Looking for hands-on activities for Social Studies that incorporate STEM? Try introducing cardinal directions with robots! Grade 2 students completed the following activity using the Bee-Bot robot. Bee-Bot introduces K-2 students to basic programming skills, no computers necessary. No Bee-Bots? Adapt this activity for other robotic platforms such as: Ozobot, Wonder Dash robot or Code & Go Mouse, with slight modifications to the “map” described below. The following Bee-Bot Robot lesson took two, 60-minute class periods to complete.
Introducing Cardinal Directions
Start by using the compass application on your phone to show students where North, South, East, and West are in your classroom. Upon making this discovery, create cardinal direction posters to hang on the corresponding walls. Consider having students make their own compasses on index cards to carry with them throughout the activity. It’s a common misconception that North is always forward and South is always backward. For example, students may program Bee-Bot to move forward, but depending on which direction Bee-Bot is facing, forward may be West. Challenge students to understand this concept throughout the activity.
Creating a Map
With the Bee-Bot Card Mat, one movement in any direction=one square. However, the premade Bee-Bot Card Mat comes with a hefty price tag. The good news is, there are several inexpensive ways around this! The online Bee-Bot Emulator provides several ideas for creating Bee-Bot mats, as do YouTube educators like Della Larson. Inexpensive Bee-Bot mat templates can even be found on Teachers Pay Teachers (View some examples here.) You can simply cut, tape, and laminate the squares together to make your very own Bee-Bot grid.
Our grids were inspired by the Bee-Bot Emulator’s Community Mat. Students designed their own communities using the blank squares I printed from a Teachers Pay Teachers template. In preparation, I cut 30 squares per group (though mats can be made smaller if desired). Students then designed about 15 out of the 30 squares. The remaining squares were used as roads for Bee-Bot’s travel. Completed maps can be taped and laminated. I found this part to be tricky, but this tutorial is helpful.
Programming Robots
Students then tackled programming Bee-Bot to travel to different landmarks on their maps via roadways they drew. I modeled this for students by noting where Bee-Bot was traveling from and where Bee-Bot was traveling to, followed by the program (arrows), followed by the cardinal directions Bee-Bot was traveling in throughout its journey (program). For instance, they may program Bee-Bot to travel forward three times (three squares), turn right, then move forward twice (two squares) in that new direction. The written program may look something like this: → → → ↻ → → GO, with the cardinal directions Bee-Bot was moving in noted underneath the program. *See photo below for example.
Students will quickly notice that turning Bee-Bot right doesn’t move Bee-Bot in that direction– a forward arrow must come next. In addition, students will notice that Bee-Bot can’t travel on top of community landmarks. It’s important that the Bee-Bot robot travels on squares designed to be roads. As students move Bee-Bot to different landmarks on their maps, remind students to note what cardinal direction Bee-Bot is moving in. Can students note that Bee-Bot is moving forward but actually traveling South? What about turning right, but actually traveling West? These questions are sure to lead to interesting debates amongst young students, while also increasing students’ understanding of map skills.
See Bee-Bot Robot in action on Twitter!
About the Author
Colleen O’Melia is a second grade teacher at the Hurld-Wyman Elementary School in Woburn, MA. She is passionate about bringing new, engaging experiences to her students. Follow her on Twitter @MissOMeliaGr2 where she shares the exciting things her students are doing in class.
