Intro to Robot Kit
Robot Classroom Activity
This activity is intended to be used by teachers in their classrooms when they are introducing object-avoiding robots which use the Ultrasonic Distance Sensor. It can be used as a prelude to building the YourDuino Basic Robot Kit
1. Materials needed:
- 1 or 2 Robots with fully charged batteries
- Science notebooks
- Pencils
- White board/markers to write students' hypotheses
- Materials such as tape to use for testing hypotheses
- Several Ultrasonic Distance Sensors to pass around
- Parts for robot kit to put on display
- Ultrasonic PPT (link below) / Computer and video projector
2. Setting up the Environment:
- Have the Parts of the robot kit displayed on a table for kids to look at and examine
- Children sit in a large circle on the floor
- They have their Science notebooks and pencils with them
3. What the teacher will say:
- We are going to be observing these robots
- Watch them carefully
- Please write down in your notebooks what they are doing
- Once you have decided what the robots are doing, let's share some of your ideas together as a group
- Now, try to come up with a hypothesis to answer this essential question:
- How does this robot work?
4. Steps for writing a hypothesis:
- Ask Question
- Observe robot
- Construct a Hypothesis
- Fill in this sentence: (Make an educated guess)
- "If , then_[this]__ will happen."
- Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment.
- Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion.
- Communicate Your Results.
5. Turn robots on and let them move about in the circle of kids for approx. 5 minutes. Students will write their observations and then their hypotheses in their science notebooks. When finished writing, students can go back to their seats where they can view the board/screen
6. Write students' hypotheses on the board
Some possible examples:
- It uses technology
- It sees things with its eyes
- It touches things
- It can tell how far away things are
- It can hear
7. Test their hypotheses
- Examples:
- Put electrical tape or other materials over the robot's "eyes" (the ultrasonic) and then test to see if the robot will still avoid obstacles
- Make loud noises when the robot is running to see if this changes the robot's behavior
8. Decide on a conclusion
9. Follow up:
- Show PowerPt: