The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

Capture the Edison Flag

Capture the Edison Flag

A Middle School STEM lesson

Tabatha Hancock

May 1, 2023

Notes for teachers

Notes

Prerequisites: This lesson requires prior experience with Edison Robots.

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Context:

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This lesson can be taught to a single class or used in an after-school coding/robotics club.

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Students should be given several days to complete the “design and construct” portion of this lesson.

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The lesson finishes with a competition day followed by a day to reflect.

List of Materials

• Enough edison robots to allow groups of 2-3 students to work together.
• Building supplies of your choosing. These will be used to construct an obstacle course to keep robots aways from the team’s flag.

Standards

Physical Science Core Ideas:

• P2: Objects can affect other objects at a distance.
• P3: Changing the movement of an object requires a net force to be acting on it.

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Educational Technology Standards:

• Innovative Designer:
• 6-8.4.a. Students engage in a design process for generating and testing ideas and developing innovative products to solve problems.
• 6-8.4.c. Students engage in a design process to develop, test, and revise prototypes, embrace the iterative process of trial and error, and understand setbacks as potential opportunities for improvement.
• Global Collaborator:
• 6-8.7.c. Students perform a variety of roles within a team, using age-appropriate technology to complete a project or solve a problem.

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Standards

Engineering Technical Standards:

• Standard 2.0: Create engineering problem-solving / decision-making process.
• Standard 3.0: Apply mathematical laws and principles relevant to engineering technology.
• Standard 4.0: Apply scientific laws and principles relevant to engineering technology.
• Standard 7.0: Apply project management tools and techniques to engineering solutions.

Objective(s):

This week we will:

• Work with partners to design an obstacle course to protect our flag from opponents.�
• Work with partners to modify our robot in order to capture an opponent’s flag.�
• Objectively evaluate our design in order to make it better.�
• Share with the class how we collaborated to complete our goal.

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Agenda- Day 1 (45-60 minutes)

Introduce challenge

• Students will design an obstacle course to protect their team flag.
• Students will modify a robot to be used to capture another team’s flag.

Explain timeline

• How many days will be allocated to designing/constructing.

Begin to plan obstacle course and robot modifications.

• Be sure to outline course requirements.
• Students should work on a rough plan and list of supplies needed.

If students do not have recent experience with Edison Robots, this link has activity guides to help: https://meetedison.com/robot-programming-software/edscratch/#EdScratch-resources

Day 1 Hands-on Activity Instructions

• Divide students into groups of 2-3

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• Today is setting up groups, discussing the project goals/rules and group brainstorming.

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Can you keep your flag safe from thieves?

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This week we will be using Edison Robots to play capture the flag!

Your mission:

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1. Design an obstacle course to keep your flag safe from other teams.

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1. Modify an Edison Robot to be used to capture another team’s flag.

Rules:

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Your Obstacle Course:

-Must be completed by the end of day 3.

- Repairs can be made between competitions, but you cannot interfere during a competition.

-Your flag must not be sealed inside of any type of container.

-Your flag must be in/on/attached to something you have created. �(ie. Cannot be taped to a wall or suspended from the ceiling.)

-Courses must be free-standing and assembled on the floor.

Rules:

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Your Robot Modifications:

-Must be completed by the end of day 3.

- Repairs can be made between competitions, but you cannot interfere during a competition.

-Your robot must be able to move without being touched by a person.

Rules:

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Capturing a flag:

-A flag will be considered “captured” if an enemy Edison Robot or any attachment(s) to a robot comes in contact with your flag.

-Whoever captures a flag first wins!

How will you protect your flag?

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Brainstorm ideas with your group for how you can protect your flag AND how you plan to modify your robot.

Sketch out a plan.

Decide what materials you will need.

Write a list of materials you and your group members will need to find.

How will you capture a flag?

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As you create your obstacle course plan, �think about how enemies might be able to capture your flag.

Keep an eye on your competition!�As you are designing your obstacles, be thinking about how you will get around your enemy obstacles.

What to expect:

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You will be given the next two days to build your courses and your robot modifications.

We will have our competition on Day 4.

On Day 5, we will come together as a class to discuss what we learned during this challenge.

Agenda- Day 2-3 (Full Class Periods)

Construct obstacle course & robot modifications

- Give students at least two days to construct their course and their robot modifications.

Test

- Encourage students to test out their courses and robot modifications with their own robots.

Optimize course

- Encourage students to make adjustments to their courses and modifications after testing.

