Together we will learn to understand the code of our robotic pillar and to program it according to our ideas. Then you will compete against each other in teams and use the caterpillar to find the answers to a quiz on a current topic (here: science, history of the potato).

This activity is suitable for elementary school children aged 5 to 8.

Goals:

The students

• learn a basic concept of problem solving ("Make, Test, Improve")

• learn to program a simple robot ("Lernraupe Flitzi"/ Code-a-Pillar) with tangible program-blocks

• develop a positive attitude towards coding

Duration: 1.5 hours (90 min)

Instruction:

The students are introduced to the functionality of the learning caterpillar. They examine the individual components, suspect the instruction behind them and check their assumptions. Subsequently, destinations in the classroom are approached in increasingly complicated ways (turns, avoiding obstacles, possibly shortening multiple instructions through repetitive loops). If several caterpillars are available, the students can also experiment independently in small groups for a while.

The reply cards are arranged in a grid under a floor mat. The class is divided into two (or more) teams, each with a different starting point for the caterpillar. The quiz questions are asked one after the other. As a team, the students use the programming cards to create the code that the caterpillar needs from its starting position in order to get the correct answer or to complete several correct answers in the correct order. Then they put the program modules together accordingly, start the caterpillar and (hopefully) solve the quiz problem.

Material:

At least one "Lernraupe Flitzi" (Code-a-Pillar), programming modules, 1 set of cards with the program symbols for each team, start and finish markers, quiz cards, answer cards or pictures, floor mat. This activity can also be carried out with Beebots, Bluebots or similar robots.

(This activity is a contribution to the EU Code Week Online Bootcamp MOOC of the European Schoolnet Academy)

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