Christine Thai-Pappa is a National Board Certified third grade teacher at Chris Yung Elementary School. She and her colleagues are always looking for science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) inspired ways to engage their students. One way they do that is with Ozobot. Ozobot is an award-winning robotic platform that teaches coding and STEAM across multiple subjects. It uses a small programable robot that reads line codes students create to control the robot. Thai-Pappa and her team use these robots and coding in math, science, and language arts.
"Coding
is
the
language
of
the
future
and
that
it
is
critical
for
students
to
learn
coding
from
an
early
age."
said
Thai-Pappa.
Part
of
the
learning
process
is
that
students
will
not
always
get
their
code
correct
the
first
time
to
control
the
robot.
Thai-Pappa
believes
this
helps
the
students
learn
the
importance
of
failing,
reevaluating,
and
trying
again.
She
stated,
"I
have
seen
it
bring
success
to
learners
who
may
struggle
in
other
academic
areas
and
build
self-confidence."
Ozobot has an educational division where teachers can become Ozobot Certified Educators. Thai-Pappa and some of her fellow teachers have become certified. Thai-Pappa has helped develop Ozobot lessons and presented these lesson ideas to fellow educators, participated in focus groups, and Twitter chats. Because of her commitment to education and her students, Ozobot recently named Thai-Papp their educator of the month.
"Having Ozobot recognize that I have a passion for helping kids learn this way was the best part of this honor, shared Thai-Poppa.