Code Farm
Hour of Code
🕵🏻♂️ Guiding Question: How do people train robots?
🔎 Lesson Overview
This activity introduces robots as they are used in modern agriculture and supports students in developing basic programming skills.
Students begin the lesson by drawing and describing robots and what they can do, then work together to come up with a working definition of a robot. They then watch a short instructional video about robotics before logging into the CoderZ platform. Students control the virtual robot using manual control, then practice using the coding interface to control the robot. They then reflect on what they have learned about how hardware and software interact in the virtual robots, as well as the robots they described in the beginning of the class.
🎯 Learning Objectives
Define a robot as a machine controlled by a computer
Use sensors and conditionals to control a robot's behavior
🏹 Assessment Guidance
Define a robot as a machine controlled by a computer
In the first reflection question (“What makes a robot different from other machines?”), ensure that students have explained that the robot is controlled by a computer program.
Use sensors and conditionals to control a robot's behavior
Check that students have successfully completed Mission 6.
⏲ Lesson Outline and Sample Pacing Plan
👩🏽🏫 Standards Alignment
CSTA 1B-AP-10 Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
🔗 Other Resources
📓 Key Vocabulary
Robot – a machine controlled by a computer
Sensor – part of a robot that collects information from the environment
Introduction - Robots and Farming
Slides 1 - 5
Explore the idea of a 'robot' with students.
Programming your Robot
Slides 6 - 8
Introduce students to the CoderZ platform.
Sensors and Robots
Slides 9 - 12
Allow students to complete the next three missions of the pack independently.
Planning and Planting a Garden
Slides 13 - 15
Introduce the ideas of bugs and the debugging process.
Reflection
Slides 16 - 19
Introduce the ideas of bugs and the debugging process.