Suncoast Year 5 Students are building and coding Jimu robots to solve moon missions for their Infinity & Beyond unit in Science. They are working collaboratively and demonstrating soft skills for 21st Century learning.
Week 1 – Building the Jimu Rob0tic Vehicles
In week one of the project, students were placed in teams (with children outside their normal circles) and were tasked with constructing and operating a Jimu robotic vehicle.
In week two of the project, the year 5 students began block programming Jimu Space Rovers with iPad technology. Importantly, the Australian Curriculum states that students of Year 5 need to “define problems in terms of data and functional requirements and design solutions by developing algorithms to address the problems”. (Source: https://aca.edu.au/curriculum/5-6/)
Week 2 – Block coding the Jimu Robotic Vehicles to avoid Asteroid Ozobots
Within the activity, the challenge was for students to program their robot to travel from one side of the table to the other and avoid Ozobots (small bulb-shaped robots) moving along coded pathways at varying speeds. The setup was designed to replicate space travel and the need for rockets and space rovers to avoid colliding with asteroids. The activity required students to not merely code their robot but to calculate the speed of moving obstacle and determine what code would be needed to achieve success.
As students tested their programs they recorded their findings on the writable surfaces so other teams could learn from the scripts of others. The project captured the essence of 21st Century Learning with the need for students to employ collaborative techniques, think critically and computationally. The lesson was challenging and highly engaging and promoted creative problem-solving. Teams worked collaboratively to discuss and share codes that would help them to program the robots, with the aim of avoiding the Ozobot asteroid. The complex problem solving and logical processing was unfolding before us as students came up with shared ideas and input which could help them realise success in the project.
Video Showcase – 2x Videos
Watch the students in action over the first two weeks of the project.
