Gianluca Pedemonte and Nicolò Monasterio, Scuola di Robotica
GREENCODE – Building an Eco-Friendly Future with Robots is an Erasmus+ project linking universities and educational organisations from seven European countries. Its three flagship resources—a Higher Education Curriculum, Digital Handbook and Activity Book—help early-childhood educators blend Inquiry-Based Learning, environmental sustainability and educational robotics.
A standout Activity-Book sequence, “Bees and Flowers for a Thriving Garden,” shows how a small robot can spark big eco-friendly attitudes. Children first explore the schoolyard with magnifiers, ears and taste buds, discovering colours, scents and the buzz of real pollinators. Back indoors they recreate a meadow grid and programme Bee-Bot, their “robotic bee,” to visit each flower. Every arrow they press echoes a waggle-dance step—forward to the dandelion, left to the violet, loop back to the hive.
As sequences become flight paths and loops mimic foraging cycles, pupils grasp pollination as a system: efficient routes yield “virtual fruits,” while neglected blooms stay barren. Debugging wrong turns prompts reflection on cause and effect; optimising routes translates into conserving energy; collaborating on the garden map fosters shared responsibility. When children ask what happens if half the flowers disappear, the discussion shifts naturally to biodiversity loss and simple remedies—planting bee-friendly herbs, providing water stations, reducing pesticides.
Educational robotics here is more than STEM—it embodies ecological processes, turning code into care. With one floor robot, a printable mat and curiosity, Bees & Bots encapsulates the GREENCODE ethos: start with tangible exploration, transform it into computational thinking, and return it to the environment as informed, sustainable action. The full guide and templates are freely available in the GREENCODE Activity Book.