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Easter Lesson - Marty's Easter Dash

45 Minutes

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, students will split up into teams and race each other to collect more symbols than the other team that have been randomly placed on the game board. Students will need to plan out a route taking into consideration how close the symbols are that they want and what other obstacles may be in the way before programming Marty to follow this route.

Key vocabulary:
    Script, Environment , Obstacles, Algorithm, Planning, Sequence,

Content Sections

  • Learning Objectives
  • Extensions & Challenges
    • Additional Reading
    • Easter Lesson - Marty's Easter Dash

      45 Minutes

      Lesson Overview

      In this lesson, students will split up into teams and race each other to collect more symbols than the other team that have been randomly placed on the game board. Students will need to plan out a route taking into consideration how close the symbols are that they want and what other obstacles may be in the way before programming Marty to follow this route.

      Key vocabulary:
        Script, Environment , Obstacles, Algorithm, Planning, Sequence,
      • Lessons 1.1 & 1.2
      • Laptop, PC or Tablet
        • Marty the Robot
        • Laptops/Computers/Tablets
        • Access to either Scratch or Python editor
        • Game board or tape/paper to make your own
        • Symbols cut out to be placed on the board
        • Challenge cards

      Learning Objectives

      • Plan a route for Marty to take around a game board, taking into consideration the symbols that they want to pick up and what other obstacles may be in the way
      • Program Marty to carry out this plan and reflect on the plan afterwards to think about how they could improve their approach

      1. Setup the game board either using the board/mat layout provided or by making your own using paper/tape. Randomly place some or all of the symbols on different spaces around the board

      2. Break class up into teams of around 3-4 students, each with their own Marty

      3. Two teams at a time can play so you can either have multiple boards around the classroom or one that everyone watches and takes turns playing on

      a. Place the two Marty’s at opposite sides of the board

      b. Ask students to take some time to test and workout how many steps it will take their Marty to get from one space to another or how many steps certain turns will take that they might want to use

      4. Show teams the selected challenge card (either starting with 1 symbol cards to practice, working your way up to 5 symbol cards or doing a random mix of any of the cards)

      5. Give them 10-15 minutes to prepare, thinking about what route they are going to take and programming Marty to carry out that route

      6. Game time! Both teams start up their scripts at the same time and see who can collect the most symbols from the challenge card

      a. You might want to ask additional students to act as referees to make sure that both of Marty’s feet are on the space before collecting the symbol

      7. Ask students to reflect on how their team did afterwards – what went well and what didn’t? Is there anything that they would change?

      Extensions & Support

      • To make things even trickier, only show the student teams the challenge card once for a few seconds and ask them to try and remember which symbols they need to collect!
      • Ask students how they would improve the game or what changes they would make, get them to plan this (using our game planning worksheet) and test it with other students in the class

      Additional Reading

      • Marty’s Easter Race: How to Play
      • Educator’s Guide
      • Introduction to Programming with Marty using Scratch/Python (depending on which language is being used in the lesson)