Around the Cup
- In order to complete this challenge, students program their robots to do a U-turn around a cup that is placed 40" from the starting line, and then return to the starting line. The robot that completes the challenge in the shortest period of time is the winner.
- This challenge started with a conversation about how vehicles turn. Students recalled that we turn cars by directing the wheels to turn using a steering wheel.
- Since the wheels on a robot are fixed, we need another way to turn. After some discussion, students recognized the way to turn our robots is to have one wheel moving while the other is stopped. In Lego programming, turning is best accomplished through a motor block, since it gives the ability to control one motor/wheel at a time.
- Students then worked on programming their robots to determine the best/fastest way to complete the challenge.
- We ran into some technical difficulties with our computers; however one robot was still able to able to fully complete the challenge! Each of the other robots came close to finishing!