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Pound Ridge Students Escape the Zombie Apocalypse by Coding

a smiling students sits with her zombie apocalypse maze and her Ozobot
Updated

Pound Ridge Elementary School (PRES) students had spooky seasonal fun during library recently when they coded Ozobots — which are mini robots — to escape a zombie apocalypse.

“We haven’t done coding yet this year, and I thought this would be a fun way to reintroduce students to it,” said Rina Baldo, PRES’s library media specialist.

Before students started, Baldo gave them all a refresher, reminding them to use coding markers and the correct color codes to make their Ozobots move in the directions they wanted around a maze.

“We’ve been color coding with markers,” she said, “but last year I showed fifth graders how to do Ozoblocky.”

Ozoblocky, a visual programming language with five different levels, is the next step in coding and gives users complete control over the Ozobot — including things like movement, light effects and sounds. Students were excited about the prospect of working up to that level of coding.

students study their zombie apocalypse maze thoughtfully

For this particular activity, students were given markers, a blank maze with zombies positioned in different places and a list with all of the color codes. Instantly engaged, students began naming their Ozobots and cheering them on as they worked through the maze.

“You got this, Jimmy!” one student called out to her Ozobot as it attempted the maze for the first time.

“Mine’s working!” another shouted enthusiastically.

While the students had a lot of fun, the activity required a lot of critical thinking, problem solving and perseverance, as they sometimes had to figure out why their robots didn’t do what they thought they would.

“Noooo, why did it go that way?” a student asked, bringing his hands to his head in frustration. A friend came over and looked at the codes with the first student and the two figured out where the color code was wrong and how it could be fixed. They both watched in satisfaction when the robot followed the path the way they wanted it to.

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