We’ve designed a workshop that will not only give your students a fun introduction to a coding language appropriate for their level, but also help them to develop valuable engineering skills, communication skills, team work and resilience. Students will learn how to use a BBC micro:bit to control a robot buggy and explore the importance of testing and improving their designs.

For LKS2, this workshop will be run using MakeCode (a graphical coding language similar to Scratch). They will write algorithms so that their buggy can follow a maze-like path on the ground, working together to test and improve their code.

For UKS2, this workshop is designed as an introduction to the text-based coding language Python .They will write algorithms so that their buggy can follow a maze-like path, and record its progress using a pen attachment – creating some amazing robotic artwork!

This session can be run in either:

1. A classroom with accessible plug sockets
2. A computer suite with space to test buggy designs

Curriculum links:

PRIMARY National Curriculum – Computing

• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals, including controlling or simulating physical systems; solve problems by decomposing them into smaller parts
• use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output
• use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs

Documents:

• Risk Assessment for micro:bot mazes

Contact our schools team with any questions on [email protected].