How often have we seen rubbish littering the ground at school and throughout our community? Perhaps robots could be used to help with our litter dilemma. Sphero BOLT is a fully programmable robot, which is an excellent STEM based tool. In this design thinking challenge, students will design and create a device to clean-up rubbish using Sphero Bolts. This session promotes creativity, problem solving, imagination, collaboration, and communication skills.

No prior knowledge required.

Duration: 1.5 hours per group

How can we effectively use Sphero Bolt to clean up rubbish?

In this program students will:

• Create a litter clean-up device that can fit on Sphero Bolt
• Learn how to use block coding with Sphero Bolts
• Learn how to create an image & animate that image on the matrix and how to apply sounds
• Share information about rubbish
• Learn how to block code the Sphero Bolt to move around collecting rubbish

Students will:

• Block code a Sphero Bolt
• Create an animated image on a Sphero Bolt
• Plan a path for a Sphero Bolt, considering angles and bearings, speed and time
• Reuse items that would normally be thrown away to make a device that fits over the Sphero Bolt that can be used to clean up rubbish on the ground

Science – Science as a human endeavour

• Scientific knowledge changes over time, often resulting from collaboration or by building on the work of others, and leads to advances in science (VC2S6H01)
• Scientific knowledge, skills and data can be used by individuals and communities to identify problems, consider responses and make decisions (VC2S6H02)

Science – Science inquiry

• Equipment can be used to observe, generate, measure and record data with reasonable precision for repeated measurements, using digital tools as appropriate (VC2S6I03)
• Scientific ideas, findings, patterns, trends and relationships can be communicated for a specific purpose and audience, using various presentation formats, scientific vocabulary and digital tools as appropriate (VC2S6I06)

Digital Technologies – Creating digital solutions

• Implement algorithms as visual programs involving control structures, variables and input (VC2TDI6C04)
• Evaluate existing and student-created solutions against the requirements and their broader community impact (VC2TDI6C05)