Students at **Bergan Catholic Elementary School in Fremont recently had a spooktacular time learning robotics with **Sphero BOLT robots during a Prairie STEM lesson focused on driving, coding, and teamwork. Through a fun Halloween-themed “trick-or-treat” challenge, students practiced problem-solving, communication, and early programming skills while guiding their robots through a creative course.
Our Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students worked together in teams to drive their Sphero Bolts along a trick-or-treat route set up around the room. Along the course were “houses” represented by cards on the floor. When students arrived at a house, they read the card and followed the instructions. Some cards directed them to perform a specific movement with their robot—such as spinning, changing colors, or driving in a certain direction—while others gave them fun trick-or-treat surprises. This activity helped students practice reading simple directions, navigating a robot using a tablet device, and working cooperatively as a team to complete the course.
The 3rd graders took the challenge one step further by programming their Sphero Bolts to travel from house to house automatically. Using block-based coding, students created sequences of commands that controlled their robot’s direction, speed, lights, and movements. As they programmed their robots to visit each “house,” they learned the importance of planning, testing, and revising their code when their robot didn’t quite go where they expected.
Beyond the fun of driving robots around the room, students were building important STEM skills. They practiced computational thinking, which means breaking a problem into smaller steps and creating a sequence of instructions to solve it. They also learned about cause and effect in programming, discovering how each line of code changes the robot’s behavior. In addition, teamwork and communication played a big role as students collaborated to solve problems and complete their missions.
Activities like this introduce students to robotics and coding in a way that feels like play, while developing skills that are important for the future. Prairie STEM is always excited to bring engaging, hands-on STEM experiences to students at Bergan Catholic, helping spark curiosity and confidence in technology, engineering, and problem-solving.
We look forward to many more robotics adventures ahead!
