Pre-Lesson Preparation

The key blocks for this exercise are described in the teacher guide. There is no need to prepare any code prior to the lesson but the following code is what you will be working with. Each of the code blocks is in the movement section and they all have the same degree but differing times. Likewise, stand straight has different times. The other option you could demonstrate is having a fixed time and differing degrees for the angle of movement.

Warm-Up

Share with learners the objectives and success criteria for the day's lesson, from slide 2 of the presentation in the educator resource section; perhaps display this before the lesson starts and keep it displayed until another slide is needed.

Play a game called traffic lights. This will benefit from an open space, so we recommend carrying out this part of the lesson either outside or in a hall.

Below is the procedure for the game

Preparation:

1. If you are able to get outside or access the hall, learners can either line up to try and get to the other side of an area or stand in a space by themself and be prepared to move in random directions, after hearing key words. If you are inside for this activity, have each learner in a space where they can stand in their own space and move on the spot.

2. You will explain that there are words you will say to get learners moving:

• Green light has learners move quickly.
• Amber or Yellow light has learners move slowly.
• Red light has learners stop.
• Additional key words could be 1st - 4th gear for an increase in speed; reverse, if outside or in the hall; traffic jam, which is slower than the yellow light.

Get Learning

Take time to talk about the comparisons in how they felt with the movement game. Record how much energy they felt they used when moving at different speeds. Record adjectives on the board, these could be used later on in the lesson.

Show slides 3 and 4 from the presentation. These two videos show the effect of speed on energy. To expand on this, the videos show that an object that travels farther takes longer to reach its destination, which translates to its speed. When an object takes longer to travel a distance than another of the same object traveling the same distance, it has less kinetic energy. Reinforce that kinetic energy is the energy of a moving object.

• The first video shows 3 cars engaged in a crash test. The first car hits an obstacle at 50 km/hr, the second at 70 km/hr and the third at 90 km/hr.
• The energy of each car causes it to continue traveling forward even after contacting the obstacle.
• The car traveling the fastest, the 90 km/hr one, has the most energy and continues to travel the farthest after hitting the obstacle.
• The second video showcases an archer who explains a description as to why an arrow pierces a target sometimes and why an archer does not pierce one at other times.

Discuss with learners the different parts of the system of the car crash that affect the energy of the object.

• How far did the car travel?
• How fast did the car travel?
• How long did it take the car to travel the distance?

Through discussion, learners should be helped to see that the faster the car, so long as the car remains the same (the same mass), the more energy it has because the car is able to travel the same distance more quickly. There is a small activity in the workbook that asks learners to draw a bigger or smaller arrow depending on the distance the object moves in a set amount of time. The example videos feature an arrow and a car.

Time for Practice

Present Marty to learners. Let learners see Marty move their arm from 0° to 135° in 1 seconds. Then show them the same movement with less time - the suggestions in the video below are 1 second, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.1 seconds as illustrated in the pre-lesson preparation. Ask learners to discuss and decide which of Marty's movements had more energy. Ask learners to describe why they think so. Continue this by modeling Marty as they are shown in the video, below.

Following the display of Marty's arm moving at different speeds, show learners slide 5 from the presentation. Ask them what they see on the pictured blocks. The number of steps and time are both set to 1, the length of each step is empty. In the workbook, learners will need to complete an experiment: learners will need to use different values to program Marty to walk and create a more or less energetic Marty. They will need to think of something to prove, regarding Marty's energy in relation to speed and time. There are questions in the workbook to support this task. For the procedure of the presentation, learners need to decide on a total distance Marty will need to walk and make a mark on the floor or somewhere on a desk, with enough space. For the observation, there are a few steps learners will need to complete:

• have Marty walk a certain number of steps with a set step length and time for each step, making sure that they walk at least the marked distance, it is OK to walk farther than this
• record the values they chose for each measurement and how long it takes Marty to walk the distance from the start to the finish
• change one of step length or step time; inform learners that if they are going to decrease step length, they will need to increase number of steps
  • it is important that learners do not change the step length and the step time
• record the new values they chose for each measurement and how long it takes Marty to walk the distance from the start to the finish
• repeat this process until learners can determine what effect the changes make to the energy Marty displays

Take time to walk around the room asking learners about their thoughts regarding the different values they can use to move Marty and the effect it has on their energy.

Click to see some examples of Marty walking with different values in the walk block.

Here are the values used for the walk block:

Cool Down

Bring learners back together to discuss if they found anything interesting or difficult about changing the energy levels Marty displayed (some may have pushed Marty's speed beyond the ability to stay balanced, much like us, Marty can only travel so fast).

Suggested questions you might ask:

• What value did you change?
• What was the fastest step you were able to have Marty take?
• What was the longest step?
• What was the longest and fastest combination for a group?
• It might be interesting to compare two or more Martys to see which is more energetic - which one gets to the finish line first - and look at the values from the code blocks.

If you use a formative assessment strategy, like thumbs up or thumbs down, use that here to get a feel for learner confidence with the topic.

Carry out any end of lesson routines.