Natalie Semmel Photo
Phill Modeen with Willie Wilson at the ozobot hour.
“You have to wait for it to light up,” Willie Wilson said to Prince Toney.
The two New Haven 11-year-olds were at Dixwell’s Stetson Branch Library working on getting a tiny robot, called an “ozobot,” to move.
They had hand-drawn a multi-colored diagram to serve as the code; now they were waiting for the mini-robot to respond, and travel the path.
Willie and Prince, regulars at Stetson’s after-school programs, were participating in a session of an ongoing program there called “Pop-Up Maker Spaces.” This session was centered around centered around “ozobots.”
Pronounced “OH-zoh-bots,” the tiny robots are a popular tool in the quest to lure kids, with fun, to learn coding.
Rory Martorana, a Stetson library aide, and Phill Modeen, a city “young minds librarian,” organized the event. Modeen and Martorana have been collaborating on similar STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math – learning opportunities across New Haven for three years. They started when Martorana arrived in New Haven, a year after Modeen began working at Stetson. (Martorana runs a local branch of a national “Girls Who Code” program.) They began events like “Take it Apart, Make Art,” in which students could take apart old and unused technology and turn the pieces into art.
These efforts evolved into the introduction of technology like ozobots. Martorana, a former teacher, discovered ozobots from teacher friends, since “robotics is a trend in education.” Modeen called them “a simple way to begin to understand code.”
Ozobots are designed to teach kids coding in a fun way. They “look a little like Pac-Man ghosts, with domes for heads” and “can identify lines, colors, and codes on both digital surfaces, such as an iPad, and physical surfaces, such as paper,” tech writer Dean Takahashi reported in an article for Venturebeat on the phenomenon. “You can calibrate the robots to follow lines by holding down a power button. Then you can draw lines for the robot to follow in an app. You can create race tracks for multiple Ozobots to roll over.”
That’s what Willie and Prince were up to at Stetson.
They drew black lines along a U‑shaped path, which would steer the ozobot in its travels. They used red and green and blue lines to direct the device to move up and down, to speed up, to slow down. They were playing — and they were learning how to code.
Rory Maratona with Willie and Prince
Prince and Willie hadn’t used the ozobots before Wednesday. They said they look forward to other STEM programs.
Modeen and Martorana said they plan on continuing their STEM initiatives at Stetson Branch Library and throughout New Haven. They agree that ozobots are a great way to start. “It’s hands on,” Modeen said, “so there’s a tangible aspect.”
Email Rory Martorana .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to learn more about upcoming “Girls Who Code” events.
Natalie Semmel is a junior at New Haven Academy.