Sphero Mini Golf Challenge
Sixth grade students completed the Sphero Mini Golf Challenge as a review of the forces and motion unit in science. We talked about Newton’s three laws of motion and how different forces such as gravity, inertia, and friction impacted the way the Sphero robot rolled through the golf course. We also discussed computational thinking and the iterative design process where the students would build one piece of their program at a time and test it before going on to build the second piece of their program.
In addition to the math and science concepts we covered, students also learned perseverance. The iterative design process and trial and error methods taught them not to fear failure. They actually see the word F.A.I.L. as an acronym for First Attempt In Learning. Students adjusted their code through multiple attempts until achieving success. It was a really great lesson in perseverance.
One student expressed, “What I liked about the project was that it was a way to experience coding and being able to problem solve. It was really engaging because we could figure it out on our own.”
Another student said, “We could keep doing it over and over. We will mess up many times, but we can fix that. And soon we’ll get it right. It was a really fun experience!”
When most of the students had successfully programmed their robots to make it around the entire golf course, we turned off the lights and watched the colorful LED lights inside the Sphero robots glow as they rolled around the room.
Written and Submitted by: Heather Shaffer
