Maker's Kids Club Spheros and Green Screening
Description
Children had the opportunity to use Sphero robots and experiment with Green Screen technology.
Per branch, the program was 2 hours long. Each program consisted of an hour. We traveled to different branches in our region, we did this program numerous times, once at each participating branch.
Spheros - Introduction— Explain to students that spheros are fragile and should be kept on the ground at all times. Please try not to ramp them against hard objects like shelving, walls or each other. Do not take off their protective cover unless the bot is being placed on its charger otherwise you will scratch the bots. Help each participant connect to sphero using a tablet, iPad or smart phone. The robot will blink when connected. Should more than one activate, you can use the colour changer to identify which robot belongs to which device.
Have the participants build a maze with blocks or masking tape. This can also be done ahead of time by a staff person. You can set up ramps and bridges too.
Teach the participants how to drive the robots. Should the participants be between the ages of 10 - 18 you can teach them how to code the robots.
We found that children under the age of 10 didn’t understand the concept of coding but loved to drive the robots and practice on the ramps.
Green Screen - Perhaps you heard of green screen animation and perhaps not. Stikbot made the use of green screens famous and easy to use. Here is a simple way to create a stop motion animated movie, using a variety of materials.
Lego
Plasticine
Stikbots
Backdrops
Pizza boxes
Lime green paint
Tablet
Stikbot app
We asked the local Boston Pizza to donate clean pizza boxes and then we painted them with lime green paint. You can paint some light blue too in order to use the blue screen part of the app for green objects.
Let children build their own scenes using whatever material you give them. Each individual or group can use a tablet, iPad or smart phone with the Stikbot app on it to record their video. There are many Stikbot tutorials on Youtube in order to fully understand the app. Children will film short movies.
Per branch, the program was 2 hours long. Each program consisted of an hour. We traveled to different branches in our region, we did this program numerous times, once at each participating branch.
Spheros - Introduction— Explain to students that spheros are fragile and should be kept on the ground at all times. Please try not to ramp them against hard objects like shelving, walls or each other. Do not take off their protective cover unless the bot is being placed on its charger otherwise you will scratch the bots. Help each participant connect to sphero using a tablet, iPad or smart phone. The robot will blink when connected. Should more than one activate, you can use the colour changer to identify which robot belongs to which device.
Have the participants build a maze with blocks or masking tape. This can also be done ahead of time by a staff person. You can set up ramps and bridges too.
Teach the participants how to drive the robots. Should the participants be between the ages of 10 - 18 you can teach them how to code the robots.
We found that children under the age of 10 didn’t understand the concept of coding but loved to drive the robots and practice on the ramps.
Green Screen - Perhaps you heard of green screen animation and perhaps not. Stikbot made the use of green screens famous and easy to use. Here is a simple way to create a stop motion animated movie, using a variety of materials.
Lego
Plasticine
Stikbots
Backdrops
Pizza boxes
Lime green paint
Tablet
Stikbot app
We asked the local Boston Pizza to donate clean pizza boxes and then we painted them with lime green paint. You can paint some light blue too in order to use the blue screen part of the app for green objects.
Let children build their own scenes using whatever material you give them. Each individual or group can use a tablet, iPad or smart phone with the Stikbot app on it to record their video. There are many Stikbot tutorials on Youtube in order to fully understand the app. Children will film short movies.
Source Library
Length of program session
60-120 minutes
Number of sessions
1
Frequency
Monthly
Presenter(s)
Krupali Bhatt, Tekeyla Friday