Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Marlinton Elementary School had a lot to celebrate this year during Computer Science Education Week December 6-12. The school hosted three days of coding at the Community Wellness Center in Marlinton and welcomed families to see their kids in action with the school’s new fleet of robots.
The 13 robots were purchased with a $2,000 grant provided by County Roads Codes: Taking Computer Science to West Virginia Communities.
Fourth grade teacher Brian Smith applied for the grant and has been working with his students, and other grade levels, teaching them how to code and program the robots to perform.
“We used to have a different set of codeable devices, but we haven’t had those for a few years now,” he said. “This is our first year getting back into it. [The students] have done some coding on their devices online, but no interfacing with a robot for the last several years, so this was kind of a step back in that direction.”
The robots are called M-block and came unassembled, which led to the first lesson for the fourth-grade students.
“My students got to build them, as well, which was kind of neat,” Smith said. “We built them in class, and we’ve been using them some with my homeroom class and a few other classes.”
MES has a program called Grade Level Buddies in which the older grades are paired with a younger grade and the older students work with the younger kids on different projects.
The robots were one of the projects in class and for computer science week. Fifth and second grade; fourth and first grade; and third grade and kindergarten are paired up to work in bigger projects and learn together.
“They coded with a big buddy, so there was always a pair working on the puzzle together,” Smith said. “Every kid had their own device, and every kid was on their device with a buddy, running the code that we would need to control the robots.”
While it may seem like the students are simply playing with a toy, the robotics and coding implementing requires a lot of math in the fourth grade curriculum.
“Whenever we write the code, we’re writing code based on measurements of distance and turns by degrees of angle, which are important fourth grade skills,” Smith said. “The kids will have to measure in centimeters distances traveled and then figure out degrees of turn for their angles – whether it was right turns or different angles.”
The students also use a lot of problem solving, especially when the angle degree is off when the robot is traveling a certain route. Smith has several “tracks” of masking tape on the floor of his classroom and the students must figure out the correct angle to enter in the code to have the robot follow the track.
“The kids have taken to it pretty well,” he said. “They enjoy it and it’s been nice to watch them. It is play, but it’s productive play. We’re definitely trying to keep it fun as much as possible, but they’re having a good time solving these puzzles.”
It was also fun for the students to show off what they have learned during the three-day computer science education week celebration.
“We invited families to come to our event last week and several families stopped by to watch their kids,” Smith said. “It was nice to have families come in and see what their kids are learning and tinker and play with their buddies. It was nice to have that engagement with families. We hope to have more of that in the future as we continue to build the program.”
The students use a coding language that involves lining up blocks on the screen to create a command for the robots. There are preset blocks like “move forward blank centimeters” and the students must input the numbers once they have made their calculations.
The code is a simplified version of Python which is another coding language used by the Pocahontas County High School robotics team.
Smith said he hopes to have the high school students work with his class in the future, once the students have had more time working with the robots.
“I’ve reached out to [teachers] Jennifer Nail and Laurel Dilley and told them we have these robots,” he said. “I’ve offered for them to borrow these if they want for the second semester to use with some of their kids. We’ve also talked about potentially finding a way to get the big kids down here for a day to do some things with our kids.
“I’m looking for opportunities to possibly engage with them and let my kids show off what they can do and see the cooler stuff the big kids can do,” he added. “We’re looking forward to that.”
This is just the beginning of robotics and coding at MES. Smith said he hopes to expand the program in the future.
“We were certainly very excited to receive the grant and get the full funding we asked for,” he said. “We hope to expand because thirteen is a nice number to start with, but it would be nice to have an entire class set.
“We’ll look to hopefully expand the program as opportunities arise.”
