My first robot.

 This time we have girls who have taken the time to create a robot from using car parts that were brought in by a parent who works as a mechanic, it has been properly cleaned so that the children can now discover, explore, engage and create something from using car parts.

S decides that she will use the spark plugs, torque converter, switch's, wires and other parts to create her robot. She firstly trials out the big parts by seeing what fits, then she tests it if it will move clock or anti clock wise from here she is building the legs for the robot to see if they will match in height if not she changes the parts to make sure that the legs are equal in height.

 

Here we have the process of the robot with its legs and what holds them all together is that they all fit in different holes and can move so she is happy with the first part of the robot although she has not done the body of the robot yet. She used wires to make sure that the were connected to the legs because she believes that she needs batteries to help the robot legs move.

 I chose to support this learning in technology because it helps children to understand the many different ways in technology, by providing equipments to explore, discuss ideas, sharing knowledge with other children and displaying and respecting their work (Arthur, beecher, death, dockett, farmer 2005). The importance of parent involvement and staff is important so that childrens work are being valued as these are girls who also have an interest in boys most liked area technology. Acknowleding that girls and boys do have equality in working in technology. 

The learning here is that children "enquire, ...,develop and test ideas and solutions as they explore and make sense of their world" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.98) this is demonstrated in how she did alot of problem solving as she does this hands on project in making a robot. The advantages of using car parts and as part of exploration she shows the "confidence in using a variety of strategies for exploring and making sense of the world" Ministry of Education, 2004, p.4). She is trying to make links to what she already knows and this time it is testing if a car can be transformed into a robot.

The benefits of technology is that it informs both children, staff and parents and this is done by displaying documentation of the process of children's work in the process in robot making and technology. S skills in the arts has been beneficial in technology this is linked to how she tries to take risks, trial and error, problem solving and "Technology is also a creative and purposeful activity aimed at meeting needs and opportunities through the development of products, systems or environments" (Smorti, 1999, p.5). There are also mathematical concepts in this learning as she uses measurements, heights and width and these are important for children.

References:

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2005). Programming and planning in early chidhood settings (3rd ed.). Victoria, Australia: CENGAGE Learning.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (2004). Kei tua o te pae assessment for learning: Early childhood exemplars.

Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, No.19 Autumn 1999.