This past Wednesday, we hosted the second installment of our Spring webinar series, joining our friends and neighbors from the Terrapin Robotics team. As with our RobotLAB VR webinar to kick off this mini series, our hosts gave an in-depth overview of these awesome educational robotics tools. Joining us from the Terrapin team (publishers of the first coding environment for kids) were Bill Glass, Terrapin’s President, and Luis Noreiga, who led some interactive demos for attendees. If you’ve never tried teaching with the Bee-Bot, Blue-Bot, or Tuff-Bot before, we definitely recommend checking out the replay!
The Bee-Bot coding robot is one of the most recognizable and reliable STEM solutions, especially for coding in early education. Students can begin using it to explore coding in Pre-K or kindergarten thanks to its simplistic interface. The Bee-Bot is completely tactile and children can try screen-free coding simply by pressing its on-board directional buttons to control its movements. Luis gave a quick demonstration of the Bee-Bot in action and how simply pressing those buttons in a logical order can help these young students experience programming. They’ll also learn skills like sequencing, logic, and problem solving along the way.
Going from the Bee-Bot to Blue-Bot.
Next, Luis showed attendees how to use the Blue-Bot Robot, which is a slightly more advanced version of the Bee-Bot. Identical in size and shape to the Bee-Bot, the Blue-Bot is transparent so students can see inside of it. Also, as its name implies, it comes with Bluetooth capabilities so students can code with the Blue-Bot app. More importantly, however, this added functionality doesn’t mean they need a screen for programming. Students could also use the Terrapin TacTile Reader and Blue-Bot Command Tiles to continue with device-free coding but also add in a bit more in terms of complexity. This includes the ability to edit their programs, which they don’t get when programming with just the buttons. Watch the replay below for all the information!
After showing the Blue-Bot, Luis moved on to the Tuff-Bot, which is more for upper elementary and middle school students. As its name implies, this rover-style robot is pretty tough and powerful. Students can use it on almost any surface and they have greater control when it comes to programming. As you can see when looking at the Tuff-Bot, it has more directional buttons than the Bee-Bot and Blue-Bot. This allows students to program more precise movements, including 45-degree turns, which aren’t possible with the other bots. Plus, students can use the Tuff-Bot outdoors and it can remember up to 256 steps!
Robot-free coding with the Terrapin emulators.
In addition to the in-depth overviews of each of these three coding robots, Bill and Luis also shared some of the Terrapin history and showed off the Bee-Bot, Blue-Bot, and Tuff-Bot emulators. With these tools, students can program virtual versions of the Bee-Bot and Blue-Bot without the need for a physical robot in the classroom. They even have access to virtual versions of the Terrapin accessories, including the Card Mat, as Bill showed. Essentially, these emulators mimic, in very close detail, what it’s like to code with the Bee-Bot or Blue-Bot in the classroom. If you’re considering investing in either of these classroom robots, try checking out the Terrapin coding emulators first to get a feel for things.
We would, once again, like to thank Bill and Luis for hosting the second broadcast in our Spring webinar series. We’d also like to thank the educators who took the time to join us. We hope you learned something you can take back into your classrooms! If you would like a quote for Bee-Bots, Blue-Bots, Tuff-Bots, or any of the other Terrapin STEM solutions, please feel free to submit it through our store or contact our team directly. Also, look out for announcements on our soon-to-be revealed upcoming webinar guests. Be sure to join our mailing list so you don’t miss the announcements on our webinar schedule for April! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more.
