1. Storytellers and engineers in early childhood: developing technological fluency by making robots
Marina U. Bers
Dept. of Child Development
Computer Science Dept.
DevTech Research Group
Tufts University

3. What is robotics? Mechanics and Electronics Building and Programming
Designing and Implementing
Engineering and Storytelling
Cultural identity and SMET

4. Little storytellers
Little engineers

5. Engineering and Storytelling5 5

6. Why robotics in early childhood?
New generation of building blocks
Appropriate for today’s context
Child-centered curriculum
Engage both little engineers &
little storytellers

7. Robotics curricular web
science
cause and effect
life cycle
physical world
earth and space
literacy
reading
writing
literature extensions
story telling
ROBOTICS
technology/engineering
design process
simple machines
mechanics
programming
social studies
mapping
geography
history
family
arts
music
dramatic arts
dance/movement
visual arts
collage/sculpture
math
graphing
measurement
block building
number sense
geometry
patterns

8. Let me give you sa concrete example of what I mean with this.
Powerful Idea
Description
Computer Programming
This is the fundamental idea that robots are not living things that act of their own accord. Instead, robots act out computer programs written by human beings. Not only that, children can create their own computer programs to control a robot.
Command Sequences &
Control Flow
The idea that simple commands can be combined into sequences of actions to be acted out by a robot in order.
Loops
The idea that sequences of instructions can be modified to repeat indefinitely or in a controlled way.
Sensors
The idea that a robot can sense its surrounding environment through a variety of modalities, and that a robot can be programmed to respond to changes in its environment.
Parameters
The idea that some instructions can be qualified with additional information.
Branches
The idea that you can ask a question in a program, and, depending on the answer, have a robot do one thing or another.
Subroutines
The idea that you can treat a set of instructions as a single unit that can be called from other parts of a program.
At mit, sicne it is a technical school, we have put a lot of effort in developing technologies to help young people become scientists and mathematicians. For example,the BBB project engages children in building their own scientific instruments to understand how real scientists work.
But in my other life, before coming to MIT, I was a social scientist and humanist, so I became very interested in how to extend…..to personal development.
Let me give you sa concrete example of what I mean with this.

9. Positive Technological Development (PTD)
interventions
Assets
Behaviors
Technological Tools
Contribution
Confidence
Character
Competence
Connection
Caring
Communication
Outcomes
Collaboration
Self Improvement
Before
After
Community-
Building
Contribution to
society
Content
Creation
Creativity
Choices of Conduct
Personal development trajectory within a socio cultural context

10. Project InterActions: families with young children & culture
Families create a robotic project that represents their cultural identity
chose a culture to explore,
decide the materials to use,
manage the resources and time-frame,
resolve the technological challenges (both programming and mechanics),
create narratives around the final project
Make a website documenting the experience
At mit, sicne it is a technical school, we have put a lot of effort in developing technologies to help young people become scientists and mathematicians. For example,the BBB project engages children in building their own scientific instruments to understand how real scientists work.
But in my other life, before coming to MIT, I was a social scientist and humanist, so I became very interested in how to extend…..to personal development.
Let me give you sa concrete example of what I mean with this.

12. Tangible Kindergarten
At mit, sicne it is a technical school, we have put a lot of effort in developing technologies to help young people become scientists and mathematicians. For example,the BBB project engages children in building their own scientific instruments to understand how real scientists work.
But in my other life, before coming to MIT, I was a social scientist and humanist, so I became very interested in how to extend…..to personal development.
Let me give you sa concrete example of what I mean with this.

13. Want more ? Marina.Bers@tufts.edu http://www.tufts.edu/~mbers01/
“Blocks to Robots: Learning with Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom”. Marina Umaschi Bers
Teacher’s College Press, 2008