Coding & Robotics Across the Curriculum

A major focus of the Maimonides School David Lear Sulman initiative  is the development of a comprehensive computer coding curriculum together with a scope and sequence of activities for children in Early Childhood-(4-year-olds) through 5th grade. Dr. Marina Umaschi Bers, professor at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development and the Computer Science Department at Tufts University is facilitating the development of the curriculum materials and teacher professional plan. In addition to the curriculum work, Elementary School teachers will be introduced to the KinderLab Robotics, KIBO robotics kits invented by Dr.Marina Umaschi Bers. KIBO is a robot kit specifically designed for young children aged 4-7 years old that enables children to build, program, decorate and bring their own robot to life! Teachers will use the knowledge they have gained about coding and robotics to integrate at least one coding or engineering project into their curriculum, in both General and Judaic studies over the course of the next two years. A major goal of the Maimonides initiative goal is for students to develop coding as a third literacy.