ADST Resources
Applied Design, Skills and technologies
British Columbia’s new curriculum states:
“The ability to design, make, acquire, and apply skills and technologies is important in the world today and key in the education of citizens for the future”.
The Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) curriculum is an experiential, hands-on program of learning through design and creation that includes skills and concepts from traditional and First Peoples practice; from the existing disciplines of Business Education, Home Economics and Culinary Arts, Information and Communications Technology, and Technology Education; and from new and emerging fields. It fosters the development of the skills and knowledge that will support students in developing practical, creative, and innovative responses to everyday needs and challenges.
In the ADST curriculum, students grow through the use of design thinking principles. This approach helps them gain understanding of how to apply their skills to both finding challenges and solving them in creative ways, using appropriate technologies for the task at hand.
Resources to Support ADST
To support ADST learning , we have compiled a list of great links to support student learning in this curricular area:
Sphero kits
What are Spheros?
A Sphero is a small hand-sized ball you can program easily to change colours, run a circuit, keep beat with a song, and many other fun ideas.
The Sphero robot is fun for kids and fits well into school curriculums. For example, a Science teacher can use Spheros to replicate the orbits of planets around the sun, with each Sphero planet programmed to make a circuit identical to a real planet. Kids see an abstract idea — planets orbit around the sun in different paths at different rates — operate on the floor in front of them. It also lends itself well to math lessons about geometry, distance and measurement and comes with a protractor.
Kids can control Sphero using an android or IOS portable device. It can be easily controlled by dragging your finger on your device in the direction you wish it to go or you can control it using coding. Sphero allows students to learn Math, Science, and Coding while experimenting with a fun, engaging robot.
