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Think Before you Walk! Safe Travel Skills

45 Minutes

Lesson Overview

This is the fifth of five lessons that focus on literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional learning in the context of THRIVING in challenging circumstances.

In this lesson, students will explore the effect of changing a digit, its place and its value on the time taken for Marty to complete a movement. To investigate the link between time, speed and distance. Students will then use MartyBlocks motion blocks to code Marty to move different speeds by varying Marty's step length and time. Students will copy Marty's movements to build safe travel skills.

Key vocabulary:
    Programming, Block coding, Time, Length, Speed, Digit, place, value, Decimal fraction,

Content Sections

  • Learning Objectives
    1. Extensions & Challenges
      1. Additional Reading
      2. Think Before you Walk! Safe Travel Skills

        45 Minutes

        Lesson Overview

        This is the fifth of five lessons that focus on literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional learning in the context of THRIVING in challenging circumstances.

        In this lesson, students will explore the effect of changing a digit, its place and its value on the time taken for Marty to complete a movement. To investigate the link between time, speed and distance. Students will then use MartyBlocks motion blocks to code Marty to move different speeds by varying Marty's step length and time. Students will copy Marty's movements to build safe travel skills.

        Key vocabulary:
          Programming, Block coding, Time, Length, Speed, Digit, place, value, Decimal fraction,
        • Knowledge of block parameters, loops and conditional statements
        • Tablet
        • Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing across learning
          • How to get started with Marty Blocks
          • Educator FAQ
          • Marty the Robot V2 - Educators Guide

        Learning Objectives

        • To explore the effect of changing a digit, its place and its value on the time taken for Marty to complete a movement and Marty's speed.
        • Use MartyBlocks to carry out a practical task investigating the link between time, speed and distance coding Marty to move different speeds by varying step length and time.
        • Copy Marty's movement to build safe travel skills.
        • Ask students to share how they travel to school and brainstorm the ways that they stay safe from traffic when they arrive outside school
        • Students need access to MartyBlocks code to explore the effect of changing the time taken for Marty to complete two different movements by applying their knowledge of the terms digit, place and value.
        • Ask students to code Marty to go for a short walk varying the length of Marty's steps to see the effects on travel speed.
        • Students should apply their learning to work out how to make Marty travel faster and further by changing the numbers that control Marty's walking.
        • Challenge students to copy Marty's walking movements to further explore how changing step length and time affect their own travel speed!

        Extensions & Support

        • Students could make a start and finish line for Marty, estimate how long it would take Marty to travel that distance at a fast and slow walking speed, then measure the time taken using a stopwatch.
        • Students could look up the typical speed of different modes of transport such as walking, bicycle, car, train, tram and plane and share their findings.

        Additional Reading

        • How to get started with MartyBlocks
        • Educator FAQ
        • Marty the Robot V2 - Educators Guide

        • Technologies: Computing Science
        • Literacy & English: Listening and Talking
        • Health and Wellbeing: Mental, Emotional, Social and Physical Wellbeing
        • Numeracy: Number, Money and Measure
        • Computing, Design and Technology: Design and Technology
        • Computing, Design and Technology: Computing
        • CSTA Education Standards
        • Elementary Technology Applications: Grade 3 to Grade 5
        • Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Digital Technologies
        • International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)