Let's Code and Roll... the Ozobot DICE!

I was really trying to work in the Ozobots once more this year!  We did not get them until December so we only had a semester, in addition to the shortened curriculum because of Hurricane Harvey, to use them.  I get so easily excited that I always end up over doing but we had some 'extra' time to work on geometry and I decided to work in a little coding.  How I feel about coding in math has been communicated quite extensively by me.  My colleagues and friends are surely sick of it but I can not see a better fit than order of operations and accuracy in math.  Beyond that are careers, life lessons, and of course interactions beyond the standard social media.

Read about my initial ideas and Ozobot lessons here.

Making Math Ozo-some!

I also wrote more about coding and math here.

Guest Blog: Ozobots in Algebra 1

So here comes the end of the year.  Kids are tired.  State tests are taken.  They need some motivation and engagement to get through the final haul of what has been a roller coaster Texas school year.  I decided a nice poster project to round out the Geometry Unit would be nice.  I could not have been more happy with the results.  The students blew me away with their coding and concepts mastery.  It was so rewarding and a great way to further practice our coding in math!

I first created dice with a combination of coding and geometry concepts.  There are 4 unique dice.  2 are numbered and 2 are lettered so you can mix it up.  I printed all the numbers on blue and letters on orange and laminated them.

For the instructions, I put the codes for all the dice under each number so they could just circle which ones they rolled.  I also created a rubric on the back.  I also stated to roll a dice and complete the action then roll again.  Some groups did all their roles then created so it is completely up to you.

 I also encouraged adding extra to it as well.  Many kids were so excited that they were scared to add more and mess it up.  I loved their excitement and pride in their work.  One young lady even asked we send the video to her Mom 😍 They just watched their Ozobot perfectly travel the line for about 15 minutes.  It was fabulous!

I provided one piece of the gridded chart paper to help with the geometry concepts.

One of the discussions we had was what happened when Ozobot chose left instead of right or got stuck somewhere?  All groups had worked that out and accounted for it in their projects.  It was educational magic!!

I have since firther developed in, incorporating space and fine turning where they get an even number of Geometry concepts and coding!

Get all my resources from the Ozobot Classroom Lesson Library for FREE here!

As an additional fun note, we did this activity with a Texas theme in my WeTeach_CS face-to-face!  This was teachers completing it and below is one of the completed ones....

Enjoy!

Lisa

Ozobot Geometry Challenge!

Oh my sweet little Bot!  How the students and I have adored thee!  This year has been a unique experience working computer science basics of coding in to my math classroom.  Expanding and applying math in with robotics was rewarding and engaging.  You can read about my previous experiences at the links below.

Math is Ozo-some!

Ozobotting Quadratics

We used them again to review and apply geometry concepts prior to the Geometry Unit.  On the Ozobot site, there is a great task card challenge for middle school by Erin Wilson. 

Download it here for FREE!

For my students, I wanted some higher level concepts and tasks so I developed my own task cards.  

I also provided cm graph paper for them to use.  I had them each complete a minimum of 4 tasks and if they realized multiple ones could be done within the same item, then I let them and secretly cheered behind their back for the thought processing.  It was not super intense and nice little integration into the content.

To prepare, I made one copy of the task cards and laminated them.  They were all placed on the back counter and students chose which one they wanted.  After completing, they took it back to the counter and chose another one.  That way they were not all doing the same tasks and I didn't have to copy and cut a bagillion cards (or store them). Win-win. 😀

I also cut the FREE Ozobot Practice sheet code templates up and provided them with 3,4 and end-line u-turn code templates if they needed.  This helped them having to get a new sheet for corrections.  You may download these from Teachers Pay Teachers for FREE here.  Thank you Macs Store for the great resource!

I included some teacher notes and the Texas TEKS standards.

Incorporating coding into my math classroom has been an incredible experience for my students.  Seeing math and being engaged has shown unique growth and attention to detail.  I can't wait to see how much more I can use it!

You may download all my resources from the Ozobot Classroom Lesson Library here for FREE!

Thank you to Erin Wilson for the fabulous activity and inspiration!

Enjoy,
Lisa

Making Math OZO-some!

Last year I participated in a WeTeach_CS grant in Texas.  It was to help prepare for taking the Teacher Certification test for teaching computer science.  I love learning new things and being a teacher, I'm a life long learner.  Through this grant, which is currently being offered throughout the state of Texas (Google to see if there is one near you!)  It is completely free and not only helps prepare you, it also provides resources for you to take back to your classroom regardless of what you teach!

We built a laptop to use for coding!

We learned to code on our new TINspires!

It was such an incredible and rewarding experience!  But how did this make math OZO-some you ask?  Through this grant, I discovered a little robot called an Ozobot.  A what o-bot?  Check out the Youtube intro video here:

And where do I see the value of coding in the math classroom?  Well, the minute I started to code all those basic order of operations principles came into play.  What else?  You had to be precise and accurate and follow directions!  Say what?  Follow directions and order of operations?  Well.... while your students might be well heeled in these practices, I find it a much needed constant 'refresher' for my students.

I loved that the kids made the connection on the first day of using the Ozobots.  When we discussed the significance of the robots in the classroom, the one student who loudly exclaimed '.... oh, oh, ohhh.... order of operations!' made it all worth it. I was ecstatic.  This is exactly how I worked coding into my math classroom.  This was just a beginning but I was able to do something that my students will always be able to connect to the most fundamental life skill for success in anything... order of operations and following directions.

The Ozobot website has premade lessons and activities for your students as well.  I used this one to start with the students.  I showed the video above then followed up with the following 2.

So how do you get an Ozobot?  I did a DonorsChoose.org classroom project.  I promoted the heck out of it because I wanted this for my students.  The first week they will even match your donations.  Here is my project so you can see the specifics.  Click on the picture to follow the link.

Those of you unfamiliar with DonorsChoose.org should definitely look into it.  It is completely FREE for teachers and I found it to be a very easy grant writing process.  I feel passionately about my students and with DonorsChoose I can express that passion effectively.  I was lucky to have this project funded and blessed beyond belief for the value it gave my students in not only math processes but a whole new world of coding for some of them!

I plan to do more with them and below are pictures of our first days.  These graduate from simple coding into loops and what if and logic statements for my hardcore coders.  They are wonderful for learning to code.  

 I love when kids get so into it they put it on social media 💓💓

They decided to build a great course.

I highly recommend you look into the WeTeach_CS grants if you can.  It was so rewarding for both for me and my students.  If you are in the Houston area and would like to check out my classroom set of Ozobots let me know.  I'd love to help you see the coding in math!