Busy middle level students love robots. They also love their free time. It is amazing what they will do if you create a competition and give the winner a little less homework and a little more free time, which is just what I did today.
The entire class was challenged to create a program that caused the robot to make a square. Programs such as this are very challenging for the students, even when the task is modeled using logo. The challenges arise because the students have to learn to convert turning two wheels into a result for the orientation of the robot, which is very tricky.
The students have at least three different approaches, but they don't always see all three. If the students isolate one wheel, they can run trial and error quite quickly and get their exact result.
The students can also conduct trial and error with both wheels, but this is a more complex task.
Students with algebraic reasoning developed have a third option, to use proportional reasoning to solve an equation. If students compare several measurements of how far the robot actually turned to the angle they set in the program, they can make an equation to make the robot turn any degree.
The competition, however, often creates pressure, which makes the students rush to trial and error. This is also common with testing, which is why it is so important to train the students to slow down, consider all of their options and make a good choice. Chess helps a lot with this too.
The winning students, however, used trial and error successfully because they were incredibly cooperative and did not argue with one another. Instead, they increasingly refined their program until they discovered that an angle of 224 degrees of tire rotation completed the trick.
Some examples of a trial run from the winning team...
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