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  • 12-18 years old
  • 45 min - 4hrs, 35 min
  • Beginner
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Description

  • Students are asked to program a robot to deliver medication to patients on a hospital floor that they create.

Key Concepts

  • Programming

  • Robot Behaviors

  • Iterative Design

Objectives

  • Apply building directions to create a robot to complete a specific task.

  • Decompose problems into smaller components through systematic analysis, using constructs such as procedures, modules, and/or objects.

  • Differentiate between the movements by the robot to drive forward, drive in reverse, turn left, turn right, and wait.

  • Identify the positive effects robotics has had on the medical field.

Materials needed

  • 1 or more VEX V5 Classroom Starter Kits

  • VEXcode V5

  • Roll of Tape

  • Scissors

  • Meter Stick or Ruler

  • Engineering Notebook

Facilitation Notes

  • Ensure all required parts for the build are available prior to starting this STEM Lab.

  • Make sure that there is ample space in the classroom to measure out and tape the layout of the "hospital floor" that will be used in the activity.

  • Make sure that your robot is configured properly by using the Speedbot (Drivetrain 2-motors, No Gyro) template project in either VEXcode V5 Blocks or Text. If your robot is configured differently, you can make adjustments in the Robot Configuration views.

  • If multiple students will be downloading their saved project to the same robot, have the students add their initials to the name of the saved project (for example, "Drive Forward and Reverse_MW"). This way students can find and make adjustments to their projects and not others.

  • An engineering notebook can be as simple as lined paper within a folder or binder. The notebook shown is a more sophisticated example that is available through VEX Robotics.

  • Students can share their pseudocode with the teacher for feedback prior to creating the project.

  • Students can create and expand on the hospital floor plan to explore different programming options.

  • The approximate pacing of each section of the Stem Lab is as follows: Seek-125 minutes, Play-85 minutes, Apply-15 minutes, Rethink-45 minutes, Know-5 minutes.

Further Your Learning

Math

  • Have students measure how far the robot traveled during the project, and scale that distance to a real hospital floor. If a robot made two trips a day, seven days a week to those patients, how far would it have traveled?

Health

  • Have students conduct further research on medical robots that are used to move supplies, dispense medicine, diagnose patients, or conduct surgical operations.

  • Discuss and debate how changes in technology will affect employment in the medical field.

Educational Standards

Standards for Technological Literacy (STL)

  • 4.I

  • 4.J

  • 6.D

  • 14.G

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

  • HS-ETS1-2

  • HS-ETS1-3

Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA)

  • 2-AP-10

  • 2-AP-13

  • 2-AP-19

  • 3A-AP-21

Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

  • RST.9-10.2

  • RST.9-10.3

  • MP.5

  • MP.6

TEKS

  • 111.39.c.1.C

  • 111.39.c.1.D

  • 126.40.c.3.A

  • 126.40.c.3.B

  • 126.40.c.3.F

  • 126.40.c.3.G

  • 126.40.c.5.A

  • 126.40.c.5.B

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