With the start of a new school year, this blog post will give you some useful tips and ideas to get your students to use KUBO.
If your KUBO robots have not been used for a while make sure you fully charge them all. Then follow this checklist:
- Check the head snaps on and the eyes light up blue.
- Check all the TagTile® pieces are in each set. There is a guide inside the cover or on the back of the box.
- Check the map.
- Run this simple function to check that KUBO is fully operational.
Ideas to get started
Are your students new to KUBO? If so, KUBO is a great hands-on screen-free robot to familiarise them with coding and computational thinking. In KUBO Portal, you will be able to find quick start guides and video tutorials that will introduce basic computing concepts alongside KUBO’s range of TagTiles. If you have KUBO robots then KUBO Portal has a similar range of lesson plans and curriculum materials that you can download.
For more experienced users there are lots of inspirational ideas on kubo.education or on KUBO´s Instagram or Facebook but here are some suggestions for cross-curricular activities across the curriculum for the new term here: https://portal.kubo.education/activities/
Art & Design – Costume Parade
How about designing and making costumes for KUBO? A great opportunity to include art and design activities in your KUBO lessons. The students will need to collaborate on designing and making costumes and an algorithm (a function) to display their creations. Students will need to communicate within a small group or the whole class and use their computational thinking skills to create, test and debug a suitable costume and algorithm.
Geography – Where in the World
This is a great activity to get students to use a world map and learn the names of the continents and oceans and their locations. It is also an opportunity to introduce simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and get students using locational and directional language. Math skills will be needed to measure distances with a ruler and division to convert these measurements into KUBO TagTiles. It will also involve computing with students writing simple sequences.
KUBO can start anywhere on the map. Students take turns picking up a card with a continent or ocean name, they need to describe the direction KUBO needs to travel, using compass directions, and then write a function to get KUBO to move there.
Geography – Where in the World
This is a great activity to get students to use a world map and learn the names of the continents and oceans and their locations. It is also an opportunity to introduce simple compass directions (North, South, East and West) and get students using locational and directional language. Math skills will be needed to measure distances with a ruler and division to convert these measurements into KUBO TagTiles. It will also involve computing with students writing simple sequences.
KUBO can start anywhere on the map. Students take turns picking up a card with a continent or ocean name, they need to describe the direction KUBO needs to travel, using compass directions, and then write a function to get KUBO to move there.
Math
KUBO Coding Math can be used as a fun way to practice anything from simple addition to more complicated operations like multiplication or division. At the start of the year, this could be used as a fun way to revise concepts from the previous year. KUBO will check the question and answer and if correct, KUBO will spin around in celebration and its eyes turn green. If incorrect KUBO turns right and left and its eyes turn red.
Science – How Fast?
In this activity, students will use the “High”, “Medium”, “Slow Speed” and “Go Forward x4” TagTile® pieces from the KUBO Coding+ Set.
Students need to design and run a function that will make KUBO travel at different speeds. They can then make measurements of distance and time to calculate speed. Speed = distance ÷ time.
Does it make a difference if they use one “Move Forward” TagTile? There is a lot of experimentation that can be included in this activity.
History – Great Explorers
Recreate a great historical journey using KUBO and a printed world map. Students will need to research and write a function to show the route the explorers took. This activity will also require the students to share their research and tell the group or class all about the story behind the explorer.
We would love to see how you use KUBO across the curriculum too!
Enjoy the new school year!
