Integrating LEGO Robotics Into a 5th Grade Cross Curricular Unit to Promote the Development of Narrative Writing Skills

Presentation given by Georgia Southern faculty members Shelli L. Casler-Failing and Mete Akcaoglu with Valerie Woodrum, Valerie Morris, and Jay McNeely at Georgia Educational Research Association Annual Conference.

This unit was designed to promote the development of narrative writing skills among 5 ^th grade students through the use of LEGO robotics. The students learned how to construct and program robots, write and present a proposal to complete a mission, and connected the learning to their personal experiences with Hurricane Irma. After learning the basics of building and programming robots, they were presented with a scenario similar to the impact of the bomb drop in Hiroshima – a city in ruins with survivors in need of supplies. Students took the role of engineers to work in pairs to create a proposal to pick up, and deliver, supplies through a specially-designed course using their robots; mathematical skills were incorporated into their proposals to measure distances and predict times of travel in order to traverse the course. A final culminating activity required the students to write a narrative piece to compare the activity to their personal experiences with Hurricane Irma. Informal findings and student feedback will be presented.