On Oct 6th, Petoi hosted a virtual session on robotics education best practices. Wayne Seltzer, an esteemed teacher from the University of Colorado Boulder, Petoi founder & CEO Rongzhong Li. and a group of STEM/robotics educator joined the conversion.
Wayne shared his valuable insights and experiences in utilizing Petoi's Bittle robot dogs for Explore Computer Science and Robotics STEM Academy(Grades 9-12) by Colorado University Boulder and designing the course:
- Each student assembled and configured his/her Bittle because the class had an emphasis on hands-on physical computing. Each student took Bittle home after the camp was finished as the camp fees covered Bittle's cost.
- Students engaged with Bittle more than other forms of robots because Bittle is in a dog form. Natively, students knew about dog movement and liked to emulate those movements on Bittle.
- Students liked to use the Skill Composer to create new skills.
- The class used Petoi Coding Blocks for the coding part. Petoi Coding Blocks automatically generate Python codes, so it's easier to explain things both in terms of Block-based and Python coding.
- Students seemed to be more willing to share their own recordings on social media than being filmed by the camp.
- Students were encouraged to take Bittle home and do more tinkering by themselves every night.
- Because Bittle supports NyBoard which is Arduino compatible, he would have been able to do some classes on IoT if the camp wasn't just one week long.
Rongzhong shared a few updates to Petoi's C++ and Petoi Coding Blocks curricula and how he taught undergraduate students with Bittle at university robotics camps.
Please let me know if you have any questions.