Your stories - Dash & Dot at California Gully PS, VIC

The introduction of the Dash and Dot into the 2-6 classrooms at California Gully Primary School, supported an amazing start to the 2019 school year in Science and Technology. The school Principal, Andrew Frawley, shares how they engaged students in the classroom with the robots.

We downloaded 3 apps appropriate to our focus and supported the range of great accessories made available in the kits. They were: Xylo, Blockly, and Wonder.

Initially students utilised Wonder as it supported the development of skills using simple controls including movement, speed, and sound. The challenges also provided a great pathway for students as they progressed to more advanced use of Dash and Dot.  Wonder also enabled the use of the ‘Launcher’. This was enjoyed be all although proved a little more challenging than first expected.

Xylo supported students to create music using a xylophone that connected to Dash. The programmed tunes provided a great support as students developed their own music creation and melodies.

For any student that has had experience in coding (e.g Scratch), the connection to Blockly was instant. From simple sequences to the advanced, all students were able to engage in a wide variety of objectives using the range of tricks that both Dash and Dot provide.

To support teacher planning the resources found within the kits were extremely supportive and clear, allowing for a wide variety of learning experiences for all classes 2-6, that were connected to the Dash and Dot kits.

Dash and Dot enabled engagement and fun in every class, allowed opportunities for significant learning, and challenge around teamwork, coding and problem solving.

Thank you to Andrew and all of the staff and students at California Gully Primary School for sharing your experiences with us!