Year 9A Digital Technologies

Students access two modules which help them build an understanding of gravity, kinetic and potential energy as they manoeuvre and program the Sphero Rover. Working in pairs and their learning groups, students will explore the design and programming capabilities using the Sphero Edu App on an iPad and complete a series of computational thinking challenges.

Once students are comfortable with using code functions, operators and comparators, they will design their projects using Microbits to present their ideas to a chosen audience. This will also enable them to learn team dynamics and Human Computer Interaction as they explore decomposition, pattern recognition and algorithmic design.

Using the Sphero Edu App on the iPad students will design an algorithm for the the Sphero rover to complete a specific task using code. This can be in code block or python. In their learning teams the students will showcase their ideas and write their their code. The project will be tested by a team in the class and they will be awarded points for innovations, clarity of their code, comments on their code and their flowchart.

Once the initial code has been tested, students will be provided material to design their project prototypes using their flowchart and algorithm. The design of the code for the project will need to use operators and comparators with loops to make it efficient. Extra points will be awarded for writing comments on the code so that another team can test their project. Students will present their project ideas in a 5 minute pitch with individual websites in their learning groups.

Students implement the algorithms and flowcharts to build and further refine their projects by creating programs and instructions that use inputs, outputs, sequence, basic selection using comparative operators, and iteration.

They debug simple algorithms and programs by identifying when things go wrong with their instructions and correcting them, and they are able to explain why things went wrong and how they fixed them.

Students demonstrate their projects to an authentic audience.

Students explore the aspects of hydraulic movement that mimics the human arm and design a cardboard arm with syringes to manipulate the movement. They debug simple algorithms by identifying when things go wrong with their instructions and correcting them, and they are able to explain why things went wrong and how they fixed them. Students enter a competition to win a Robotic Arm and Microbit.

DDDOLO1: Students understand that technology impacts humans and society and that we can have a positive impact by the choices we make.

DDDOLO2: Students choose a digital way of displaying their outcome ( Website/ Tinkercad/Prototype/ game)