SmartBrief: Robotics and Values Can be Part of the Same Lessons
Our co-founder and Chief Scientist, Dr. Marina Bers, shares how teachers can blend robotics and values in their classroom – imparting lessons on generosity, perseverance and collaboration while coding.
Create your own Palette of Virtues and see how you can translate it into your own classroom by merging robotics and values! Read on to learn more!
The article reads in part:
“Blending robotics and values is an exercise in showing by doing. When we bring robots to class to teach students about coding, we’re telling them we value problem-solving. Unless we have enough robots for every student to have their own, we’re also communicating that we value collaboration by asking them to work together. As we invite students to make and program their robots, they learn that we value asking questions and following a creative, iterative design process.
I like to encourage teachers to make the values they hold dear explicit by thinking of a painter’s palette. I call this the Palette of Virtues, and just as painters change their color palette for each artwork, educators can think about how their palette should change for each new lesson and in different contexts.
Who your students are, where you’re teaching and what your goals are will change the virtues you need to put on your palette and how they should be mixed and shaded together. The important thing is to be explicit about it so that you can encourage behaviors that model the values you’re choosing.”
Read the full article.