Keep Notes

-On day 5, students will reflect on what they learned through this process.

- If you would like to use reflections as a formal assessment, ensure students are keeping notes on their experiences regarding:� -Team work/collaboration� -The design process� -What worked for their team� -What they would do � differently.

Let’s Build!

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You will have today and tomorrow to complete your obstacle course and robot modifications.

You will NOT be allowed to work on your course or robot modifications after tomorrow.

Keep notes:

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At the end of the week, we will be coming together to discuss what we learned.

As you build, be thinking about:

-How is working in a team helpful/difficult?

-What is working/not working for you and your team?

-How does your plan/design change?

-What are your personal strengths/weaknesses in this challenge?

Agenda- Day 4 (45-60 minutes)

Competition

• Designate time for at least 2 �competitions with “repair” time �in between each competition.�
• Explain scoring.�
• Remind students of rules.
• First to touch a flag wins
• No interfering in competitions.
• Repairs must be made between competitions.

Reflection

• Allow time to organize reflections, which will be shared on Day 5
• If using a handout, remind students of expectations.
• If this will be a class discussion, prompt independent reflection first.
• If this will be a class presentation, allow enough time for preparation.

Day 4 Hands-on Activity Instructions

• These directions can be modified to accommodate multiple simultaneous battles or additional consecutive battles.
• Give a shorter time limit before declaring a tie.
• Invite admin as judges to help watch battles.
• Explain judging
• First team to touch a flag wins.
• Interfering in a competition results in disqualification
• Reminder for repair time
• Repairs can only be made between competitions.
• While other teams are competing �(if taking turns battling)
• During a field-wide “repair break” �(if battling simultaneously)�
• Clean up�
• Reflection time

It’s battle time!

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Today is competition day, but first we need to discuss rules.

You don’t want to be disqualified!

Prep time:

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You will be given 5 minutes to position your obstacle course and prepare your robot.

You will only be able to repair your robot and your course when instructed to do so.

You may not touch your robot or your obstacle course while you are competing.

Judging:

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The first team to touch an opponent’s flag wins that round.

Battles will begin when the signal is given.

Battles will last for 5 minutes. If no flag has been captured by the end of the time limit, the competition will be declared a tie.

Interfering with a competition will result in disqualification.

Prep Time Begins NOW!

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Let’s Battle!

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Great job!

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Did your battle go the way you hoped?

Let’s take some time to reflect on how this week has gone.

We will come together tomorrow to discuss as a class.

Agenda- Day 5 (45-60 minutes)

*If using this day for presentations, skip the discussion slides.*

Discuss Reflections�-Team work/collaboration�-The design process�-What worked for their team�-What they would do differently�-What we could do differently as a class

Let’s discuss!

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We worked hard this week!

We had fun.

We were frustrated.

We learned a lot.

Let’s talk about how it all went.

How did you divide the work in your group?

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Teamwork can be helpful.

Sometimes teamwork can be frustrating.

How did you divide and conquer this week?

What worked in your group?

What didn’t work in your group?

How did your designs change?

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You ended Day 1 with an idea.

What was the original design for your obstacle course? Your robot mods?

How did your designs change throughout the week?

Strategy is key!

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Designs and ideas are important.

Implementation is a whole other thing!

Did your designs work the way you hoped in competition?

What would you change if we battled again?

How would you teach this lesson?

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What was your favorite part of this week’s lesson?

What was the most frustrating part?

What would you do differently if you were teaching this lesson?

Assessment

Informal assessment:

-Monitor student conversations during group work. Use clarifying questions to gauge depth of responses (eg. Why are you choosing these materials or this setup? What do you think will happen here?), and leading questions to encourage deeper conversations (eg. What happened when you tested your course? Why do you think this happened?)

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Formal summative:

-Students will share their initial designs, what happened when they tested their course, what changes they made and why, and what happened when an opponent tried their course. They will share how jobs were divided, why collaboration was important and two lessons they learned from this experience.

Differentiation

If some students are having a hard time coming up with ideas, stop group discussions and come together for a class discussion to share basic ideas.

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If coming up with ideas is likely to be a concern, look for photos or short videos to use as inspiration.

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If students have not had recent experience with Edison robots, add a day or two to go over how they work and to practice using them.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Encourage students to continually improve their designs. If groups who get done early are completely satisfied with their designs, they can help other groups.

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To extend this activity, have students consider how training a robotic car to drive through a challenging course can be used in the real world.

• This can be turned into another project by having students research where this technology could be useful and how they would approach the task.