For those of you working with coding, making, or just having fun with robotics here is a fun lesson you can use with your primary grade students and Ozobots.  Recently OzobotEDU sent out a Halloween Activity, but when I played with it I found it a little too complicated for our younger students.  I designed this activity for grade 1.

PART 1:  Ozobot Trick or Treat

Your Ozobot is going trick or treating.  See how many houses it can visit in 30 seconds.  Be careful to avoid the bat!

Print the following template below in color.  Start the Ozobot at the the space marked “Start” (Thank you Captain Obvious!)  Every time the Ozobot passes a house you get one point.  For added fun put a little token or candy on each house.  When the Ozobot passes it, the student picks it up.  After 30 seconds the Ozobot will stop and it’s time for the next student to take their turn.  If the Ozobot runs into the bat it will spin out and the game ends.  When Ozobots come to an intersection they randomly choose a direction, this way each game is a little different.

NOTE: Click on the pictures to access a PDF version of each page.

What do those color codes do?

From the START,

• The first code (Red-Black-Blue–Green) starts a 30 second timer.
• The second (Blue-Black-Blue) sets the speed to FAST.
• The codes at the end of the lines (Blue–Red) tell the Ozobot to turn around and go the other way.
• So does the third code after the START should the Ozobot try to turn back down toward the start again.
• The (Green–Red) code by the bat makes the Ozobot do a little dance and ends the game early.

If you want to know more about Ozobot Codes go to:  http://files.ozobot.com/stem-education/ozobot-ozocodes-reference.pdf

Students may notice a little frustration when the Ozobot doesn’t turn the direction they want it to go.

PART 2: Program the Ozobot with Color

Print the template below in color.  This time, the object is to help the Ozobot find it’s way home.  To do that students must color in the correct codes to tell the Ozobot to turn left, right, or go straight.  When the Ozobot reaches it’s home it will do a little dance.

To color the dots you can use the pens that came with the Ozobots, but I’ve found that Crayola Watercolor Pencils work well too. You only need Green, Red, Black, and Dark Blue.

I’ve also learned that it is easier for younger children to color in the circles, rather than the squares included on many of the teacher templates provided by Ozobot.  From what I’ve experienced, the circles work just as well as the squares do.

If you are curious, here is a link to the OzobotEDU Activity that inspired this simpler version:  https://portal.ozobot.com/lessons/detail/ozobot-trick-or-treat