Tools

Meet Roversa

Intro to Roversa

Roversa is a modifiable and multilingual educational robot that introduces young learners to sequencing and programming out of the box. Roversa leverages the micro:bit platform to help teachers and students grow in their computer science learning. Roversa can simply be programmed pressing the 4 directional buttons to move in a grid pattern or adapted to do so much more!

Why robots in the classroom? (Starts at 1:22)
What is a robot? (Starts at 3:25)
Comparing educational robots (starts at 5:07)
Getting started with Roversa (starts at 11:54)
Lesson Integration: What can you do with robots? (starts at 16:44)

Curriculum Resources

These lessons were designed with Roversa in mind, but most will work with other robot platforms or as unplugged activities as well.

Introduction - This lesson introduces students to robotics and Roversa.
Grid Challenges - This lesson introduces students to coding Roversa around a grid map.
Hungry, Hungry Robot - This lesson helps students bring a book or story to life by coding Roversa.
Computing Device Games - These unplugged games will help introduce students to Roversa and explore computing device components.
Robot Factory - This unplugged activity helps students understand the importance of the computer science concepts of sequence and debugging.
More lesson ideas.

Costumes

Costumes are coming soon!

Accessible and Low-cost Computational Tools

There are several approaches and tools to develop CS understanding (e.g., CS Unplugged, Kibo, Scratch Jr., and the Bee-Bot), but some of these tools are not easy to access for educators in low-income countries/areas because of expense. We are developing a build-your-own device that will provide a more useful, flexible and low-cost tool for providing equitable access to computing education from early childhood, all the way to high school.

We are committed to sharing Roversa and any other hardware and software tools we create using open source tools. You can find a materials list, CAD templates to laser cut/print body parts and costumes, assembly instructions, and programming files for micro:bit in our GitHub Repository.