SPIKE™ Essential
Boat Trip
Maria and Sofie are going on a boat trip! How will they get their boat into the water?
30-45 min.
Beginner
Grades 1-2
Prepare
- Review the Boat Trip lesson in the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App.
- If necessary, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: challenge, change, program, push, and robot.
- Consider the abilities and backgrounds of all your students. Differentiate the lesson to make it accessible to everyone. See the Differentiation section below for suggestions.
- If time allows, plan and facilitate the language arts extension. See the Extension section below for more information.
Engage
(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)
- Facilitate a quick discussion about following a plan to complete an activity.
- Talk with your students about how they'd put on clothing to go outside.
- Ask questions, like: What would you do first? What would you do next?
- Introduce your students to the story’s main characters and the first challenge: pushing the boat into the water.
- Distribute a brick set and a device to each group.
Explore
(Small Groups, 30 Minutes)
- Have your students use the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App to guide them through their first challenge:
- Make and try the program that pushes the boat into the water.
- Have your students iterate and test their models to complete the next challenge in the app:
- Change the program to make the robot better.
- You can find coding support in the Tips section below.
Explain
(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)
- Gather your students together to reflect on their completed challenges.
- Ask questions, like: What's the first thing you did to get the boat into the water? How did you change the program to make the robot better?
Elaborate
(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)
- Prompt your students to discuss and reflect on the process of following instructions.
- Ask questions, like: Why is it important to follow instructions? What happens if the steps are out of order?
- Have your students clean up their workstations.
Evaluate
(Ongoing Throughout the Lesson)
- Ask guiding questions to encourage your students to “think aloud” and explain their thought processes and reasoning in the decisions they've made while building and programming.
Observation Checklist
- Measure your students’ proficiency in following instructions to create a program.
- Create a scale that matches your needs. For example:
- Needs additional support
- Can work independently
- Can teach others
Self-Assessment
- Have each student choose the brick that they feel best represents their performance.
- Yellow: I think I can follow instructions to create a program.
- Blue: I can follow instructions to create a program.
- Green: I can follow instructions to create a program, and I can help a friend do it too.
Peer-Feedback
- In their small groups, have your students discuss their experiences working together.
- Encourage them to use statements like these:
- I liked it when you…
- I'd like to hear more about how you…
Tips
Coding Tip
- After your students complete their first challenge, they'll be provided with three Inspiration Coding Blocks to help them modify their programs.
- The Inspiration Coding Blocks are intended to spark their imaginations as they experiment to find their own solutions.
Differentiation
Simplify this lesson by:
- Reading the Boat Trip story and instructions from the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App aloud to your students
- Shortening the lesson to only include the first challenge
Increase the difficulty by:
- Creating a different way for the boat to get into the water
- Clicking Show Full Palette in the app to utilize more Coding Blocks
Extension
- Have your students write a story about Maria and Sofie’s boat adventure. Ask them to include two different events that happen while they're in the boat.
If facilitated, this will extend beyond the 45-minute lesson.
Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.3
Teacher Support
Students will:
- Follow instructions to create a program
- Identify the main characters in a story
- Practice helping a story character
- Participate in collaborative conversations
(one for every two students)
- LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Essential Set
- Device with the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App installed
- CSTA 1A-AP-08
- NGSS K-2 ETS 1-1
- ISTE 1.5a
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.1
- CCSS.MATH. CONTENT.1. G.A.3
Language Arts Extension
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.3