveness involves the ability to brainstorm. (fluency)
2. Inventiveness involves the ability to think in new and different ways. (flexibility)
3. Inventiveness includes the ability to add details or missing parts. (elaboration)
4. Inventiveness includes the ability to make things that are new. (originality)

Take a look at their curriculum guide when you get a chance. It is outstanding!

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LITERACY AND STEM

In addition to the use of the disciplines of math, science, and mathematics, there are other projects that tie in literacy as a component of STEM. The PictureSTEM project “includes instructional units for K-2 classrooms that use an engineering challenge and picture books as supports for learning science, mathematics, engineering, computational thinking, and reading”. For instance, the kindergarten lesson has students making paper baskets for transporting rocks. The unit utilizes the picture books “If You Find a Rock”, “I Get Wet”,”Pattern Fish”, “The Most Magnificent Thing”, and “Rocks, Jeans, and Busy Machines”. The students learn about the properties of paper when wet and dry, learn about rhyming words and pictures as well as patterns for weaving, build a prototype basket, test it, and communicate the results to the class.

The Novel Engineering project, for students in grades 3-8, provides students with the opportunity to “use existing classroom literature – stories, novels, and expository texts – as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills”.

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CAREERS AND STEM

Another area of STEM programs should provide students with the overview of the careers available in the many fields encompassed by the STEM disciplines.

• KidsAhead: in addition to articles and activities, this site includes a section on jobs in science and math in areas from crime scene investigation to extreme weather to the animal kingdom
• Cool Science Careers: this Rice University site provides simulated exploration of STEM careers and includes handouts for the teacher to use with the students
• The Occupational Outlook Handbook: this wonderful reference source compiled each year by the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides students with in-depth information about hundreds of jobs. It is a great place for students to browse and learn about STEM occupations.
• Discover Enginering™: this comprehensive site includes information on the reasons to love engineering, the career outlooks, engineering careers, and what engineers do
• STEM Career Websites for Students: the Science Pioneers site, a non-profit organization in Kansas City, offers tons of links to more specific STEM career sties for students.
• Discovery Education Streaming has over 1300 videos and clips for grades K-12 dealing with STEM careers which explore the role of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in their jobs. In addition, there are curated content collections at each grade level range dealing with STEM careers that include videos and images.

Many private organization sites often provide a list of careers that support their particular mission. For instance, the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League), which supports the use of amateur radio worldwide, includes a comprehensive list list of related careers on their site. In addition, they provide a look at what amateur radio as part of a STEM curriculum looks like in a real classroom.

Do you conduct multidisciplinary lessons or units that include the STEM disciplines and other disciplines? Do you have a resource or a method to share to get teachers and/or  students excited about careers in STEM? Please share on Twitter! #kathyschrock