Coding and LEGOs and Kids Oh My! By Marie Hopper and Julia Wagner

Children love LEGOs! And knowing how to code is becoming more and more essential for the next generation of innovators, do-ers and leaders. Put LEGOs and coding together and you have the FIRST LEGO League Explore program, an innovative and engaging project that makes classroom learning popular and fun. We will demonstrate how to build and code with the LEGO WeDo 2.0 kit. In addition, we will learn more about how this kit is used in the FLL Explore program while walking-through the curriculum and the engineering notebook used by students in grades K-4. We will also share best practices for safe use of shared materials.

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends (Max's Sleigh Build) by Matt Wolf

Design and build a sleigh using a WeDo kit that will pull a specific measured weight.

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Pathways for Hexbugs

Students will be grouped into teams. Then each team will create a pathway for their Hexbug to travel. The Hexbug path should be 5 feet from beginning to end and must include two curves, a hill, one bridge and one tunnel. The Hexbug must travel from the beginning to the end without any assistance. Each team will have a timer and will have 20 minutes to design the quickest path they can for their Hexbug.  After the first race teams will have 5 minutes to talk about changes they can make and 5 minutes to make the changes. There will be one final race to see if a different team is able to win.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Carrie Robledo

Cleaning Our EcoSystem with Robots

Students will design a device using Spheros or Sphero Minis and recyclables to help clean trash out of waterways.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Carrie Robledo, Elizabeth Foxworth

Alligator Angles

Students will use Lego WeDo kits or any other building kit such as k’nex, or geomags or craft materials to build the alligator or alligator mouth and then use a protractor to measure the angle of the mouth opening. Connecting math and the everyday world through the use of building an object to incorporate angle measurements.   As an extension of learning students will then attempt to vary the measurement by adjusting the bands or speed of the motor if using wedo or programmable build kits or non-robotic version by adjusting the hinge of the mouth. Students should attempt to alter the build in efforts to change the angle.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Carrie Robledo

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Cleanup with Spheros

During this unit, students will learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. They will read about the GPGP and then prepare a presentation with their findings and solutions.  Lastly, they will create a prototype to help with the ocean cleanup and use Spheros to maneuver the prototype to pick up trash in water.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Carrie Robledo, APRIL SUMMEY

Coding Through a Story

During this PBL, students will read a text and make it come alive by creating a 3D story map that shows the major events of the plot and the obstacles that the main character faced throughout the story. Students will then code an Ozobot to maneuver through the story and the obstacles while explaining them to an audience or their peers.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Carrie Robledo, APRIL SUMMEY

Creating Your Community with Ozobot

After brainstorming a list of essential businesses and/or points of interest, each student will create a building from recycled cardboard. They will then decide a location to house the building in the city. There will also be waterways included.  Then in teams of 2-3 the students will use recycled materials to build a bridge to carry the ozobot through the city giving tours of important locations. The ozobot will need to be able to cross the bridge which will allow students to work through issues with force and motion.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Carrie Robledo, Toni Luther

The Most Magnificent Thing: Literacy, Robotics, and Makey Makey

 Students will listen to the book The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires and then collaboratively work together to make a doll that talks using the Scratch program and a Makey Makey. (These two tools were introduced and taught prior to this lesson.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Carrie Robledo, ANGIE MITCHELL

Forces and Motion with Spheros

 Students are tasked with moving a 20 gram (or other low denomination) weight a distance of one meter using a “Sphero*” remote controlled robot.  Students use available materials to design and build a structure that will allow the sphero to push or pull the weight, while allowing for factors such as friction, direction, and gravity.   *Note: Although students can issue specific commands in the Sphero software, this activity only requires that they be able to “drive” the Sphero, thus providing the force to move the weight. 

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Carrie Robledo

2: Create Your Own Bug

 As students are reviewing odd and even numbers, students first sketch out a bug that has odd or even features. Students then use Tinkercad to turn their sketch into a 3D design to be printed.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Glenn Shelton, Carrie Robledo

5th Grade: Build Your Own Operation Game

As students study the human body, they can include the different body systems as they build their Operation games. Made from a few household materials, a makey-makey kit and the Scratch website, students can create and play their Operation game.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: William Allred, Carrie Robledo

5th Grade: Predator Challenge

Each team has a budget of $45 to spend to modify a cup into the ultimate predator.  After predators are constructed, students battle to pop each others’ balloons.  Whichever predator is able to survive is the apex predator.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: William Allred, Carrie Robledo

4th Grade: Sphero Natural Disasters/Rescue

Students will create a fictitious city that has experienced a natural disaster. Once their city is completed, students will create a vehicle to transport supplies to the people who need help.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: William Allred, Carrie Robledo

4th Grade: The Candy Bomber

After learning about Gail Halvorsen, the World War II pilot who created tiny parachutes from handkerchiefs and string to deliver chocolates and other candy to the children of Berlin, students will engineer parachutes to deliver their own packages using Parrot Mambo Drones.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: William Allred, Carrie Robledo

4th Grade: Build an Operation Game

As students study electricity and circuits, they can build their Operation games. Made from a few household materials, a makey-makey kit and the Scratch website, students can create and play their Operation game.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: William Allred, Carrie Robledo

K: Huff and Puff Engineering

After reading various versions of The Three Little Pigs, students will plan and design houses that could protect the little pigs from the Big Bad Wolf (a hair dryer).

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Carrie Robledo

K: Dashing Through Obstacles

Students will create an obstacle course for the Dash robot to demonstrate the following movements and position words: straight, in front of, behind, zigzag, between, on top of, round and round , under, above, back and forth, below, beside, fast and slow.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Carrie Robledo

4th: Makey Makey your own Circuits

Students will be given a Makey Makey kit, a Chromebook with the Scratch website and a choice of materials to create a circuit that will allow the students to play an in instrument.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: William Allred, Carrie Robledo

3rd: Max's Sleigh Build (Forces in Motion)

Design and build a sleigh using a WeDo kit, K’nex or similar, that will pull a specific measured weight.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: William Allred, Carrie Robledo