Uses Six Cubelets
kit and additional Think Cubelets from 20 Cubelet kit in the Classroom, (45-90 minute activity)
This
lesson plan is ideal for beginning robotics students as young as 5 and up to 12
and older because Cubelets allow students to quickly
snap together components and understand sensors and actuators. Students can
immerse themselves quickly in robotics by immediately assembling and testing
working robots. These activities start at the least advanced level but offer
suggestions for more advanced groups of students by scaling from level 1 to
level 3 for each segment. Great for camps, museums, and 1 hour classes!
Download file: 1HourBasicRoboticsWithCubelets.pdf
For each
class/group, this lesson plan includes 4 parts:
Each segment
is suggested to last 15 minutes in order to comprise one class of about 45
minutes, with an optional freeplay and challenge
session at the end (part 4) and an optional writing session (part 5).
Part 1: Hands on with the Sense and
Act components
A hands on
exploration of how robots get input and produce corresponding output
Materials: Six cube kits with Passive
Cubes set aside, groups of students using each kit.
Concepts Presented: Sensing and input,
action, output, actuator, magnitude
Vocabulary: Sense/input,
reaction/output, actuator, magnitude
Part 2: More complicated robots
An opportunity to design and build more
complicated robots.’
Materials: Six cube kits with Passive
Cubes set aside, groups of students using each kit.
Concepts presented: Multiple inputs,
prediction, critical thinking
Vocabulary: Sensing, inputs, response,
reaction, action, predict
Part 3: Robot Thinking
Hands‐on exploration of the Think function
of a robot
Materials: Six cube kits, now with
Passive Cubes included, as well as Blocker and Inverse Cubelets
from Twenty cube kits, groups of students using each kit.
Concepts presented: Multiple inputs,
prediction, critical thinking
Vocabulary: Sensing, inputs, response,
reaction, action, predict
Part 4: Special Challenges
Optional free‐play and special challenge for an
additional 15 minutes
Materials: Six cube kits, now with
Passive Cubes included, as well as Blocker and Inverse Cubelets
from Twenty cube kits, groups of students using each kit.
Concepts presented: Engineering and
design, critical thinking
Vocabulary: Purpose, engineering,
design
Part 5: Describe the Robot (optional)
This is a communication
(writing, drawing, or art) project for an additional 30 minutes.
Students
write a story or draw (or both) to communicate about one of the robots they
built and describe how the robot works and why it might be useful to others. The length of the story can vary with the age
or writing level of the student.
Encourage use
of the vocabulary words in the story.
Also encourage editing for sentence structure, spelling, and grammar errors.
(Optional)
Students take a picture of the robot they are describing and include it in the
story. This assumes students are writing the
story using a word processor which allows picture inserts, or have a method of
printing the picture.