Program a robot
Introduction
Post person Singh needs to get home for her husbands' birthday! But she has so many parcels to deliver! Can you help her pack her backpack then program the most efficient journey so that she gets home as soon as possible?
Activity
Step 1. Read the list of parcels to deliver and look at the map to see where their owners live.
Step 2. Plan a route that will deliver the parcels most efficiently.
Step 3. Look at the size and shape of the parcels and the size and shape of your post pack.
Step 4. Work out how you can pack your post pack so that each parcel is available to you as you reach the owners house.
Step 5. Program the course and then run a delivery, using the stop watch to time the journey from start to finish.
NOTE: Bee-Bots can only have 40 commands programmed in a row. You may need to do two sets of programming in order to complete the challenge, count this in your timing of the journey.
Step 6. Examine your packing strategy and the course you took, how could you shave some time off your journey?
Step 7. Try your new strategy, timing the journey from start to finish. What is your new time? Did your strategy work?
Players
Teams of 2-3 depending on age and aptitude of students
Equipment
Programmable robot (I chose Bee-Bots because they are easy to use), blocks, a box to load them into, list of parcels and who they belong to, plastic table cloth to draw map onto, permanent marker to draw grid, ruler or tape measure, map document showing the location of each mail recipient's house, a stopwatch.
Teaching Notes
This task would need to be adapted for your students, made simper or more complex depending on their age or ability level. I have chosen to use Bee-Bots because there is very little learning needed before using them. For more complicated versions of this game I might use a robot that does not need to be programmed but driven, or a robot like an EV3 that could be designed to pull a wagon with the parcels in it.
You could also have students design their own maps to be shared with their peers, vary the number of mail recipients, move the delivery points on the map or change the size and shape of the parcels so that there is only one way that the wagon can be packed, influencing the order of delivery.
Links/resources
- List of parcels to deliver and who they belong to.
- Map layout showing where each mail recipient lives, the post office and Post person Singh's house.
- Information on using Bee-Bots
Login to your Google account and then go to File and choose Make a copy to get your own version of the map and list.