Building a Foundation: Introducing Robots to Elementary School Children

Setting up and using race games for Robots

Part of the fun of being a specialist teacher is teaching computer science. I admit I am glad most students love coming to my class. They see STEM as more of free time rather than class. I like to create and find ways to incorporate as many games as possible when teaching coding skills. I will explain how I set up the racing games as unplugged activities or with robots.

What are Racing Games

Racing games are games in which players take turns moving a token along a path to reach the end. These games have taught preschoolers how to take turns for years. I took this concept, gave it a computer science twist, and created game grids to help students learn to code a robot. In my activities, students code a robot to move on a grid as their token. Click here to view or purchase one of my racing games.

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What supplies will I need?

The following list is the basic supplies needed to create and use a racing game with a classroom robot.

• Racing game from my TPT store
• Posterboard
• Glue or Rubber Cement
• Printer
• Scissors
• Push Button Robot such as Code & Go® Robot Mouse or VEX 123

How do I make the game board?

• Print the posterboard Game Tiles and Individual game board. (There is no need to laminate at this point.)
• Cut out all the tiles.
• Position the posterboard in Landscape mode.
• Starting at the bottom left corner of the posterboard, align the game tiles using the individual game board as a guide.
• Glue in place.
• Laminate and trim.
• If you plan to use the drawing cards
  • Print the drawing cards
  • Laminate the cards and cut them out on dotted lines.

How should I use it with students?

Plugged Version

The game rules are simple. To begin, the game is played by drawing a card, or *spinning a wheel and then programming the robot to move the number of spaces shown.

*I include a Wheel of Names link of the draw cards that can be used in lieu of the printed cards.

I have VEX 123 Robots in my classroom. They can be coded in three different ways.

• My kindergarten students use the touch coding feature.
• First grade uses the coder cards.
• Second Grade and up use VEX code.

One of the great parts of using VEX 123 is the variety of ways to code the robots. During assemblies, I stay in my room and take out the games and robots. Students with sensory issues come into my room and play this game.

Unplugged Versions

Above all, unplugged coding is important, especially for beginners, because the skills they need to write code they already use in real life. If they dive right into coding, the complexity of the programming languages and tools may hide this connection.

Individual Gameboards

The individual gameboards can be printed and laminated. Students draw a card or spin and move a token along the gameboard. In addition, students record their movements on each term. I find this helps students break down the steps needed. They start to connect each movement as a code in a program.

Print one of each floor tile; laminate and cut out. Arrange on the floor in a grid formation, similar to the individual board.

Print and cut out the Directional Cards. Pick one student to be the robot and another to be the programmer.

The programming student draws the card and creates a program for the student robot to follow.

• Programmers will put the cards in the order of the steps they want the robot to follow. This set of cards will be known as the program.
• When using the repeat folders, provide sticky notes so students can write the number of times to repeat.
• When followed precisely, the program will direct the robot to the correct location on the game board.