a-MAZE-ing Sphero

Creation and navigation are valuable learning skills for all children. Maze development, for one, assists with understanding how our world is laid out and how to best maneuver through it. In the process of building and navigating mazes, children learn problem solving skills, fine motor control, visual motor control, and self-confidence. In this lesson, students were challenged to design and create their own maze and then to program Sphero to navigate through it.

Working in teams, students planned and created a maze for Sphero using paper and cardboard. They then tested the maze by driving Sphero to make sure he would fit. Next, they coded Sphero to run through the maze. Finally, they were challenged to code Sphero to run through another team's maze in a race to see who could run and code the fastest.