Grade 2 groups program and debug a Bee-Bot route around a set floor course

Grade 2 (Year 3, age 7 to 8) · 40 min · 1 Bee-Bot per group of 3-4

The teacher lays out grid mats, each with a start square, a target (the library, the pond) and two obstacles, and gives each group of three or four a Bee-Bot and a set of arrow cards. Children lay out the cards to plan the route and predict where the Bee-Bot will stop, then take turns to press the sequence in and press Go. When it goes wrong, they step through the cards to find the first wrong move, clear the memory and try again. Each group finishes by laying out the working algorithm in arrow cards and explaining which bug took longest to find.

Why this is Interactive Replace

Children predict, run and debug a sequence against a set course and a fixed target, so they are working with content rather than producing an original artefact. The Bee-Bot stands in for the unplugged robot games the class already plays, where one child follows another's arrow instructions exactly; the plan, predict and test task is the same and the robot adds nothing to it.

Compared with

An unplugged robot game in which one child follows a partner's arrow instructions exactly across a floor grid.

Watch out

If groups design their own course and route for another group to solve, they are producing something original and the lesson becomes Creative.

Tools: Bee-Bot Nine ideas for your own version in Generate

This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and grade. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.

Grade 2 groups program and debug a Bee-Bot route around a set floor course.

Nine ideas for your own version.

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Nine ideas for your own version.