Students give written directions for their pairs. The idea of the exercise is that students learn how to give simple and unambiguous instructions. Instructions have to be given in a certain order, or the human robot won’t do the task correctly.
| Subject | Mathematics, Physical Education |
| Length | 90 minutes (2 x 45 minutes) |
| Pedagogical Approach | Haptic Learning |
| Competences | Decomposition |
| Grades | 3rd-6th grade |
| Technologies | No Technology |
Other Materials Needed
Pen and paper. There is a lot of movement in this exercise and some space is needed. If the classroom is small, the exercise can be held in the gym or even outdoors.
Target competencies of the excercise
- Students learn why precise and unambiguous instructions are important.
- Students understand that instructions must come in a certain order, otherwise the robot will not be able to complete the task
- Students learn simple principles of programming languages
- Students notice the importance of common language and unambiguous words
- Students learn the idea of conditional sentences in programming
- Students learn debugging
Description
Students work in pairs. Students come up with some task that the robot will perform. One student writes the instructions to the robot and the robot follows the instructions as they are written. For example, the task may be to lift the book off the floor on the other side of the classroom.
Introduction:
Students are told about the principles of programming languages (Appendix 1) and how the language they use should be so unambiguous that the machine cannot misunderstand it in any way. The lesson exercise is introduced to the students and together they discuss how the instructions could be communicated to the other student as accurately and unambiguously as possible. Students should be reminded that the robot should follow the instructions completely and accurately.
Exercise 1:
Students are paired, one being a programmer and the other a robot. The programmer decides what he wants the robot to do. For example, a robot may be tasked with getting up from a chair and walking into a corner of a classroom to wash their hands. The instruction assumes the student is sitting, so first the robot is told to get up, turn left, take a step, turn right, take 8 steps, turn right, take five steps, bend over, open the faucet, put your hands under water and rub your hands. Of course, the instructions do not immediately produce a result, and the robot can end up rubbing its hands at the wrong end of the class. The goal is to correct the instructions and try again until most of the class is successful in the task.
Discussion:
After the groups have tried the robot programming, the exercise is discussed under the guidance of a teacher.
Facilitating questions: Was the guidance successful? What was difficult about programming? Did the robot just obey the instructions or did he “help” the programmer by interpreting the instructions? Did the robot do as it was told by the programmer? What was difficult being a robot? Why was it difficult to get the message across? Could the programming of the robot be made easier by giving the conditional sentence instead of the exact number of steps: “If you are not in front of the sink, take a step and return to the beginning of this line”?
Exercise 2:
The same pairs continue, but they change roles. Usually, the second time is immediately faster and it is easier for students to communicate movements because of more precise terms. The teacher can observe that each group tries to use the conditional sentence at least once. Once students understand how to do the easy tasks, they can do more difficult tasks or even make the robot jump with one leg as part of the journey.
Closing discussion:
Once every student has been a programmer and a robot, the exercise can be completed. Usually, however, this takes a couple of hours to comfortably. After the exercises, students can discuss together how the exercise went. The teacher can still remind that computers need complete instructions that can only be understood in a certain way.
Appendix 1
Programming languages work at different levels. The simplest languages are so-called assembly languages and they are different on different hardware. They control the placement of numbers in memory addresses or add them together. Higher-level programming languages automate assembly language production and can be used to write programs on any machine. The most modern languages are almost like English and the machine can automatically interpret it into a format that the computer can understand.
Programs are often written with dedicated programming programs (IDE, Integrated Development Environment) that can be used to test the code and suggest improvements to the written program code.
Computers are very sensitive to instructions and cannot interpret what a commander means unless he or she says exactly what he or she wants. Sometimes a program is accidentally programmed to rotate the perimeter, and the computer does not understand how to get out of it. The program will only continue and continue rotating until it is turned off.
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