Mapping with Ozobots
1 Hook/Attention Getter
What is Ozobot? Ozobot is a miniature robot, the smallest of its kind, and there are a lot of things Ozobot can do:
1. Ozobot drives on lines You can draw a line, place Ozobot on it and it will follow the line. Draw a black line (1/4”, 6mm in width) on a white piece of paper. Turn Ozobot on by pressing the button on the side. Place Ozobot on the line. How does this work? Turn Ozobot over and see what’s underneath. On the bottom, you can see 5 openings with lights shining out of them. An optical sensor lives in each of these openings. These sensors are Ozobot’s eyes. Each of the sensors sees how bright the paper underneath is. This way, Ozobot can see where the white and where the black parts are and therefore knows where the line is. 2. How to take care of Ozobot It may happen that Ozobot starts behaving strangely. For example, Ozobot may stop to be able to follow lines. To prevent this from happening, do the following maintenance every time you start playing with Ozobot or whenever you change your location or type of paper: 1) Calibrate What does this mean? Ozobot’s “eyes” (the sensors) are very sensitive to the surrounding light. So much so that, if the paper changes or if you go closer to the window, it affects how Ozobot sees what’s underneath. To let Ozobot know what its surroundings are, you need to calibrate:
Students are given markers (black, green, blue, red) and white paper. They are given the opportunity to work in small groups and exlore how the ozobot looks and works. Students can draw lines to watch the ozobot follow the lines on paper.
2 Lesson Steps
Mini challenge: In any of the slots, mark (blue, black, blue) and (red, black, red) and (blue, green, blue). What happens?
Place Ozobot on the line and see how the Ozobot understands the colors. Match up the code wit the reference sheet.
Write the correct code on the sheet.
Each group is given a challenge card. They had to create a map of our school, then program Mr. Oz to go to difference places based on what was on their challenge card.
On each card give at least 3 different places for the students to map.
Create a map of your school or classroom and label all the parts and include a compass rose. Use the coding reference sheet to program Ozobot to go to different places around the school.
Students can create additional maps and use various codes to make the ozobot do different tricks.