By Admin / November 05, 2019

KUBO takes a spin with new coding concepts

Blog concept and activity coauthor: Paige Bowman

Digital literacy is a key to the future, and KUBO Robotics is helping you lead the charge to understand it. Coding can be an overwhelming, confusing tech language to learn and can sometimes be even harder to teach. But with help from KUBO, kids can start learning how to code at the early age of five, and educators have resources and guidance at the ready to help facilitate the experience.

KUBO has been empowering students in a hands-on and screen-free way, teaching them how to think rather than what to think. To develop even more complex coding skills and an abstract way of thinking, KUBO has created a new set of TagTiles® called Coding++.

What Exactly Is Coding++?

KUBO’s TagTiles sets, Coding and Coding+, have been teaching students to become confident and fluent programmers. However, these sets don’t develop quite ALL primary coding concepts. Introducing . . . Coding++!This new set includes 44 tiles that address concepts of if-then statements, variables, and events. The Conditional tiles help teach students that if the hypothesis is true (or false), then the specific conclusion will occur. For example, if I do my homework, then I will get good grades, OR if I don’t do my homework, then I will not get good grades.

The Variable tiles introduce another concept. These tiles are used for KUBO to store and remember a value, and when combined with the new Operator tiles, can teach students math skills such as greater than, less than, and so on. As for the Event tiles, they enable kids to define an alternative sequence of behavior for KUBO to perform if the robot comes across an Event tile on the map. One example of an event could be a road block in KUBO's path, causing KUBO to turn around and head a different direction.

Coding++ works in conjunction with the KUBO Coding Single Set or the KUBO Coding 4-Pack. This set completes the series of TagTiles, delivering a full coding solution for students in kindergarten through Grade 5.

KUBO Goes Shopping

To get in the holiday spirit and to try out the new TagTiles, I decided to take KUBO out for a spin! With some help from colleagues and a little creativity, we created a Thanksgiving grocery shopping activity. We added three different (yummy) foods to the activity map: pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and, of course, turkey.

For KUBO to go shopping, we created an if-then statement using a variable. KUBO first recorded the given variable by moving over a Modulator tile that set the variable equal to 8. We then set up the if-then function for KUBO’s route. Knowing we would start in the bottom-left corner of the map, we counted out how many movements it would take to gather each food item before we began the function. KUBO rolled over the sequence and recorded it using the Record Function tiles. The sequence we created said if the variable is greater than four, then get some turkey; if not, head to the pumpkin pie.

To execute the function, we placed KUBO on the Play Function tile in the corner of the map. Since the variable we set was greater than four, KUBO headed out to get some turkey from the shopping list. However, if we had changed the variable or had put an event on the map, this would have altered KUBO’s route.

Just like at the holidays, KUBO lets you stash away the devices for a while and interact more. We can’t wait to see the coding and hands-on learning your students serve up with Coding++. It will be available in December 2019, but why wait to do a little holiday shopping? You can preorder now!

 

TOPICS: IN THE CLASSROOM, Elementary School, ROBOTICS, Resources, Coding, Activities, Future Ready, 21st Century Skills, Hands-on Learning, STEAM, Math

Admin

Written by Admin

A few of Pitsco’s cool staffers contributed their knowledge and time to this post. We’re proud to have a great group of developers, writers, managers, builders, and creatives who can help bring the Pitsco Blog to life.