Coding With Botley in Totara.

We used Botley, a simple coding robot, to put our skills into practice. We needed to learn about left and right, quarter and half turns, clockwise and anticlockwise, as well as estimating how many 'steps' forward a certain distance might be. We practised being human robots, giving one another clear directions to reach a specific spot.  By the end of our unit, we are all able to work in a small group to programme a multi-stepped code into Botley so that he can travel from one spot to another, avoiding at least one obstacle.

We also tried out his line following abilities and drew our own shapes for him to follow. We had to do lots of problem solving and work together, to make sure that the line was thick enough and that it joined neatly, without a gap, to the one before, so that Botley could travel along it. We have also explored a Bee Bot simulation app on the iPads, where you code the bee to move along a pathway or a maze. We designed some of our own too.