Grade 7: Programming and Robots Grade 7 students are currently working on a programming and coding unit on LEGO Mindstorm NXT Robots, With the first stage of the design cycle compote, inqulring and analysing, there is a mix of excitement and cconcem. Students are excited about the possibilty of creating a robot that they can build and control, wile ‘others are concerned that they will not be able to write a successful program or that their robot will not work as panned. This is al part of tne keratve process, also known as trial and error. When students wrte a program ‘on a computer, there are no consequences unt they actually "un" or ‘execute the program. Once the robot hhas received the programmed instructions, students will prass the statt button on the robot and wil beable to ‘800 f it porforms as expected. Somatimas rebate orash into walls when thoy aren't supposed to, and ‘sometimes they tum left instead of ight. This is part of the fun and learning experience as students iterate (efne their code) unti they achieve the desired results. ‘So fa, there are plans for an “Inchworm “batllebot,” and “standard” robots thal havea variety ofsensorsto [Search allow them to navigate caretuly along paths or avoid cbstzcles. Some 7th graders are thinking about rea-world ‘applications, iko Marin whe cays, thoro “is a vohico (that) can lay down a bridge for ito, and driv ovar tho bridge. Then, itcan pick the bridge back up, and cary It somewhere els. | think this isa realy awesome idea, ‘and think it ould be brought to real Ife. If we had 2 vehice (Ike) that, we coud do a lat of things. We could transport vehicles over clifs or rivers easily wit this vehicle.” The robots are nearly assembled and in 2 fow ‘weeks (mid-March) the G7s willbe wrting their programs,