Exploring Competencies for a Changing World through Robotics and Coding

This is Part 1 of a two-part article. You can read Part 2 here.

Why the big buzz around Robotics & Coding? Beyond the hype, what is the educational value of introducing robotics & coding to schools, and how can this be done in a typical public school context? These are some of the questions we were looking to explore through a small-scale 2 year pilot with CRSP dsgn, who have developed a low-cost robotics & coding toolkit with accompanying curriculum-aligned activities.

The pilot was conducted as part of the NECT’s Ed-Innovation Portfolio initiative, which sought to contribute to learning around innovation in education by supporting local innovators to test their ideas in a public school setting. CRSP dsgn’s innovative modular kit, which has been designed for Grades 4-9 and comes with a set of curriculum-aligned activities, provided an opportunity to explore the incremental introduction of robotics and coding at schools, starting within the Natural Science and Technology curriculum. One of the key questions we wanted to explore through this pilot was whether the CRSP kit and approach – including project-based learning – have the potential to develop competencies for a changing world in teachers and learners. The evidence emerging from this small pilot indicates that the answer is a resounding “Yes!”, and it has also highlighted further questions to be explored – particularly around relevant teacher development and support.

So, what’s in the kit?

The CRSP ROBO kit is a modular robotics kit which enables children to learn about electric circuits and create robotics inventions. It contains a range of electronic building blocks with different functions, such as power supplies, lights, buzzers, switches, buttons, sensors, and motors. The kit also includes programmable controller blocks which function as the ‘brains’ of the robots – learners can program these using an open source, block-based coding interface to bring their creations to life.

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The kit is accompanied by activities for teachers to facilitate in the classroom, which are aligned to the Natural Science and Technology curriculum. The activities have been designed to help teachers and learners achieve the learning outcomes outlined in the CAPS documents, including the development of problem solving, communicative, collaborative, and analytical skills. They are also explicitly designed to facilitate ‘21^st century learning’ that engages the learners in ‘hands-on’ and ‘minds-on’ learning, and encourages interdisciplinarity.

2018: Testing the Waters

The pilot began in 5 primary schools in the Ekurhuleni South District in 2018. This year provided an opportunity to test the waters, refine the approach, and get a sense of its potential to facilitate education relevant to the fast-changing world. Grade 6-7 teachers and learners had an opportunity to engage with the kit and activities, which showed early signs of facilitating the type of teaching and learning that develops critical competencies.

The kits also addressed immediate needs of the teachers, particularly in under-resourced schools, by enabling learners to engage in the practical component of lessons in the curriculum through access to STEAM resources (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics), which they did not have previously. In addition to solving immediate needs of the teachers and learners, the kits also provided a springboard for innovative learners and teachers to design and create beyond the scope of the curriculum, with one teacher using the opportunity to start an extra-curricular Robotics Club for Grade 7 learners. This club has served as a prototype to be explored more thoroughly in the Sandbox Schools, together with researchers from the University of Johannesburg.  

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2019: Narrower and Deeper

Because of the promising results of the 2018 pilot, a second phase was designed for a deeper exploration of the CRSP approach in 2 schools in 2019. The purpose of this second phase was to gather more rigorous data around the implementation and impact of the approach, to get a clearer sense of its potential to develop competencies for a changing world in the public school context.

Going deeper involved gathering data at various levels to start to piece together a rich picture of the kinds of learning taking place. This included looking at the Individual Learner level, the Group level, and the Classroom level through the following instruments:

You can read about our findings in Part 2.