This scenario is supposed to promote the use of robotics in the English lesson with CLIL. The aim is to discuss the life on Mars and the possibilities the future technology brings to explore the Red Planet. In future some students might even work there on various projects as exploration is in our DNA. First students will watch a YouTube video Could we actually live on Mars? by Mari Foroutan. The teacher discusses the possibility to live on Mars and introduces the vocabulary connected with the video : dunes, tars,dust storms, Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris. Later Students work in groups and using crayons and paper they design a travel guide for Mars tourists: Visit Mars-Its Redder than ever|. They make an exhibition of the travel guides and discuss them in class. Then, the teacher asks students about robots if they know any robots working in the space. Students discuss different robots they might have seen. The teacher shows another YouTube video about the robot the Curiosity landing on Mars.Students discuss what people might do on Mars and why is it so important. Students have to imagine they are scientists on Mars and they have a project to do but there are obstacles (a volcano, some rocks). They have to program their curiosity Dash and Dot to fulfill the mission. The teacher divides students into groups and gives them Dash and Dot Robots and a Martian Puzzle to solve. Students work in groups and program the path of the robot meeting different obstacles. They take notes and put them in the envelope. Each group has a different Martian puzzle. Later when each group is ready they exchange envelopes and use the ready notes from the other group. For their homework students have to think of their own puzzle with dash and dot.
Subject Related:
- Astronomy
Skills Learning Outcomes:
Skills to be fostered:
Digital artifacts:
Robotic artifacts:
Gender: both
Age Group: 11 - 15 Years
Class Size: medium
(Ideal) Group Size: 4
(Ideal) Grouping Suggestions: gender
Special needs and abilities:
Environment: classroom
Style of room: A classroom with a whiteboard connected to the Internet with some space for Dash and Dot robots to move.
Sessions: 1
Session Duration: 1h00
Total Duration: 1h00
Actions:
Relationships:
Roles in the group:
Support by the tutor(s):
Price per Kit: €151 - €300
Technology Needed: Tablet/Mobile
Teaching Methods:
| Explain how the robotic kit works | |
| Description: | Demonstrate by example, perform short exercises, since we need to generate knowledge and understanding from the different types of technologies here |
| Duration: | 15 minutes |
| Type: | Introductory |
| Orchestration: | Group work |
| Teaching Methods: | Explaining technologies |
| Subject Related: | Astronomy |
| Skills Learning Outcomes: | Students will be able to talk about life possibilities on Mars and work with Dash and Dot robots to solve Martian puzzles. |
| Providing examples for hypothesis testing | |
| Description: | Instead of employing direct instruction (i.e. introducing loops) to introduce a concept or explain an example, constructionist methodology might focus on providing students with an example and ask them to test it and observe the behavior of the robot with the aim of identifying the role of specific programming concepts and structures like loops. This is a teaching and learning process which makes use of the affordances of digital constructionist environments where the observation of the generated behavior (i.e. feedback) its analysis provide the grounds for the formulation of a hypothesis about how the robot works. Example on how to introduce Loops: .Give students a predefined program with a simple loop. The program can inlude one “move” block that results in the following behavior: the robot moves until it detects an object at 20 cm away. Ask from the students to test the program and find out the role of loop and its parameters. [Needs further description: what do we expect students to identify and think about?]Demonstrate by example, perform short excercises, we need to generate from the different types of techhnologies here |
| Duration: | 35 minutes |
| Type: | Experimentation |
| Orchestration: | Group work |
| Teaching Methods: | – |
| Subject Related: | Astronomy |
| Skills Learning Outcomes: | Students will be able to talk about life possibilities on Mars and work with Dash and Dot robots to solve Martian puzzles. |
| Providing examples for hypothesis testingExplain how the robotic kit works | |
| Description: | Instead of employing direct instruction (i.e. introducing loops) to introduce a concept or explain an example, constructionist methodology might focus on providing students with an example and ask them to test it and observe the behavior of the robot with the aim of identifying the role of specific programming concepts and structures like loops. This is a teaching and learning process which makes use of the affordances of digital constructionist environments where the observation of the generated behavior (i.e. feedback) its analysis provide the grounds for the formulation of a hypothesis about how the robot works. Example on how to introduce Loops: .Give students a predefined program with a simple loop. The program can inlude one “move” block that results in the following behavior: the robot moves until it detects an object at 20 cm away. Ask from the students to test the program and find out the role of loop and its parameters. [Needs further description: what do we expect students to identify and think about?]Demonstrate by example, perform short excercises, we need to generate from the different types of techhnologies here |
| Duration: | 0 minutes |
| Type: | Experimentation |
| Orchestration: | |
| Teaching Methods: | – |
| Subject Related: | Astronomy |
| Skills Learning Outcomes: | Students will be able to talk about life possibilities on Mars and work with Dash and Dot robots to solve Martian puzzles. |
Asswssing knowledge gained: The teacher asks open ended questions to the students and gets some of them to demonstrate the solutions found
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