5th/6th Grade LEAP Curriculum: WIN Period

(3 Week Rotations)

Year 1 Plans of a 2 Year Rotating Curriculum. Year 2 Plans are below

Intro to EDP. Watch "What is an Engineer?" on YouTube LINK (4 minutes, 29 seconds). Discuss Design Process.
Read "Papa's Mechanical Fish"
Introduce task: Students are to create a 'grabber' to rescue the failed Whitefish vessels from under the sea. They can start making a picture for their plan and listing their needed materials.
Next 2 days, work on creating grabber prototypes
Test prototypes in a bucket of water with a weighted down toy car at the bottom of it. Check for successes and challenges. Discuss.
Introduce Cardboard Engineering Challenge. Past challenges include: *Cardboard Arcade (watch Cain's Arcade on YouTube!)
*Marble Runs
*Haunted House
*Museum with Different Rooms
*Family Fun Center with Different Rooms
Work on cardboard engineering. Students should plan, test, and improve.They can use any materials in the Makerspace and add details wtih 3D pens/printer. This will last until the day before the last day of their session.
Present! Play, discuss. Share with other classes. Have fun!

Introduce 'The Hour of Code'. Show one or two of the intro. Videos. LINK Make sure students get logged in with the correct letter code and user name. Go through the first few activities together on the smartboard. Explain that we will use this skill in a few days with the robots in the classroom.
Work on the "Hour of Code' for the next 4-5 days.
Show Dash and Dot robots with accessories (Lego attachments, xylophone, launcher) and show Sphero minis. Present class with a couple of videos that show what the robots can do. Brainstorm different ideas of what students can do to code the robots. (basketball, maze, outline of a shape, cups over sphero minis that act as people, etc.) If students don't want to code a robot, they can attempt the Bloxels or continue with the Hour of Code.
Work on codinig project until the second to last day of the session.
Present the coding projects. Discuss challenges and successes.

Students are working on what they are most interested in. They will speak to the teacher about their plans and a loose idea of what their final products or end-point will look like. Teacher will check in periodically. LINK to idea board.

Year 2 Plans of 2 Year Rotating Curriculum

Introduction to the EDP.
Project: Create a Mini Golf Course. Read through 'Golf-A-Rama: The Wacky 9 Hole Pop-Up Book" Discuss what makes for a good mini golf course. Look at more online pics of mini golf holes, analyze them. Discuss experiences, good and bad at mini golfing.
Set Criteria. (Minimum distance of hole, minimum amount of different materials to be used, needs to include challenges such as windmill, ramp, barrier, tunnels, bridge, water, moveable part, etc., Evidence of creativity and thinking outside of the box, create a golf club, stability of hole, gather data from peers to determine what 'par' the hole is.) Criteria Handout
Work through the design process when constructing the mini golf hole.
Once finished with hole, each group needs to get a certain number of students to test the hole to collect data and determine the 'mean' of the par for the hole. This will also be a test for stability. Par Handout
Host a mini golf day for others to come compete and play. Advertise? Hole Sign and Rules
Later, code spheros through holes if there is time.

Go through appropriate lessons on www.code.org
Code and create with Spheros, Sphero Minis, MBots, Dash and Scratch. Robots Choice Board
Create personal Makey Makey Robots (MeBots) using Scratch and cardboard engineering