Team Enterprise Project Launch

aielloc
Jan 8, 2020
2 min read

On Tuesday 4th and 5th Graders from Team Enterprise launched their latest PBL unit with a Sphero Challenge. Collaborative groups were tasked with creating a route for their School Bus (a Sphero robot) to get from Franklin Elementary to a designated location in a scaled part of our class or hallway. Each group was given a printed out copy of a GPS generated map that displayed a specific route. For example, one group was asked to mimic the route from Franklin to Discovery World, while another created the route from Franklin to Shalom Wildlife Preserve.

All groups were given a Sphero, a round protractor, tape to design the route and guide their "bus", their designated map/route, as well as their iPads with the Sphero Edu app.

They had roughly 10 minutes to map out the general route by showing estimated distances, turns, and angles with the supplied tape. Orienting their map and perspectives was challenging for some groups, but they figured it out! Upon completing their route they were able to began programming. With block coding, they needed to set speed, distance by second, and angle for their "bus" to follow in order to safely and successfully traverse the route.

As we circulated, Mr, Pollard, Ms. Kozinski, and I all commented on the amazing collaboration we observed. Students discussed their thoughts and opinions respectfully, questioned one another thoughtfully, collaborated with ease on tasks meant for individuals, and delegated roles diligently. Its clear that Team Enterprise has been working on collaborating and communicating effectively throughout this school year and for many last year as well.

Launch events are designed to peak students' curiosity through an activity related to the new project or unit before actually being introduced to said new project. Please see next post to find out what students will be embarking on and the Need to Know Questions they generate.