Source: pixabay.com
So today I want to introduce you to some little friends called the Bee-Bots. This pedagogical resource of robotics is an educational contribution that has as its main objective the development of programming and computational thinking in children from early childhood, with it is shown how to solve some simple problems through the application of the principles of programming language.
Its incursion into the classroom has become fashionable in countries like Spain and Chile where through the ministries of education the government has implemented a series of educational programs so that these bee-bots are already in almost all classrooms of early education. This has generated a real stir and controversy, as you know in terms of technological advances there are always those who are in favor and those who are against, especially from the side of teachers who must prepare and learn programming language to explain and demonstrate its use to children.
Source: pictures.com
Many of the experiences report that children learn with great ease to use the programming language with bee-bots and that it does not generate any difficulty even surpassing teachers in its use. These friendly robots can store up to 40 orders and advance 200 steps in each instruction or order, they move on two mats with spaces in the form of squares where the teacher places cards with the orders that the bee-bots must search and recognize.
As for their design, they are compact and robust, have buttons on the top where they are programmed using a simple programming language, can move from right to left, forward and backward, perform 90° turns, and have integrated sounds that can be muted depending on the activity, also their eyes turn on lights that indicate the orders received and the fulfillment of the same.
These bee-bots have opened up a new world of educational possibilities from learning the programming language that children must learn and that generates valuable cognitive benefits such as abstraction, breakdown and problem solving through programming logic and step-by-step leading to solutions, creative thinking and parallel thinking. As well as fine motor skills, attention and planning. There is still much more to show for these innovations but certainly education with the use of robotics from the early childhood stage will forever change the way tomorrow's future men and women think and learn.
