Here is my last post regarding the educational lesson plans one can get for free after receiving/purchasing their Sphero. Essentially, what the Sphero is, is a robotic ball, that a person can program to move in any direction and light up in any color. Also, there are a bunch of educational apps, games, and augmented reality activities one can do. Did I mention that it's waterproof too?*All data will be recorded by the student in the downloadable worksheet.
Objective (aligned to Common Core Math Standards)
- Create an OrbBasic program to roll Sphero in a circle once, using a variable to store the heading
- Modify the program w/ an if/then statement to fix an error and make it go in a circle indefinitely
- Modify the program w/ an if/then/else statement to light up one color half the circle, and another color the other half
- Modify the program to increase the size of the circle at the end of each cycle
Programming w/ OrbBasic
Students will need to make the Sphero roll in a circle by programming it using the OrbBasic (free) app. It will need to move a short distance and increase the heading by 5 degrees. It uses the variable called h which starts at 0 and keeps getting larger. When it hits 360 an error message occurs because the values must between 0-360. This causes the Sphero to roll in a circle once then keep going in a straight line. To fix the error, students will add a new line w/ an if/then statement which checks to see if the h variable has a value of 360, and if it does it will set it back to 0, causing the Sphero to roll in a circle indefinitely.
Adding Color
In this lesson students will learn about if/then/else statements, which will do one command if something is true, and another one if it is not. For this example, it checks to see if h is < 180, and if it does then it lights up one color, if it's not, it lights up a different one. Students will use the LEDC command in OrbBasic to light up a color by selecting a number. The student guide has which number relates to which color, as well as breaks down all programming codes.
I highly recommend checking out Sphero for education by clicking here!!!
For my Pinterest board on the Sphero click here.
