This activity asks students to design an attachment for their robot so that it can better dribble a soccer ball.

The outline of the activity is as follows:

• Try dribbling with the robot as built and time how long it takes to finish. This experience helps to define the problem.

• Design potential attachments by sketching and detailing them. Then receive feedback from peers about which designs they think are best and how to improve them.

• Build the optimal attachment that should allow the robot to dribble the ball more effectively than without it.

• Test the attachment and reflect on if and how the attachment improved dribbling and reduced finishing time.

Notice that the project used for this activity is the Drive project that is already installed on the Robot Brain.

Decide whether you want students to set up their course(s) or you want to set up the course(s).

Direct any student having trouble with powering on, pairing the V5 Controller, or running the Drive program to click on the corresponding links to procedures for doing so.

1. Students should report times no longer than approximately one minute or even one minute and 30 seconds. Times longer than this indicate that the student is having difficulty and should be assisted in practicing better control of the robot at faster speeds.

2. Answers may vary but should include mention that they controlled the speed of the robot, angled the robot to keep the ball from rolling away, or kept turns tight and close to the cones to minimize the distance traveled.

Instruct students to provide feedback in the forms of both an overall impression of the design and suggestions for improving the design.

1. Reported positive feedback could range from the attachment's design is cool/unique to the attachment's design seems effective for dribbling the ball. The best feedback would be that the attachment's design seems effective for retaining control of the ball as the robot moves and turns.

2. Reported negative feedback could range from the attachment's design appearing to be a copy of someone else's (or being generally uninspired) to the attachment's design seeming generally ineffective for dribbling the ball.

3. Answers may vary but should include a specific suggestion by another student and a description of how that influenced the design of the attachment. For example, the suggestion might have been to make the attachment smaller so that the robot doesn't need to drive so far around cones to clear them. The student should then have explained how the original design was scaled back to incorporate that feedback.

4. Ideally, answers to this question should be yes and affirm the benefits of getting new perspectives and opinions about your designs. However, not all students might feel this way. Some might say that fellow students failed to provide feedback that could be implemented in an effective way.

Allow the resources and time for as many attachments to be built for testing as possible below in Step 6. If the resources and time are not available for every student to build their design, have teams choose the top one or two designs.

1. Students' answers should hopefully be yes, that the attachment improved their time to complete the course. However, it is possible that the attachment worsened times by being cumbersome or detaching during operation.

2. Before this test, students improved the concepts of their designs through feedback. Now after physically testing the build, students' ideas about what to improve within the design should be more specific. Do not allow students to further improve and test their builds just yet. They will have another opportunity to do so before playing Robosoccer later in this STEM Lab.

3. This question gets at parts of the first two questions. This question will likely prompt further explanations of what did or did not work well and what students would like to improve.

Q: What did you like about asking peers for feedback?
A: There were likely good suggestions for improvements. It's also good practice to explain your design ideas to others.

Q: What didn't you like about asking peers for feedback?
A: It can be uncomfortable to ask for objective feedback because you take pride in your design(s) and then someone is asked to critique them. It can make the designer feel vulnerable or even offended. Those are completely normal feelings that we all experience but we have to put them aside, make sure to always accept and give constructive positive feedback instead of harsh criticisms, and enjoy collaborations that serve to make our designs better.