Eighth Graders Program Robots to Perform a Challenge

The eighth graders and Mrs. Dow have been working hard to construct their robots and have now started programming them. Mrs. Dow showed the girls how to create programs and load the program onto the robots. The girls experimented with movement for a couple class periods and then Mrs. Dow gave them their first challenge – to attach a marker to their robot and make it draw a square! “It’s a lot harder than it sounds!,” said Mrs. Dow. “They had to experiment with the different variables available to them in order to make the motors turn 90 degrees.” They also learned loops so that they could repeat the code 4 times for the 4 sides of the square.  “Our next step is to learn to use sensors (a robot’s way of interacting with the environment),” said Mrs. Dow. “We’ll use motion sensors, color sensors, and gyroscopes.”

Here is a short video of the girls experimenting.