North Salem students embark on a robot road trip

NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - Fourth graders at Pequenakonck Elementary School showcased their coding and collaboration skills by programming robots to navigate a miniature New York City. In their STEAM class with teacher Christina Hundzynski, students worked together to guide robots through a tour of famous landmarks, demonstrating that success requires a mix of technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and teamwork. When robots veered off course, the teams worked together to debug their code.

"We're going to start by going straight to the Empire State Building, then turn and go to Macy's. We need to make sure it's a 90-degree left turn, then go 20-30 centimeters," said Luke to his teammate Jake, who translated these directions into block code on a computer tablet. 

This communication was essential for navigating the 4' x 6' floor space filled with pictures of the landmarks.

Harper's team took a similar approach, planning the optimal path before writing their first line of code. 

"It was challenging to get it to do all the turns," said Harper after their robot navigated their planned course. She credited their success to strong teamwork. Partners Emma and Evelyn took turns calling out the steps for each other to translate into computer code, cheering their robot on during each test run.

"I realized that each square measures 40 centimeters," said Jack, pointing to the floor tiles. He used this observation to calculate the distance between the obstacles. However, this did not guarantee a smooth path to the finish line. "I was trying to remove a step but accidentally changed the entire order of moves," he said while reviewing his code on the tablet to debug and correct the mistake.

The activity is part of a broader STEAM curriculum, where students progress from simple robots in kindergarten to more complex robots in upper grades. This hands-on approach to coding education engaged students while building essential skills in programming, problem-solving, and teamwork. When faced with obstacles, students showed persistence and analytical thinking.

"By the end, I finished--not the entire maze, but the part that I was trying to do, and that feels good," said Addy. "You should keep trying what you're doing and try different variables."

Article courtesy of North Salem Central School District.