Computational thinking is used to create a structured process for a human, computer or both to solve a problem. This game provides young students an opportunity to apply computational thinking to achieve Maths and Science outcomes as well as informing procedural writing.
Participants program small steps and practice making decisions, but it could be adapted for older students by increasing the number and type of cards given per turn.
The version written here is very basic and aimed at Kindy or Year 1 students who are working on linking the arrow symbols to movement. For any other age of student it would be more fun to deal five cards and have them choose three to use.
The idea for this activity came out of a conversation with Eric Land about the importance of giving students of all ages chances to apply computational thinking, particularly in pre-digital activities.
Step 1. Assign each player to a corner square as per the diagram below.
Step 2. Shuffle the cards and then deal each player 3 cards.
Step 3. Players get a minute to decide the order that they will play their cards.
Step 4. At the same time each player reveals their first card and takes the action displayed on the card.
Step 5. Repeat Step 4 for the second and third cards in order.
Step 6. Each player hands back their cards.
Step 7. Repeat Steps 2-6 until one player reaches the middle and collects the target. The target can be collected from any of the surrounding four squares.
Step 8. If two or more players end up trying to move onto the same space they should play rock, paper, scissors to decide the order of moving. The winner moves second, pushing the player who moved first, in the direction they are travelling.
2-4 players
Tape measure to create board, masking tape, direction cards, small bean bag or cone for middle of the square.
You could also use carpet squares or pavement squares in the playground, as long as all the squares are the same size the game will work.
Once students are more confident playing the game you could introduce obstacles such as pits, walls or squares that rotate you after you step onto them to the board or some kind of randomiser to control where the target item is placed at the beginning of the game.
For older students I recommend increasing the number of cards dealt to them and you could also start giving them more cards than they get moves, so for example deal everyone seven cards but only allow them four moves. If you increase the number of cards being dealt to players you may need to add more copies of the cards to the deck, keeping in mind that movement cards should always be the most common.
This game is adapted from a board game called Roborally that I have used with high school students very successfully. I highly recommend buying it for your family or older students to play with.
The Robo cards for printing - Follow the link, make sure you are signed in with your Google account, then head to File and choose to Make a copy.