Where does Lego Robotics fit into Where does Lego Robotics fit into EducationEducation

Presented byPresented by

Dawn CrawfordDawn Crawford19 May 2012

GDE Vision and MissionOur vision: ensure every learner does well at school and leaves our institutions with the knowledge, skills and qualifications that will give them the best chance of success in adult life.

Our Mission: to ensure quality learning and teaching take place in the classroom everyday.

The FOUR KEY PRIORITIES

Goal 1: Ensuring that Gauteng has effective schools and learning institutions.

Goal 2 : GDE Head Office and Districts – Providing relevant, coordinated and effective support.

Goal 3 : Enable young people to make the transition from school to further education and or work/employment that provides further training opportunities.

Goal 4 : Strengthen partnerships with all stakeholders, resulting in education becoming a societal priority.

National Curriculum StatementCritical Outcomes (until 2014)

Aims of CAPS (from 2012)

•identify and solve problems and make decisions using critical and creative thinking;

• work effectively as individuals and with others as members of a team;

• organise and manage themselves and their activities responsibly and effectively;

• collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information;

National Curriculum StatementCritical Outcomes (until 2014)

Aims of CAPS (from 2012) (cont.)

•communicate effectively using visual, symbolic and/or language skills in various modes;

•use science and technology effectively and criticallyshowing responsibility towards the environment andthe health of others; and

• demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by recognising that problem solving contexts do not exist in isolation.

• Links to all of the critical outcomes or aims• Foundation phase benefits include:• Crossing the midline, • Improved fine motor skills, • A variety of vocabulary, language and mathematics

benefits• Theme sets offer language linked to the specific theme• Language and mathematics benefits cross all bands of

education : GET, FET and into Tertiary education.• Team work and collaboration are constantly evident• Problem solving is constantly taking place as learners

develop solutions to open ended problems.

Use of Lego in the Classroom

Concepts addressed through Lego include:Mathematics :• Counting • Measuring• Colour• Shape• Mathematic vocabularyScience and technology:• Wheels and Axles• Pivots and Hinges• Gears and Pulleys• Science and Technology vocabularySocial Science• Hemispheres• Equator• Shape of continents and related vocabulary

Use of Lego in the Classroom cont.

Developing 21st Century skills

For our learners to compete globally we must develop 21st Century skills,These include the following skills:

How do we go about introducing these skills?

Through Robotics

Robotic incorporates all of the specific outcomes or aims in the curriculum and all of the 21st Century skills

Why participate in WRO and FLL?

• Scientific method• Design Process• Research• Solve real life problems• 21st Century skills• Excellent values and attitudes• Develop the whole child: Cognitive, Physical and Affective/emotional• Introduction to programming leading to advanced programming skills• Introduction to artificial intelligence

Knowing a programming language will be the new literacy in the 21st Century

(Marc Perensky, Edutopia on line journal linked to the George Lucas Foundation)