Teachtopia teaches robotics

Dash and dot robots

In the K-12 classroom, Dash and Dot Robots, by Wonder Workshop, are an amazing way to both teach principles of robotics as well as introduction to coding.

Dash Robots have a series of apps that are available to use with them, but the most significant app by far for teaching coding with the Dash Robots is Blockly. This app is created by Wonder Workshop so it is important to download the Blockly app from this publisher and not any other app named Blockly. These apps are available from the respective Apple (Appstore), Google (Play Store) , and Amazon (Kindle Fire) stores and Chromebooks. We have also been successful running the Blockly app from a Chrome browser on Windows.

Some Hints for working with the Robots (see photos below)

A robot is only fun, when it has power. After having the robots for several years, we have found that three hours of charging will provide at least an hour of Robots use. Robots will do nothing if not turned on. The robots do not use USB C or apple lightning cables. The use an older USB standard (see picture below) so it is important to have these cables around.

Once turned on, the robots will at first have a “life on their own” and might move around. If the Dash robot is on a table, put the robot on its side once it is turned on so it does not roll off a table.