South Euless Elementary Students Jump into Learning to Code with Unruly Splats

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Oct 06, 2021, 08:38 ET

EULESS, Texas, Oct. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- When South Euless Elementary School went back to school in August, the district's STEM & school libraries coordinator Kiera Elledge had a special activity planned that combines active play with learning to code. The school's K-6th graders are the first in the district to use Unruly Splats, programmable floor buttons that students code to light up, make sounds, and collect points when stomped on to create their own active games.

South Euless Elementary students demonstrate the game they coded with Unruly Splats.

"The students might feel like they're in recess, but they're learning how to code," said Ms. Elledge. "Instead of sitting in front of their computers, the kids are running around the classroom. It's a different way to introduce students to coding that might inspire kids who wouldn't have been interested in computer science otherwise."

South Euless Elementary won the Unruly Splats "Go Bananas!" back to school competition against dozens of schools across the US and Canada. They competed to collect the most "yellow stomps" and won with over 184,000 stomps in the month of September!

"At the start of the school year, we want to remind students about the joy of learning," said Maureen Sterling, Principal at South Euless Elementary. "Unruly Splats are just one of the ways the teachers have gotten creative incorporating games and playfulness into the curriculum, laying the groundwork for a successful school year academically."

The Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District now plans to bring Unruly Splats to its Computer Science School of Choice programs at Midway Park Elementary and Harrison Lane Elementary.

Unruly Splats help schools fulfill a range of high priority learning objectives including:

Cross-curricular coding: AGallup study found that 73% of principals believe that computer science is just as important as offering core subjects like math and English. Unruly Splats allow teachers to incorporate coding into any subject, including PE, general education, science, and even music!
Recess-like play combined with STEM: The games kids play with Unruly Splats encourage physical movement, helping to combat a decades long drop in active-play for children exacerbated by the pandemic.
Collaborative games that connect students virtually and in-person: A cloud-based app allows kids and teachers to code and play games with Unruly Splats, no matter the setting: in-school, virtual, or hybrid.

School memberships come with Unruly Splats, unlimited seats in the accompanying coding app for teachers and students, resources and lesson plans developed by curriculum experts, and ongoing professional development opportunities to ensure teachers are empowered to incorporate STEM into their classrooms.

To learn more about Unruly Splats, visit www.unrulysplats.com.

About Unruly Studios
Unruly Studios is the creator of Unruly Splats, the first STEM learning tool that combines coding with active-play. Students build their own games with programmable floor buttons that they can code to light up, make sounds, and collect points when stomped on. Unruly Studios' vision is to create an electronic playground that makes learning more playful, collaborative, and inclusive. The team is made up of experts in cognitive science, toy manufacturing, education, and technology who bring broad industry experience from Scratch, Hasbro, Mattel, Nickelodeon, iRobot, Disney, and MIT Media Lab.

Media Contact:
Charlotte Ward
[email protected]
(530) 563-6860

SOURCE Unruly Studios