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ALL GUIDES


  1. What is a Computer?
  2. Executing a Plan
  3. Practicing Flexibility
  4. Completing a System

  1. Buttons & Breadboards
  2. Basic Inputs & Outputs
  3. Polarity & Audio Output
  4. Parallel Circuits

  1. Intro to Computational Thinking
  2. Loops & Sequences
  3. Events
  4. Programming with Lights & Sounds
  5. Completing Additional PiperCode Projects

  1. Extend in Storymode
  2. Design a Bot & Make Music
  3. Redesign a Stoplight
  4. Engineering Design with Piper

  1. Take Apart and Reflection
  2. Computers in Everyday Life
  3. The Environmental Impact of Computers
  4. Final Design Challenge

  1. What is Color?
  2. How Do We See Color?
  3. How Does the Color Sensor Detect Color?
  4. RGB in Computing

  1. The Water Cycle
  2. What is Temperature?
  3. What Are the States of Matter?
  4. Phase Changes

  1. Motion Introduction
  2. How Do Waves Help Us Understand Patterns?
  3. Creating Devices That Use Data
  4. Graphing Motion

  1. What is Energy?
  2. The Energy Behind Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Make-A-Thon

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Phase 4

Lesson 4.2

Phase 4: Lesson 4.2

Design a Bot & Make Music


45 - 60 mins

Grade 3 - 8
INTRODUCTION
This lesson introduces Design Thinking principles and allows students to explore them by designing their own bot in the Bot Builder MiniGame. Students will also create their own music in the PipHop MiniGame to learn about the engineering for design cycle and how to apply these principles to their goals.

  Print Educator Guide   Lesson Slides    Assessments    Support
GETTING STARTED Lesson Materials Learning Objectives Lesson Preperation
5E INSTRUCTIONS Engage Explore Explain Elaborate Evaluate
Phase Resources Career Connections Graphic Organizer Term Glossary Standards Alignment
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GETTING STARTED

Lesson Materials


Piper Computer Kit

Learning Objectives

The goal of this phase is to empower students to begin elaborating on their first stages of learning in engineering, computer literacy, design, coding, and programming. Students can play further with the STEM concepts first learned by responding to challenges, by extending to create their own media and designs.
Students will:
  1. Use StoryMode MiniGames to extend their design skills by creating music, designing their own skin for the bot, or creating interactive art.
  2. Foster an inclusive computing culture by engaging learners around their personal interests in art, music, and design.
  3. Create artifacts by incorporating smaller portions of existing artifacts to develop something new or add more advanced features.
  4. Create, test, and refine computational artifacts through physical computing.

Lesson Preperation

  • Suggested student-to-kit ratio is 2:1 up to 3:1. Ensure students are in the same teams as before, or make adjustments as necessary to facilitate good teamwork.
  • Make sure Piper kits are built, connected, functioning, and batteries are charged for the Raspberry Pi.
  • Retrieve student team storage boxes with Piper build components.
  • Provide storage devices to teams to hold electronics, such as paper plates, paper cups, or plastic boxes.
  • Plan how much time is left for students to work on the extensions.
PIPER 5E INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL

Engage

Introduction (10-20 Minutes)
  1. Students explore the extension Bot Builder. In this extension, students are able to create the robot of their dreams. Because this is an open-ended project, students can go through multiple iterations of their bot design. Give students a few minutes to play around, and be sure to ask questions related to their choices. For example, you can ask students about the colors they chose and how it could affect their future game experience. Students can record their answers in the Phase 4 Graphic Organizer
  2. Have students share the steps they followed in creating their bots. Possible questions:
    • Did you start with a drawing of your robot?
    • Did you play around with colors?
    • What were the steps to create the robot?
    • How do you think it could be better?
  3. Create a poster of their answers. This will be our initial Design Process, as we will add more steps during the Exploration. Use slides 2-10 to guide student responses.

Explore

Activity (90% of class time)

Students explore Pip Hop. Review Piper Guides for Pip Hop.

This is a good time to ask students about the process they follow in completing the activity.

Explain

Sharing Activity (5 Minutes)

Once teams have completed Pip Hop, have them share their process. How does it compare to their experience with Bot Builder?

Elaborate

Connect to Engineering Design Process (10-15 Minutes)
  1. Tie the problem solving and persistence actions used in building and playing the games to a growth mindset or 21st Century skills they will need to be an engineer in real life.
  2. Combine a few teams together in small groups of 4 to 6. Have teams share the process they followed during both explorations. Assign peer leaders to either document or summarize their group’s ideas. Provide prompts to help them get started:
    • What do we know about it?
    • How do we know that we know it?
    • How did we demonstrate knowledge?
    • What got in the way of learning it?
    • What helped with learning it?
    • How can this knowledge be applied to a real-world engineering problem?

