We were very pleased to award Leverstock Green (Hemel Hempstead) an IT award to buy five Dash and Dot robots, specifically designed for both KS1 and KS2 primary education.
As Sophie Azzopard, School Business Manager, explained:
"Dash is a ready assembled robot that has many features - it can drive around, move its head, detect objects, identify which direction a sound is coming from, record and playback sounds and communicate with Dot robots as programmed by the children.
Dot is Dash's companion. While Dot doesn't have wheels to move, it has lots of sensors and can interact with Dash as well as being used as a standalone device. Dot can hear sound, light up any colour you like, know when and how it is being moved and communicate with Dash.
Children will use challenge cards to learn the fundamentals of coding - sequences, loops, events, conditionals, functions and variables.”
The robots will benefit all classes as well as the school’s lunchtime coding club where pupil premium children will be specifically targeted. Also, the mixed age, after-school club will also have access to the robots.
Sophie strengthened her application further by pointing out:
“Although the resources are specifically focused on teaching coding, the activities using Dot & Dash will also have a positive benefit on pupils' ability to solve problems, apply logic and develop critical thinking. In turn, we anticipate this will benefit their learning in other areas of the curriculum…” and in the after-school club… “children will have the opportunity to develop their skills in multi-age groups, thus also improving communication skills”