Indi and Kinazium: Building skills

Indi and Kinazium, A perfect match!!

Materials:
Kinazium set Sphero indi Optional Sensors and the free Kinazium App (iOS or Android)
Assumptions:
Students are familiar with Indi and Kinazium and know how to use both products
Amount of time:
45 minutes - 1 hour
Grade Levels:
1st - 4th

Introduction

Indi and Kinazium provide endless opportunities for programing Sphero indi.

This Tutorial will provide a starting point, but each time students use Kinazium with Indi the complexity of the exercise can be increased to improve design-thinking, and promote problem-solving and teamwork.

If you have Kinazium sensors, advanced activities allow students to design games using sensors which can be used to score points or used as consecutive timers for competing.

Procedure

Students may work in groups of 1-5

Give each group one Kinazium with a limited set of walls for creating a simple maze
Have students design a maze with a set number of principles:

Example: Require a Start (A) and Finish (B), Set # of left and/or right turns to get from A to B

Give each group the freedom to design anything they want as long as the students fulfill the principle instructions. Set a reasonable time limit and provide oversight and assistance as needed.
After the maze design is complete, have students place the appropriate programming tiles for indi in the maze to achieve a start and finish path with indi. (If desired, students can add the squares while the maze is created if it helps them visualize better.)
Place indi on the starting block and run indi through the maze. Check the results.
If the outcome is not as expected, have students change the programming tiles to fix any errors.
If outcome is correct. Students have completed the exercise.

Vocabulary

Programing Tiles: Colored squares used to program indi

Block Coding: A programing method using a computer to program indi

Sequence: Using multiple 'Tiles' to drive indi on a designation path

Right, Left, Start, Pause, Accelerate, Spin, End: Directions that can be given to indi to cause it to move around

Assessment

Discuss the results with the students: Ask students if they are able to visualize "see in their mind" the direction that indi will go when they place a programming color mat on the maze.

Discuss how precise or perfect they have to place the squares on Kinazium.

Ask them to discuss other things they can do with the tools they have and what they'd like to try in the next session.

Advanced Activity:

Each time you have a new Kinazium/Indi programming challenge, increase the complexity of the principles, and add new challenges. Here are some examples:

Include a tunnel
Make the start a ramp
Make the finish a ramp
Add a teeter-totter
Add a jump or gate
Add sensors for point scoring

An obstacle can be added one at a time as new exercises are offered to students.

Once the building and programming skills start improving, combine multiple obstacles and challenges for indi. Consider using some of the programming tiles to add fun aspects to the game, like an end of maze celebration spin.