NPHS Programming 1: Term 3: Week 3: Robotics Assessment

Well, good to see everybody survived the snow day!  Programming 1 students are working on their robotics with the finch robots again this week.  We have been working with various loop and timing concepts and utilizing them with the sensors on our finch robots.  We will finish with our assessment that covers our standard CIS.HS.7.22: Develop and use abstractions in computational artifacts.  Students will use our development cycle to create an application that allows users to use our robots as motion input controls for a pong-style video game that they will create.  Students will need to develop pseudocode that they will use as a guide to help them work their way through this problem.

Below is a little clip of a blue and gold salute to public schools that we did in class using the programmable LED light in our robots.

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/956205108504784896

We will finish up with robots on Friday or Monday with a team-building/competition with our robots that classes always have a fun time with.  We will then be ready to move on to Python Programming!

programming 1: term 3: week 2: finch bots

We have created our first program today!  After learning about the development cycle, students used a block-based programming environment to program a maze.  When their user-controlled image sprite touches a border or obstacle, it goes back to the starting spot.  Students are going to use this same environment for the next few weeks to manipulate input and output of finch robots.  This is a simple style of programming that allows students to focus on the problem-solving aspect and fundamentals of programming.  This way, when we get to using Python later, the learning curve will be much more manageable.  It's been a lot of fun so far, but we are really starting to get to doing some cool things this week!