Before You Begin

Essential Questions: 

• How do robots make decisions? 

Unit Understandings:

• Decisions can be made by checking conditions and asking questions.
• Behaviors can be repeated indefinitely, or for a finite number of times.
• Moving the robot using the One Stick Controller can be incorporated into a VEXcode project.
• Using comments in your code helps you organize your project.

Standards Alignment

Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA)

• 1B-CS-02: Model how computer hardware and software work together as a system to accomplish tasks.
• 1B-AP-10: Create programs that include sequences, events, loops, and conditionals.
• 1B-AP-11: Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process.
• 1B-AP-12: Modify, remix, or incorporate portions of an existing program into one's own work, to develop something new or add more advanced features.
• 1B-AP-17: Describe choices made during program development using code comments, presentations, and demonstrations.
• 2-AP-12: Design and iteratively develop programs that combine control structures, including nested loops and compound conditionals.
• 2-AP-19: Document programs in order to make them easier to follow, test, and debug.
• 3B-AP-09: Implement an artificial intelligence algorithm to play a game against a human opponent or solve a problem.

View additional standards from ISTE, Common Core, NGSS, and other standards bodies as well as descriptions of how and where each of these standards are met in this unit here.

Materials Needed (per group):

• VEX AIM Coding Robot
• One Stick Controller
• 2 orange barrels
• 2 blue barrel
• 2 sports ball
• All AprilTag IDs
• AIM Field (4 tiles and 8 walls)
• Journal

To learn more about teaching AI concepts with VEX, visit teachai.vex.com.

Suggested Time for this Unit: 4-7 Sessions

While pacing will vary classroom to classroom, suggested timing can help you plan effectively. A ‘session’ is considered approximately 45-50 minutes. You know your students best, so adjust timing as needed to best meet the needs of your students in your setting.

• Introduction: 1 session
• Lesson 1: 1-2 sessions
• Lesson 2: 1-2 sessions
• Lesson 3: 1-2 sessions

After students have watched the video, follow your routines for facilitating a whole-class discussion to elicit students' initial ideas and questions about the Capstone Challenge. The goal of this unit is to get students prepared for the Capstone, so there is not a separate unit challenge. Encourage students to share what they feel they still need or want to know more about, and record those responses to guide your facilitation throughout the unit. 

Next, help students make a real-world connection to the content in this unit, and engage their prior knowledge using the following prompt: 

What are some examples of sensor-based decision making in everyday life? How is coding your robot similar or different? Answers will vary, and could include things like: 

• A thermostat that turns air conditioning on or off depending on the temperature detected.
• A smart traffic light that changes based on the detected traffic.
• A self-driving car that stops when it detects a stop sign or pedestrian.
• A wind sensor on an awning that retracts the awning automatically if strong winds are detected.

Guide students as a whole class through the process of co-creating learning targets.

1. Brainstorm with students what they will need to know to complete the activities shown in the video above. Frame these as “I can” statements. 
   1. Example “I can” statements for this unit include: 
      1. I can code the robot to move to a specific location based on the object that is detected.
      2. I can use AI Vision to help me drive the robot to a specific AprilTag ID.
   2. Co-create learning targets based on that list.

For more guidance on co-creating learning targets with your students, see this VEX Library article. Then, go further and learn more about co-creating learning targets with this lesson from a VEX PD+ Masterclass.