7P8- Sphero

This unit, we will be utilizing the Sphero technology, where a small, ball-shaped piece of hardware, hence the name, is programmed to do a certain action. This entails coding using the Sphero Edu App to, first, make the Sphero trace a shape, and later on, find a path through a maze. This project was, out of the seven standards, both a Computational Thinker-due to the large amount of coding/computer work involved in the project, and a Creative Communicator-due to the large amount of effective communication with a partner needed to

succeed. A challenge that partner Brennan and I faced was getting the Sphero to behave correctly. At first, we struggled to get it to make the correct turns to get the exact triangle that we needed to trace. It was always just a little short of what we needed it to be, so we, in order to overcome this issue, we ended up having to tinker with the amount of time and speed that we had it go into the last turn with. Eventually, we settled on a code that perfectly accomplished what we set out to accomplish. That being to trace a perfect triangle on the floor. If given the chance, something I'd do differently is I'd use a more maneuverable Sphero, making it easier on us to program. There are several different kinds, some more spry than others. We learned during this project, that looks are deceiving. We thought it would be simple, but we were dead wrong.

Here I will list 25 uses for this technology.

1. Introducing younger learners to the world of coding.

2. Tracing a square

3. Tracing a triangle

4.Tracing a circle

5. Tracing a trapezoid

6.Tracing a decagon

7.Tracing a do-decagon

8.Tracing a Megagon

9.Tracing a gigagon

10. Tracing a Myriagon

11. Tracing a straight line

12. Tracing an angle

13. Racing Spheros

14.Tracing letters

15.Tracing a message

16. Making the Sphero just sit there and say random stuff.

17. Making it spin around in circles

18. Making it go really fast(Mind you, the default color is blue. Hmm.. I wonder what else is blue, goes fast, and curls into a ball?)

19. Making it go real slow

20. Making it go back and forth endlessly

21. Making it constantly repeat Sonic catchphrases

22. Making it do literally nothing

23. Making it magically take $150 from your parents' wallets

24. Making it move one inch

25.Making it go forward forever

Wow. That's a lot of stuff. I learned how to orient an object using code to achieve a goal. I learned this by experimenting with the code over time to accomplish our goal of making a triangular path for the Sphero to follow. This could lead to a career in app design. This is because for this project, I had to familiarize myself with the way the coding engine worked.

Here are some images of the coding me and Brennan used to run our SPHERO.

The codes for our shero robot.