Experiences, School

KIBO Obstacle Bowling Activity

Contributed by: Kelly Knight, teacher at Riverside Presbyterian Day School in Jacksonville, FL, http://www.rpds.com

KIBO Obstacle Bowling Activity

2nd graders put their coding knowledge to the test in the ultimate game of “obstacle bowling!” Teams of 3 worked together to first code their KIBOS to go and hit down as many bowling pins (paper towel rolls) as possible. Here, they learned the importance of aim, as well as the concept of scanning the same block multiple times (or using the repeat blocks) in order to get the KIBO from one end of the lane to the other.

Once students successfully programmed their robot to get to the end of the lane and knock down the pins, an obstacle was added. We used a beanie baby toy. Groups then had to create a much more complex code sequence and use trial and error to successfully avoid hitting the beanie baby then making it to the end of the lane to hit down their pins. Students exclaimed that it was “hard but fun!”

Tip: Give your students dry erase boards and markers so that they can keep track of their codes as they go through the testing stage of the challenge.

Check out a video of the students’ bowling success at Kelly’s Twitter feed.

P.S. Our new KIBO Activity Center Guidebook includes a lesson plan on KIBO Bowling.

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