Robotics 4th to 7th grade

Second level of the course “Robotics with LEGO”. Level ‘e’ focuses on mobile robots with more complex constructions with 3 motors and tasks based on the well known sensors for Light, Sound, Touch and Distance. Students experiment with different ways to attach the motors to the constructions, and robots use different approaches from the standard “wheels connected to two different motors”. Students learn about gears and their application to increase either the torque or the speed of the motors. The level ends with a sumo rumble.

Third level of the course “Robotics with LEGO”. In the lessons students build robotic animals and try to find out how to make them move. The building instructions are partial and students have to find how to complete the robots on their own. The programming is getting more abstract with the introduction of grouping of instructions and introduction to variables. Robots are getting smarter, they preserve internal state, remember their previous actions and base their next actions on that information.

Fourth level of the course “Robotics with LEGO”. In many of the lessons four students build one robot, and each pair of students is responsible for the correct construction of their part of the robot. Custom groups of blocks now use input parameters and return output results. In every lesson there is usage of variables of all types: Boolean, Text or Integer. Robots now have rich internal state, they can count, they can calculate and they can use boolean conditions, which all helps them make even more correct decisions.

In the course “Competitive robotics 101” the students learn the basics of constructing successful and well-balanced competition robot. They learn how to move the robot around the field with precision and manipulate objects with or without additional motors. We show them, that there is a hidden freedom in the competitions and they should try to think “out of the box” both for the attachments for their robot and the execution of each mission.

In this course, we help the students to come up with their strategy for solving the competitions field, in order to finish with maximum points for the given time. During the classes are solved optimisation problems and learn how to have a rational approach to the tasks. The students work with one or two robots and they should have good teamwork, in order to succeed to diversify the tasks and at the end to build up the whole competition run.