Evaluate

Reflection Activity (5 Minutes)

Have students consider their Design Process poster. What kinds of updates does it need now that you have done Pip Hop? This poster will be used during Lesson 4.3 and 4.4.

PHASE RESOURCES

Career Connections

Civil Engineer: Salary $88,050/yr
Fashion Designer: Salary $76,700/yr
Advertising Executive: Salary $131,870/yr
Sound Engineer: Salary $59,430/yr

Graphic Organizer

Phase 4 DOWNLOAD

Term Glossary


Empathy Understanding and caring about how other people feel or what they are going through. In a STEM occupation, empathy could involve considering how your design or project might impact others and making choices that improve their experience or address their needs.

Engineer Someone who designs, builds, or fixes things to solve problems.

Engineering Design Process A step-by-step way to solve problems and create new things. It includes figuring out what the problem is, brainstorming ideas, planning and designing a solution, building and testing it, and then making improvements.

View Full Glossary

Standards Alignment


We are excited to be aligned with the following standards.


Concepts Standards

Computing Systems: Devices

CA 3-5.CS.1 Describe how computing devices connect to other components to form a system. (P7.2)

6-8.CS.1 Design modifications to computing devices in order to improve the ways users interact with the devices. (P1.2, P3.3)

6-8.CS.2 Design a project that combines hardware and software components to collect and exchange data. (P5.1)

Computing Systems: Hardware & Software

CA 3-5.CS.2 Demonstrate how computer hardware and software work together as a system to accomplish tasks. (P4.4)

6-8.CS.2 Design projects that combine hardware and software components to collect and exchange data. (P5.1)

Computing Systems: Troubleshooting

3-5.CS.3 Determine potential solutions to solve simple hardware and software problems using common troubleshooting strategies. (P6.2)

6-8.CS.3 Systematically apply troubleshooting strategies to identify and resolve hardware and software problems in computing systems. (P6.2)

Algorithms & Programming:

Algorithms

Variables

Control

Modularity

Program Development

3-5.AP.10 Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate. (P3.3, P6.3) (Sensor Explorer lessons)
3-5.AP.11 Create programs that use variables to store and modify data. (P5.2)

3-5.AP.12 Create programs that include events, loops, and conditionals.

3-5.AP.13 Decompose problems into smaller, manageable tasks which may themselves be decomposed. (P3.2)

3-5.AP.14 Create programs by incorporating smaller portions of existing programs, to develop something new or add more advanced features. (P4.2, P5.3)

3-5.AP.17 Test and debug a program or algorithm to ensure it accomplishes the intended task. (P6.2)

3-5.AP.18 Perform different roles when collaborating with peers during the design, implementation, and review stages of program development.

6-8.AP.10 Use flowcharts and/or pseudocode to design and illustrate algorithms that solve complex problems. (P4.1, P4.4)

6-8.AP.11 Create clearly named variables that store data, and perform operations on their contents. (P5.1, P5.2)

6-8.AP.13 Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of programs. (P3.2)

6-8.AP.14 Create procedures with parameters to organize code and make it easier to reuse. (P4.1, P4.3)

6-8.AP.15 Seek and incorporate feedback from team members and users to refine a solution that meets user needs. (P1.1, P2.3)

6-8.AP.17 Systematically test and refine programs using a range of test cases. (P6.1)

6-8.AP.19 Document programs in order to make them easier to use, read, test, and debug. (P7.2)

Impacts of Computing Culture

3-5.IC.20 Discuss computing technologies that have changed the world, and express how those technologies influence, and are influenced by, cultural practices. (P3.1)

6-8.IC.20 Compare tradeoffs associated with computing technologies that affect people's everyday activities and career options. (P7.2)

6-8.IC.21 Discuss issues of bias and accessibility in the design of existing technologies. (P1.2)

Practices

P1. Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture

P2. Collaborating Around Computing

P4. Developing and Using Abstractions

P5. Creating Computational Artifacts

P6. Testing and Refining Computational Artifacts

Data and Analysis

3-5.AP.10 Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate. (P3.3, P6.3) (Sensor Explorer)


Concept Standard

Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.

(4-PS3-2) &(4-PS4-2)

Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another.

(4-PS3-4)

Generate and compare multiple solutions that use patterns to transfer information.

(4-PS4-3)

Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem (Performance Expectation).

3–5-ETS1-2

Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved. (P.E.3.4.7)

3–5-ETS1-3

Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals.

(MS-PS4-3)

Digitized signals (sent as wave pulses) are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information (inputs and outputs).

(MS-PS4-3)

Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

MS-ETS1-2

Optimizing the Design Solution Different solutions need to be tested in order to determine which of them best solves the problem, given the criteria and the constraints.

MS-ETS1.C.



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