Children’s parents, carers and other family members all help shape children’s ideas about themselves and what they should do with their lives, including what would be a suitable future job for them.
A family STEM story time is an opportunity to introduce STEM careers, ideas and activities in a relaxed and enjoyable way. STEM story time also provides an opportunity to positively model how adults and children can share stories together.
Each session begins with an introduction to a STEM career and the attributes used in the job. There is then a STEM story which introduces a STEM concept or problem to the group. The session then continues with a practical activity based on the concept introduced by the story. This is designed to be completed by an adult and a child working together. They can successfully complete the challenge together, ensuring their experience of STEM is a positive one.
For this activity, you’ll invite children’s parents or carers into your setting, so they can work alongside each other.
Robots Robots Everywhere is widely available from bookshops and education suppliers.
Robot – a machine programmed by computers with sensors so they can react to their environment.
Algorithm – a set of instructions to follow in order to complete a task.
Code – the language used to give a computer an algorithm.
Programme – writing the code needed for a computer to follow an algorithm.
Do these things before the session
Each family needs a game map and a set of instructions each. The tokens on the instructions need to be cut out, so you will need to print both pages single sided. There is only space for one turn of the game on the sheet, so you might want to have white boards or scrap paper ready for any families that finish really quickly and would like to have another turn at the game.
You will also need a set of arrows to introduce directions to the group at the start of the session. We find that having different coloured arrows helps the children (and us!) remember which way to move during the activity.
Think about:
If you have already had story times with your families you will know what works best in your setting, but if not you may want to consider:
Start the session by showing families the robotics engineer poster and telling them that a robotics engineer is a job that uses science and technology. If you have already done some of the activities from the robotics unit, you could ask the children to explain to their families what a robotic engineer does. If this is a new topic, you could ask the families to talk about what they think a robot is. You could show the families some of our photographs of different robots or find your own.
Tell everyone that for this activity, they are going to be like robotics engineers.
You could tell the families that robotics engineers design, build and programme machines to do jobs more easily than a human could. These might be jobs that are repetitive, very dangerous, difficult or in very tiny spaces. This could be in factories, in medicine or even in space.
Introduce these attributes by telling the families that attributes are personal skills or qualities that we already have, and that are needed to work in a STEM career.
You could tell them that robotics engineers are:
Creative when they design and build robots for different jobs.
Observant because they need to find and fix faults in robots and computer code.
Resilient because they need to try lots of different ways to design, build and programme robots before they get them to work properly.
You know the families in your setting and the best way to read a story to them, but to help we have designed these STEM focused questions to use alongside the questioning you would usually use when reading a story.
Show the robotics engineer poster again and use the attributes in the activity explanation.
You could tell the families that they are going to be:
Observant like robotics engineers, looking carefully at the arrows and moving themselves and their robots in the correct direction.
Creative like robotics engineers and making their own robot code.
Resilient like robotics engineers because they might not make themselves or their robots move in the right direction the first time, but will need keep trying until they can.
Tell the families that we can give robots instructions, just like our adults tell us to wash our hands, line up or tidy up. The instructions we give to robots are called algorithms. We can’t speak to most robots in our language, we have to speak to them using a computer and use a special language called code.
Explain to the families that code is made from words and numbers or symbols and we are going to use a code made from arrows. Tell the families that to begin with, they are going to be the robots, and you are going to be the robotics engineer, programming them. Ask all of the families to stand up in a place where they can move forwards, backwards, left and right.
Show the families the ‘forward’ arrow. Tell them that when they see this arrow they can take one step forward only. Repeat with the other arrows and directions until the families are confident in following the instructions.
Show the families the game map and the instructions.
The robot is this game is a Mars Rover. It travels to Mars and collects samples so we can find out more about the planet.
Families will need to cut out the 5 playing tokens using scissors. Show the families how to place the robot and target tokens on the map. Tell them they will need to place two or three rock tokens onto the map making sure there is still room for their robot to get past.
They need to programme their robot to reach the target without bumping into the Mars rocks. Their robot needs to be programmed to move one square at a time. Show them how to draw an arrow in the first square of the code box to show the robot which way to move first.
Tell the families to continue programming your their robot by drawing more arrows and moving the robot until it reaches the target. Remember to watch out for rocks! We have a PowerPoint demonstration if you would like to use this.
When the families have completed the robot coding game, you could remind them of the attributes they have used: being observant when they looked carefully at the arrows and moved themselves and their robots in the correct direction, being creative by making their own robot code and being resilient as they kept trying until they got their code correct.
There is a STEM at home activity linked to this unit. This has the robotic engineer game to print out, more information about a career in robotics engineering and other activities for the whole family to try at home.
You could tell the families that if they have enjoyed today’s activity, maybe they could be robotics engineers in the future.
This section is for your information. It’s intended to be useful background – you’re welcome to include it in the session, but we expect you’d more commonly draw on it when children or their families have questions.
A robot is a mechanical device or machine that can be programmed to carry out tasks automatically.
Unlike an ordinary machine, like a washing machine, that can be programmed to complete tasks automatically, a robot often has sensors that detect light, sound and touch.
With the help of the sensors, robots can react to their environment and change their behaviour in response.
Both machines and robots can be programmed by computers, but robots also have sensors and can react to their environment.
Robots need instructions so that they can take information from their sensors and respond to the environment. Writing these instructions is called computer programming, or coding.
Computers use a binary code which only has two numbers: 0 (off) and 1 (on).
To give robots instructions, we have to use artificial coding languages to write the instructions, which are then translated by the computer into binary code.
There are different versions of coding languages. You might have heard of Scratch, Python, Java, or BASIC, but there are others.
