Geraldine on the Mailing list shared a fantastic simple little activity she did with her students.

Just a very simple idea that is working well for me in my workshops, I am sorry if you have already come up with this idea yourself!!!

I get Y6 children (age 10-11) to attach a bulb to the back of Damien’s domabot build and then instruct them to ensure it is lit any time that the robot is reversing. This then leads on, to a road safety discussion and it is surprising that the majority of these children don’t realise that cars have reversing lights to warn them that they are about to reverse.

Full discussion here

This prompted a bit of a discussion about how such a project could lead on to other subjects.  Geraldine didn’t share exactly the program she used, but based on her idea, this is what I came up with.

The first line will play a note (G) for 0.5 seconds, then wait for 0.5 seconds.  The whole thing is repeated 4 times.

The second line has the robot reversing for 4 seconds at 20 percent power.

The third line uses the Light Sensor block, not to take a measurement, but to toggle the ‘Generate Light’ function that is used when using the Light Sensor in either Ambient or Reflected mode.

Becasue all three lines run on their own sequence bar, they will be executed in parallel, that is, the robot will reverse, beep and flash the light all at exactly the same time.

I then turn the whole thing into a MyBlock, so I can use it whenever I want.  This program will have the robot drive up to an obstacle, run the reversing block, turn a bit and then go driving to find the next obstacle.

If you’re interested, I’ve document the whole process in the video below 🙂  (Make sure you watch in HD)