Kentwood — A hole-in-one in the Brookwood Elementary gym-turned-mini-golf-course turned out to be an elusive goal.
Still, fourth-graders did their best to stay on par by coding paths for their Sphero robots, spherical objects controlled by smartphones or tablets, by directing them to roll along the greens and into the hole.
Sans putters, students coded basic instructions for speed, direction and duration to send their ball straight and around obstacles on the nine-hole course. A little off? Time to debug and try again.
“Yay! Finally!” said Madelyn Fox as her Sphero dropped into the hole after multiple tries with teammate December Ezel.
“It took us seven times! We were getting it almost into the hole and then it (rolled) back down because it wasn’t getting enough speed,” Madelyn explained. “We just had to make our speed a lot faster.”
The morning-long session, “Masters of Coding,” was brought to students by Van Andel Institute for Education. Along with mini golf, they practiced making a Sphero travel in a circle and in a square.
“It’s a good idea to aim it first. That will make it go this way,” said Aaryn Howland, pointing right as she and David Hmun worked on commands.
The Right Code
Fourth-grade teacher Todd Jongekrijg said students had some background knowledge coming into the coding session. They have also learned from the website Hour of Code and attend a weekly STEM class as a special.
Jongekrijg looked into field-trip opportunities at VAI, and learned the institute offers mobile field trips at schools. A donor contributed funds to cover the cost.
“Education is changing and we are trying to catch up with the rest of the world with technology advancing,” Jongekrijg said. “Who knows what type of jobs might be out there by the time they are ready to look for jobs? This is our way of making sure they are prepared for the future of AI, coding and all of this new technology that is going to come out.”
Camilia Ojeda-Garcia and Oo Meh high-fived each other after their Sphero successfully traveled in a square. They had entered degrees, speed and duration — and it worked.
“We are trying coding, just moving things around with the robot,” said Camilia.
Jon Oosterman, VAI learning specialist, said the challenges get students thinking deeply, communicating and collaborating.
“I hope this activity gets them excited about science and engineering and the potential to utilize these skills in careers or just in life in general,” Oosterman said. “(It’s about) being able to think creatively, problem-solve and think critically about those problems.”
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