Maker Lab Kids
Robot WorkshopMake. Learn. Share.

Lessons

15 sessions, an hour each. Every one adds a piece of the robot's thinking — by the last lesson the robot solves a maze nobody has seen before.

01 Robot or Not? What makes a machine a robot Decide for yourself whether something is a robot, using a test you can defend. 02 Driving & the Remote Commands, control, and who is in charge Drive the robot three different ways and explain what a command actually is. 03 What the Robot Can Feel Reading real sensors, including the broken ones Name every sensor on the robot and predict what its number does before you test it. 04 Every Robot Is Different Measuring your own robot's numbers Produce two numbers — milliseconds per room and milliseconds per quarter turn — that are true for YOUR robot, and explain why one measurement was not enough. 05 Your First Program Blocks, and what the robot actually receives Build a program from blocks, send it, run it, and read the same program back off the robot. 06 Doing It Again Loops, and why repetition is not copy-paste Use a repeat block to make a square, then change the square's size by editing one number. 07 Making Decisions If, else, and the robot thinking for itself Write a program that behaves differently depending on what the sensor sees. 08 Following the Line A feedback loop you can see Explain, while watching the robot, why it wiggles down the line instead of driving straight along it. 09 Avoiding & Seeking Strategies for not knowing everything Compare two robot behaviours and describe what each one does when it loses track of the world. 10 The Maze Race Everything at once, against the clock Get your robot through a maze it has never seen, using a strategy you can explain. 11 Getting Off the Line Acceleration, slip, and why fast starts are slow Find the fastest launch your robot can make without slipping, and prove it is faster overall than a harder launch. 12 When Sensors Lie Noise, blind spots, and trusting the wrong number Make each sensor give a confidently wrong answer, and explain to somebody else why it happened. 13 Two Robots, One Room Sharing space, control, and the airwaves Run two robots at once without either one interfering with the other, and explain what could go wrong. 14 Design Your Own Behaviour From an idea to a program the robot can run Invent a behaviour nobody has demonstrated, write it, test it, and describe how it fails. 15 Show & Tell Explaining your robot to somebody who has never seen it Explain what your robot does, how it knows, and what still beats it — to an audience that was not in the club.

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