BeeBots and Robots at Langlee Author Caroline Belleville, Langlee Primary School, Galashiels, SCOTTISH BORDERS. The project aims to foster more hands-on, interactive ICT opportunities while developing collaborative group work and problem-solving skills in the Early Years. Objectives Bee-Bots Starter Pack, Gearbotics Robots packs, Leap-pad Learning Systems. Software Description The children used the resources in small, adult-led groups and completed a variety of pre-planned tasks using the resources. Once the initial group is secure with the concepts involved, they will help to support other groups of peers to use the resources. Learning Areas ICT, Maths, Problem-Solving, Personal and Social Development Levels Ages 3 – 7, Pre Level A – Level BEarly Years, A Curriculum for Excellence, Problem-Solving, Collaborative Group Work. Keywords Project Overview

BeeBots and Robots at Langlee Teacher Planning and Management Background & Planning (Overview): A lot of ICT development work has taken place within Langlee Primary School over recent years but there is still a need for greater ICT use in Nursery/Early Years classes. Prior to this project, children had weekly access to ICT suite facilities, but did not get any hands-on use of more practical ICT equipment. This project has allowed children to become more active participants in their use of ICT equipment. See document below for more information. Classroom Images – see document below. Documents

BeeBots and Robots at Langlee Teaching Resources The pupils work was all hands-on and interactive and so they did not require any hand- outs. However, I have embedded some of the hand-outs used by the teachers and group leaders when teaching each group. These include the Block Planning sheets followed by the group and the Weekly Assessment sheets completed at the end of each session by the adult leader. These assessment sheets were very useful as they allowed the adult leader to evaluate the pace of the work at the end of each lesson to determine if the children were coping or not. The green/amber/red column relates to the traffic lights system of Formative Assessment already used within the school and provided the adult leader with a quick, effective way of recording how well the pupil had coped with the content of the lesson. BeeBots: I created some additional cards for use with the BeeBot (eg letters to be delivered to specific addresses on the Street Map, shopping lists the children had to use to negotiate the BeeBot around the board.) Other resources, such as the Treasure Island cards for BeeBot, had been provided in the Starter Pack. Documents

BeeBots and Robots at Langlee Assessment and Standards The Project was planned to develop the childrens skills in ICT. The specific outcomes from Information and Communications Technology 5-14 are BeeBots Controlling and Modelling STRAND - Position and Movement – Level A Understand the following words related to movement/direction Up/down, left/right, forwards/backwards STRAND - Control hardware – Level A Explore the use and operation of simple devices. Gearbotics Controlling and Modelling STRAND – Control Hardware – Level B Use with assistance (eg a robot) controlling it using single step instructions. STRAND – Knowledge of terms and uses – Level B Name main parts of device used, and describe what the devices can do and stimulate Each adult leader completed weekly assessment grids for their group (see previous slide). At the end of the project, staff involved were asked to complete a project assessment sheet so their views could be taken into account when planning further roll-out of the project. Documents

BeeBots and Robots at Langlee Teacher and School Information Langlee Primary consists of a mainstream, Nursery and Support Centre for children with exceptional and complex needs. There are 284 children on the role at present and approximately 36 children have been involved in the first stage of the project. This will gradually increase to around 100 children in all. Staff from Nursery and Primary 1-3 have been involved in the project. All staff involved have had direct input and have used the resources with small groups of children. Staff were trained in how to use the resources at the beginning of the project and regular opportunities have been provided throughout the term for feedback and discussion among the teachers involved. Caroline Belleville teaches P7 and is Principal Teacher in charge of ICT. She has led small groups of children from the Early Years classes to help with the development of the new resources.