Navigating and inspecting the crops
23 of 23 linked standards shown.
| Curriculum area | Linked standards |
|---|---|
| Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Design & Technologies | |
| Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Digital Technologies |
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| General standards |
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| Health and Wellbeing: Mental, Emotional, Social and Physical Wellbeing | |
| Literacy & English: Listening and Talking | |
| Literacy & English: Writing | |
| Numeracy: Number, Money and Measure | |
| Technologies: Computing Science | |
| Technologies: Craft, Design, Engineering and Graphics |
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| Computing, Design and Technology: Computing | |
| Computing, Design and Technology: Design and Technology |
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| International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) |
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| Curriculum area | Linked standards |
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| Elementary Technology Applications: Kindergarten to Grade 2 |
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This lesson will focus on the effect that technology has on current practices. The physical Marty, in the classroom, will replace 'Agrobot' from a prepared text. Learners will gain an appreciation for the amount of technology that is now in place in 21st-century farms. Learners will then have an opportunity to develop a short program to emulate an autonomous tractor, using Blocks Jr.
Awareness of movement blocks, in Blocks Jr
Science, social studies, mathematics, literacy
For this entire lesson, Marty should be on the ground, not on a table.
| Timing | Activity | Possible adaptations |
|---|---|---|
| — | Warm upRead chapter 1 and 2 of Marty's farm story to set the scene for the learning ahead. An optional extra would be to prepare code as you read the text: running code blocks in MartyBlocks Jr may focus learners while telling the story.
Stop after the first chapter and you could ask questions from the following suggestions:
At this point, you could have learners look at the first activity in the workbook and tick the pictures they think are common on a farm, After the second chapter, you could ask questions from the following suggestions:
Learners could revisit the first activity here. |
| Timing | Activity | Possible adaptations |
|---|---|---|
| — | Get LearningShare the objectives with learners from the presentation. Use the Changes in Farming slide to compare jobs done by people and animals in the past with jobs that machines help farmers do today. Ask learners which repeated farm jobs a robot could help with. An optional longer documentary is linked under Additional reading. Tell learners that we will need to build rows of wheat, for the simulation. This will need to be wide enough for Marty to walk between them and stop to check what is growing. Depending on how realistic the wheat is going to be, a lesson could be used to create wheat stalks, alternatively, learners could use water bottles or cut out the images of wheat that are included in the resources; this is what was used for the video in the lesson. If you want learners to create the wheat stalks, this will add time to the lesson. The video in the presentation does not include the code, for the learners to see. You will notice that there is a 'get ready' block between each movement. the reason for this is because when Marty ends each movement, one foot is often ahead of another or not centered; the get ready block brings the feet together and aligns them. It is worthwhile mentioning this. Another talking point is the fact that when Marty returns to the path, after inspecting the wheat, there is a two-step turn: this is to center Marty and prepare him for moving forward to the next stalk of wheat. Marty could move to the left, or go straight ahead, at this point. Remember that different surfaces require different modifications - this video was shot on a rather smooth surface. In Marty mode, Get Ready and the movement blocks are in Motion. Start on Green Flag is in Triggering. The Recommended Blocks slide shows the current blocks and their names. |
| Timing | Activity | Possible adaptations |
|---|---|---|
| — | Cool DownBring learners back together to discuss the challenges they faced and overcame. Have groups model their creations and explain what is happening, when. Encourage other groups to ask questions to deepen the understanding of the processes. Suggested questions you might ask:
Carry out any end of lesson routines. Log off devices and clear everything away. | — |
| — |
Give learners the resources to build the rows and decorate them with wheat stalks. Encourage them to make enough space between the 'rows' so that Marty can walk past them in a straight line but also be able to sidestep and 'inspect' them. One idea would be to use a stack of books or blacks and tape wheat stalks onto to sides of the stack, as shown below.
Once learners have completed the rows of wheat, they need to start planning how to have their agrobot inspect the wheat. The device will need to walk in front of each stalk to inspect, then walk back into the main path to go to the next stalk to inspect it, from the front again. This will require some thinking about distance and number of steps to accomplish this task.
The shorter Marty’s Inspection video in the presentation shows Marty checking the first stalk of wheat, moving right and then left back to the start. The next slide shows the code for this example.
Learners should use their rulers to measure how far Marty needs to move left and right and forward to the next stalk of wheat. Give learners time to plan their code in order to accomplish the repetitive movements.
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| — | Time for PracticeLearners need to work together to estimate or measure lengths and steps, and create code to inspect at least two stalks of wheat. The movements needed will be the forward, back and left / right blocks. Additionally, the turn blocks, turn left and right, can be used to center Marty after returning to the center of the path. The get ready block is used for both centering Marty's feet and pausing to inspect the wheat. Have learners mark a starting spot for Marty because it is expected that they will need to improve on their previous code. | SupportHave learners use rulers or tape to mark the path. Have learners move slowly, one or two steps at one time, and then use the get ready block to center the legs before continuing. The smaller step method would make the estimation task smaller, lots of trial and error would be required but lots of small successes would also be experienced. |
Challenge learners to inspect all of the stalks of wheat. Have learners think about how they could have these movements that are repeating and build a block that lets Marty only inspect the right-hand crops or the left-hand crops. These blocks could be in different 'programs' or they could have separate starting blocks on the same workspace.
