Look back on the Deep Dive MOOC – Module 4: Robotics, Tinkering and Making

Publication date: March 2, 2020

Back in October, over 4200 teachers enrolled in Code Week’s Deep Dive MOOC. This free online course offered teachers the opportunity to get familiarized with coding and coding related principles and gain the knowledge and confidence to organize fun, interactive and educational coding activities with their students. The course was organized into 5 modules, with each focusing on a particular aspect of coding, such as computational thinking, unplugged activities, and the endless possibilities of robotics, tinkering and making, visual programming languages, app creation and so much more. It allowed teachers to discover how easy and fun it can be to bring coding to their classroom, as coding is for everyone and can be incorporated into any subject or curriculum. Most importantly, teachers were given the knowledge, resources, and encouragement needed to get them coding with their students.

 

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Module 4: Robotics, Tinkering and Making

In Module 4, the robots took over, as participants learned how robotics, tinkering, and making can be integrated into the classroom to help students learn in an engaging and meaningful way.
Once again, teachers learned about the endless benefits of robotics, from helping students develop skills such as teamwork and collaboration, to getting them career ready. Participants shared their experiences with robotics, shared ideas, and even found partners to collaborate with on their next robotics project. The module finished on a practical note, with concrete examples of
tinkering and robotics activities, like step by step instructions to build a mechanical hand or create a conductivity-based game. As always, plenty of resources were provided, like lesson plans, videos and tips to “get coding”.

 

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Keep reading to see some outstanding examples of activities done by some of our participants.

Clean water hackathon by Iwona, Poland

In this activity, another inspiring teacher, Iwona, organised a two-day workshop for her primary school students to address issues of clean water and sanitation using coding. Hacking the Sustainable Development Goals is not a new concept, and it is relevant for our students, as these are the types of problems they will be facing as adults. Interacting and discussing with experts in the field brings the reality of the issue even closer to the students, so Iwona also invited experts on the topic.

Next level Pixel-art by Xristina, Greece

Xristina took the popular pixel-art activity to the next level, adapting it well to the topic of this module, tinkering, and making. She asked her students to give each other instructions on how to fill a set of cups in order to create a picture. Take a look at these pictures of the activity to see how even the simplest idea can be made exciting!

Milo the Science Rover by Anca, Romania

Using 10 Lego WeDo2.0 sets, Anca challenged her students to build a science rover. The classroom suddenly turned into a laboratory of scientists and engineers, as students felt like they were
working on a project for NASA. They even performed experiments to test the stability of their devices. How amazing!

 

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You can watch other examples of activities here.

After taking this course, 97% of teachers agreed the course made them more confident to implement coding activities in the classroom, and they have gained practical ideas on how
they can improve their professional expertise. If you want to do the same, you are still on time! Even though the course is no longer moderated, you can still access
all the different modules of the course
, watch the recordings of the live events and improve your teaching practice by having a look at the different ideas and advice thousands of teachers have shared throughout the course. If you have any question about the course, you can contact Naír Carrera, the course coordinator, here.

Do you want to see more innovative activities and get plenty of ideas for your classroom?
Join our Facebook group, where teachers share ideas and material every day, and follow us on Instagram,Facebook and Twitter!

Be sure to check out our website https://codeweek.eu/training to get access to free training material and lesson plans that you can already use to register your activity in the map and participate in Code Week 2020!