When can your child start learning coding in the classroom?

Pulaski Academy’s robotics curriculum starts in the Early Childhood program and continues to build throughout the PA experience. Children as young as the Cubs can begin to learn the foundational skills through coding in the classroom, by programing the age appropriate Code-a Piller and Bee-Bot Robots. As students grow in their understanding and critical thinking skills, the robots and tools to control them become more challenging. The Lower School students learn to program with Dash and Dot, Ozobots and LEGO robots.

• Programing robots is fun and engaging; it also helps us teaching important skills.
• Coding improves problem solving skills. Robots present challenges that cause students to solve problems continuously.
• Using robots encourages collaboration and communication. When working in groups, programing gives students opportunities to grow as team members.
• Robots help teach students perseverance. Students learn to keep working on a difficult task until completed and to keep trying out new solutions.
• Robots encourage creativity. Our students are encouraged to imagine a variety of fun and creative series of action for our robots to follow, further developing their imagination.

These hands on experiences with robots take place in our ECS STEAM lab with Juli Paddie and in our LS STEM lab with Christina Carroll. In addition to learning to program with robots, students are also practicing skills through unplugged lessons, programing without the use of technology. Students in the Lower School also code using the iPads and computers. Robots allow development of transferable skills that they use outside the STEAM or STEM classroom. 

Robtics continues in Middle School as an elective course utilizing the Lego Robotics curriculum. Additional coding instructions is provided to all Middle School students through technology courses. Elective Pre-AP and AP computer science courses in Upper School round off the programming experience at PA.

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