The Coding and Robotics Curriculum is essential in introducing our students to new technologies within the educational setting and laying a foundation of knowledge for the Intermediate and Senior Phases in our rapidly evolving technological world.
The Coding and Robotics Curriculum aims to direct and prepare students to solve problems, think critically, work collaboratively and creatively, and function in a digital and information-driven world. It also teaches students how to apply digital and ICT skills and how to transfer these skills to solve problems in their daily lives.
What is Coding and Robotics?
Coding is the method by which we speak with a computer to instruct it on what to perform. Coding is part of the process of computer programming. The computer knows what to do since the program or code is a set of instructions. You can instruct a computer to handle data, make websites or apps, make digital games, and many other amazing digital things, by using computer code.
Robots are devices that are designed to do specific tasks. Robots come in a wide range of designs and are frequently designed to mimic or reproduce human behaviour. A programmable machine that combines engineering, science and technology is a robot.
What are the different content areas in the Coding and Robotics Curriculum for Foundation, Intermediate and Senior Phases?
In the Draft Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) the subject Coding and Robotics has been organised into five strands or digital skills and knowledge content areas in the Foundation Phase, and four strands in the Intermediate and Senior Phases. These content areas are:
Teaching methodologies
When delivering the Coding and Robotics Curriculum, two teaching methodologies should be used:
Computational Thinking (namely decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction and algorithm) and the Engineering Design Process (investigate, design, make, evaluate and communicate).
Computational Thinking
In Computational Thinking, issues are expressed and solutions are discovered in a form that a computer can understand and carry out. The following steps are included in the dynamic process known as Computational Thinking:
The Engineering Design Process
The Engineering Design Process is referred to in the curriculum as the subject's backbone and should be utilised to organise the delivery of all learning objectives. Learners should be presented with a problem, need or opportunity as a beginning point for the process. To tackle the problem, we use the Engineering Design Process:
