Students explore social studies with Ozobots

Students in Mrs. Muriel’s fifth grade classroom in the Oley Valley School District have been coding during their social studies lessons. After learning about the Oregon Trail and westward expansion in the 1800s, students took a break to learn about Ozobots. Ozobots are desk-friendly robots that can be coded with an app or by drawing lines on paper. Ozobots allow students to become familiar with programming and robotics with a hands-on approach perfect for beginners. After the fifth graders learned about the Ozobot’s hardware and how to code them, the students then worked in a group to plan out how to recreate the Oregon Trail on a United States map using Ozobots. They had to pick three codes to represent hardships along the way and draw at least three trails for the robot to follow.

Additionally, students could add extra creativity to their map by including pictures, Ozobot costumes and even 3D printed landforms. Students are working on this collaborative project and plan to showcase their final project at the Lynx Expo on May 18, 2022.