Bee-Bots


For those of you who are unsure of what exactly a 'Bee-Bot' is, it is a programmable floor robot designed for use by young children. It is an easy to operate robot that is incredibly useful for helping to teach about estimation, problem-solving and sequencing while ultimately being a fun resource for children to use.

To see a Bee-Bot in action or get an idea of how to introduce the idea of a Bee-bot to your class, watch this helpful YouTube video.




As you can see from the video there is a lot of room for progression using Bee-Bots. You can start off using them for simple instructions, eg. Move forwards 4 and turn to the right, and eventually can lead on to using more complex instructions and even getting the Bee-Bots to complete assault courses!



So what are the advantages of using Bee-Bots with children?

  • Fun, exciting and intriguing! Which are expectations of learning from the National Curriculum. 
  • Useful teaching tool for estimation, prediction, problem-solving and sequencing 
  • Inclusive resource as EAL and SEN can use them
  • Successful for a range of ability groups, ie. lower achievers and higher achievers can both use them and as the teacher you can adjust the complexity of what you want the Bee-Bot to do
  • They can used over a range of subjects, ie. maths, English, ICT
  • Develop language, literacy and numerical knowledge 
  • As a teacher, when you are monitoring students playing with Bee-Bots, you are able to assess literacy skills; speaking, listening and writing. Numeracy skills are assessable in a range of contexts and this enables you as a teacher to provide support for specific needs.

The only real concern of using Bee-Bots in the classroom is that teachers could not be fully trained on how to use them successful and to their full advantage!

If you are concerned that you do not know enough about Bee-Bots, see the link attached for a breakdown of what they do and what they can help you achieve in the classroom. It even includes a survey you can take to assess your understanding of Bee-Bots! ↓

See the source image
As you can see from the picture, the controls on a Bee-Bot are very simple and easy to use.


For more information on Bee-Bots and lesson plan ideas, see this helpful blog from a student at Northampton University. https://mypad.northampton.ac.uk/hannahf2/tag/bee-bot/


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Reference Page 



 Burton, J, Potter, J and Turvey, K (2016) Primary Computing and Digital Technologies: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice. Croydon: SAGE Publications.

DfE (2013) The National Curriculum in England: Key Stages 1 and 2. London: Scholastic.

Kaur, K (2016) Bee-Bots in Classrooms, available at https://beebotsed.weebly.com/index.html

H, Filby (2013) Bee-Bot, available at https://mypad.northampton.ac.uk/hannahf2/tag/bee-bot/

The TTSGroup (2011), Bee-Bot: a class introduction, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ZuenJlFyE

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