This unit measures your learning at three levels. Each level builds on the one below it, like constructing a building from foundation to structure to finished result.
Component skills are specific abilities you'll develop throughout high school and beyond: Debugging, Testing, Iterating, Justifying, Representing, and others. These are your building blocks.
The key thing about component skills is that they're transferable. The same debugging skill that helps you fix robot code helps you troubleshoot a broken recipe, diagnose why your car won't start, or figure out why a project isn't working. You're not just learning robotics, you're building skills you'll use for the rest of your life.
Each skill belongs to one of three competencies. As you practice skills, you build competency.
To solve a problem like designing a robotic arm, you need three different ways of thinking.
Computational Thinking
You talk to the robot. You take real-world problems and turn them into math and code that the robot can execute. Proficient looks like: explaining how the IK model uses trigonometry to control arm movement, not just getting it to work, but knowing why it works.
Mathematical Modeling
You match the math to reality. You test whether your calculations actually hold up on a physical desk with a physical arm. Proficient looks like: explaining how your assumptions (like segment lengths) and constraints (like joint limits) shaped your design.
Problem Solving
You fight for the user. You make sure this thing is genuinely useful, not just a cool math demo. Applying looks like: explaining how you evaluated different solutions and used that analysis to refine your prototype.
Each competency has its own set of component skills. When you practice checking results (debugging) or expressing equivalencies (representing), you're building Computational Thinking. When you practice modeling or using models (refining), you're building Mathematical Modeling. When you are proposing improvements (Iterating) or creating solutions (modeling), you're building Problem Solving.
The Big Story is what you're actually here to do: design a robotic arm that solves a repetitive task for a real user. This is the 6-week project that brings all three competencies together.
The Big Story asks one question: Did you actually solve the problem?
Your Big Story level reflects how well you integrate all three competencies.
You might have sharp problem-solving instincts, great ideas for the user, a strong sense of what would actually help, but still be developing your Computational Thinking Competency. Your code might need work.
That's useful information, not a problem.
Breaking the unit down into skills, competencies, and big story separates things so you can see exactly where you're strong and where you need practice. Instead of a single grade that hides what's working, you get a clear picture: here's what I've got, here's what I'm building.