Takes My Kindergarten Class to the Next Level in Robotics
Community Review for Path for Dash Robot
My Take
The Path app for Dash has been a great addition to my Kindergarten classroom. I love watching my students work together to problem solve! It enhances the skills they have learned with the Go app and is a great jumping point to get the students into the basic coding skills they learn in the Blockly app. The app is very easy to learn, but I will say it lacks in concrete directions. It is more of a trial by fire kind of thing; but in all honesty, we have probably learned more that way than we would have had we had a book full of step by step directions in front of us. I would highly recommend the addition of the Dash and Dot robots and their apps to any elementary classroom looking for ways to excite students in science.
How I Use It
I have used the Path for Dash app in my Kindergarten classroom as the next step after learning how to control Dash (with the Go app). The Path app is very user friendly and allows the students to sharpen the skills they have used in the Go app. We have used it in my classroom to talk about sequence of events (I give them a 3 step direction and they make Dash follow it) and problem solving (get Dash through the maze), and basic computation (if Dash goes up three squares and over 2, how far will he get). The students use the app by doing simple actions they use every day (finger swipes, drag and drop, drawing on the tablet) so we have had no problems with students not being able to use the app. I have used the app in both small-group and individualized settings and have had great success in both. It is also a great stepping stone before you introduce the kids to basic coding with the Blockly app.