Berlin, MD – For the past couple years, Lower School computer teacher, Mrs. Mandy Lynch, has taught her 5th graders to design, construct, and code interactive robotic animals using components from Hummingbird Duo Kits and Snap!, an educational graphical programming language.
The challenge tested their creativity and problem solving skills while stressing the STEAM areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics. Each animal robot featured movement, sounds, and lights.
From a kangaroo, complete with a baby joey, to a feathered pink flamingo, these 10-year-olds exceeded expectations and created elaborate projects. Mrs. Lynch shared the educational class presentations on YouTube which caught the attention of Old Dominion University Professor Dr. Jennifer Kidd.
Dr. Kidd and her pre-service teachers were working with 5th and 6th graders on coding. She was fascinated by what the WPS students were capable of and contacted Mrs. Lynch to learn how she implemented the project. On April 25, the two classes video-conferenced to ask questions about each other’s projects and to discuss design processes and any problems they encountered.
Click link to watch the 2018 WPS live robotic animal presentations:
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]PLACE_LINK_HERE[/youtube]
Founded in 1970, WPS is an independent Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 School, located in Berlin, Maryland. More than 500 students attend from Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. For more information about WPS, please visit www.worcesterprep.org or call 410.641.3575.
Attached Photos:
- Animal Robots (Front L-R) Walrus, Crocodile, Octopus, Snake. (Back L-R) Elephant, Kangaroo, Tiger, Flamingo.
- Class w Animal Robots (Front L-R) Isabella Metz (Rehoboth Beach), Briar Parsons (Pittsville), Lillian Doran (Seaford), Jackson Fernley (Berlin). (Back L-R) Ben McGovern (Salisbury), Gavin Riddle (Millsboro), James Haley (Bethany Beach), Ryan Mann (Bishopville), Jack Lynch (Ocean City), Mrs. Amanda Lynch, Jayden Scopp (Berlin), Emaan Ehtasham (Lewes), Jennifer Kimbrew (Ocean City), Aleksey Klimins (Ocean City).
- Kangaroo Presentation (L-R) Lydia Schwartz (Salisbury) and Will Wells (Seaford) demonstrate their team’s animated, interactive kangaroo with a moving joey, to their 5th grade classmates.
- Lynch w ODU (L-R) WPS Lower School computer teacher, Mrs. Mandy Lynch, on a video-conference with Old Dominion University professor Dr. Jennifer Kidd.
- WPS ODU Tiger Robot Demo (L-R) During the video-conference, Sydney Tingle (Fenwick) and Rania Khan (Delmar) showed ODU students how they lit up their tiger robot’s eyes.