Objectives
Materials
-
General supplies:
White paper (at least a few sheets per group of students)
Chisel tip markers in black, red, green, and blue (make sure the markers are quite bright as darker colours will not be read by the Ozobots – we recommend the Ozobot markers or Crayola chisel tips)
Charging cords or charging hub.
-
Per group of 2-3 students:
Ozobot Bit (Need a class set? If your’re close enough to retrieve equipment from Science World, we have classroom kits available for lending out to local teachers! Sign up for access here.)
Download Color Code and Line Drawing Tips
Download Ozobot Colour Coding challenge cards
Key Questions
-
Which challenge was easy?
-
Which challenge was difficult?
-
Did Ozobot always do what you expected?
-
What advice would you give a “newbie” about drawing codes?
What To Do
Ozobot Safety Notes:
- No water/drinks near Ozobots
- No running near or with Ozobots
- Lift the Ozobot up when moving it. Do not push Ozobots along table/carpet (it will break the Ozobot motors) or allow them to “spin their wheels” while running into the wall, etc.
Advance Preparation:
- Ensure Ozobots are fully charged at the beginning of the activity. Ozobots take about 30-40 minutes to fully charge.
- Have spare sheets of paper available to hand out. Encourage trying multiple things on one sheet of paper.
- Calibrate each ozobot: Have the sheet with the black calibration dot ready. Hold the power button on the Ozobot down for two seconds until the top LED flashes white. Quickly place the Ozobot in the middle of the black calibration dot and let go. If the calibration is successful, the Ozobot will move and then blink green. Start over if the robot blinks red. Robots need to be calibrated once at the beginning of each session
- Students should work in pairs or groups of three.
- Each pair or group should start with one Ozobot, colour code sheets and calibration dot, a piece of white paper, and one black marker.
Activity:
Hand out the Ozobots and ask students to locate the following features: on/off switch, optical sensors, wheels.
Tip: Introduce colours after students are comfortable with drawing lines. Colour codes have to be added as an interruption to the black line, they cannot go over the top of a black line.
Hand out the first two challenge cards to students.
- Challenge 1 Follow the Line: Draw a path for your ozobot to follow
- Challenge 2 – Speed up or Slow Down: change the speed of your ozobot using one extra colour
Once students have successfully demonstrated their solution to Challenge 2, you may wish to allow the groups of students to continue at their own pace
- Challenge 3 – Right or Left: Tell your ozobot which way to turn at an intersection.
- Challenge 4 – Stop! Tell your ozobot to stop without touching it.
- Challenge 5 – Crazy Path: Create a path with at least four codes
Extensions
Other Resources
Science World | Field trip workshops and outreach programs | Tech Up
Ozobot | Colour Coding Tips & Ozobot Colour Coding challenge cards
Ozobot | more challenges and games for ozobot
Ozobot has a thriving educator community and plenty of resources
