Lego WeDo 2.0 Resources
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RTÉ filming the children from Scoil Mobhí as they engage with the Lego WeDo Speed project.
The students from Scoil Mobhí and I after the RTÉ Lego WeDo Speed session.
The boy from St.Patrick's N.S. Drumcondra which I was paired with on their visit.
I learned that children think about things in a way
that we adults cannot. They simplify things we adults overcomplicate to a
point no one understands. As teacher’s we appreciate that children have many
different ways of interpreting things and children learn differently, some learn
best by reading/writing others aurally and others kinesthetically etc. ‘Research on ‘multimodality ’ – the use of
multiple different types of communication and interaction – shows that a
well-designed learning experience, which stimulates more than one sense (for
instance sight and sound, or sight and touch) can really help the learner to
understand and identify the key meanings of the material.’ (The Lego system for learning,
2010) The children from playing with these Lego WeDo computational materials
gained the valuable knowledge of exploring, experimenting, gathering
information and analysing this information to come up with a conclusion. ‘To
play is to engage. When we play, we pick up objects, ideas, or themes and do
whatever we want with them. We turn them upside down and we experiment with
them. We might arrive at something inspiring and amazing, but that is not
necessarily the point. We play anyway – this is play for its own sake. For
humans and some animals, play is a vital part of development. What is more
often forgotten is that play is not for children alone but is good for all
people, young and old alike.’ (The Future of Play, 2010)
The boy I was paired with testing did his modifications make the car go faster?
The children were immediately interested and
focused on the task because it was a new modern technological view of learning
the concept of speed as we all done the WeDo Speed project with the children. I
was paired with one very well mannered boy from St.Patrick’s Boys National
School Drumcondra. We bounced off one another when doing the step by
step creation of the basic car, one would hit the step on the ipad and signal
what parts were needed while the other searched for the parts. Then we would
swap over. I was quite surprised at how well we worked as a team and how the boy didn't try and take control, it left my role as a supervisor very easy as I
barely had to intervene at all. The very fact I didn’t have to intervene also highlights
the enthusiasm of the boy to complete this project and figure out how to
make it go faster. With ease we came up with different ways of speeding our
car up. We firstly put bigger wheels on our model which made it go faster
and then added what looked like wings to it which the boy told me were to add
to the car’s aerodynamics. I was highly impressed and this proved to make the
faster model with bigger wheels even go faster again which meant they through
exploration and experimentation found two ways to increase the cars speed which
was the supplementary task. It cannot be denied that this form of learning is
much more engaging for children than reading it in a book and filling out a
worksheet. Children delve into these real-life hands on projects and come out
with real understanding of how a car’s speed can be increase or in fact
decreased depending on their experimentation as opposed to rote learning it
from a book. It brings the concept to life making it more enjoyable for
children.
Me standing back and letting the boy I was partnered with from St.Patrick's N.S. Drumcondra figure out how to construct the WeDo Speed model.
I learned that as a learner I am quite impatient. I
definitely learn better from getting hands on with something such as these Lego
WeDo projects as opposed to how I mainly learned through primary school myself
which was mainly book and worksheet work. These projects have helped me to gain
a considerable amount of knowledge on the different concepts of the WeDo
projects. I hate to admit it but the first time I found out what the work
aerodynamics meant was from one of the children I was grouped with from
St.Patrick’s Boys National School Drumcondra on the WeDo Speed programme. Not
only are the children learning from us but we are continually learning and gaining
insight from them also. I learned that I have a tendency to help children when
I should stand back and allow them to explore and experiment themselves as
often they don’t need my help. I took this on board as the session on the WeDo Speed project progressed and in fact the boy I was partnered with got on just fine
without my help and asked for my help when he was genuinely stuck. It’s
important to let the children use trial and error to figure things out because
in life this is essential, not everything will come with instructions or
someone to tell them what to do.
Two modified Lego WeDo Speed finished cars.
I thoroughly enjoy working
with the children in terms of the WeDo speed project both with the children
from St.Patrick's Boys National School Drumcondra and also with the children
from Scoil Mobhí in terms of the Rté programme we partook in in relation to
children and modern technology as a way of learning. I found this Rté project
very exciting to be a part of as we as student teacher’s were only aiding the
group of children we were assigned on the WeDo Speed project however these
children again alike the St.Patrick’s Boys National School came up with their our ways of exploring the
car design to increase the speed. The group I had decide to take off unnecessary
pieces of the final car in order to make it lighter which they found increased
the speed. It was amazing to work with the students on these projects and see
the different ways upon which they look at the additional activities. Each
different learner type looked upon the design and aesthetics differently and
came up with different ways of increasing the speed. I really like how much
each child was able to engage from those with physical and intellectual disabilities
to those with minor to profound language difficulties. Each child was in their
element, they were smiling and actively participating as a member of a team.
'Jean Piaget replaced the concept of the passive learner, with a model of the child as an active learner, or a young ‘scientist’, actively searching for meaning in their experience.' (The Lego system for Leaning, 2010) Each child stayed focused of the set task and were able to give intelligent
answers as to why their modified design increased or decreased the speed of the
car. I loved the fact we had a race at the end to see whose design was the
fastest but also had a motion sensor in that it stopped before the wall as this
proved that the children really got to understand the different commands on the
devices they used to sync their car to.
The children from Scoil Mobhí and I holding our finished and modified Lego WeDo Speed car.
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