Fundamentals of Coding with LEGO SPIKE Essential

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fundamentals-coding-curriculum

Fundamentals of Coding with SPIKE Essential teaches coding and STEM concepts to elementary school students using the LEGO SPIKE Essential kit. The curriculum covers topics such as basic coding, creating algorithms, conditional statements, and loops.

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Students assemble robot designs with the SPIKE Essential kit based on real-world robots, which helps to foster creativity, problem-solving skills, and an understanding of how coding and robotics are used in the real world. Fundamentals of Coding with SPIKE Essential is designed to develop a foundation in coding that will prepare students for more advanced programming concepts in the future.

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Fundamentals of Coding with SPIKE Essential is designed to be standards-aligned while embracing the concept of "play" as a core learning approach. Each badge earned through the curriculum is built around playful exploration, where students are encouraged to build, remix, and experiment with their robot designs. The curriculum seamlessly integrates coding and computer exercises with unplugged activities, ensuring that students not only develop technical skills but also engage in creative problem-solving.

	Unit 1: Light Up Snackbot Snackbot is a robot that was designed to deliver snacks to people within an office. It communicates using lights and sounds. Build a robot like Snackbot and use the Light Matrix to display colored patterns and messages!
	Unit 2: Spinny Snackbot It's snack time! In this unit you will learn how to make Snackbot deliver snacks by attaching and programming the motor to make it move.
	Unit 3: Buggy Bugs Not every program is perfect, some may have errors (a.k.a "bugs"). Let's identify the errors and make a plan to fix them!
	Unit 4: Journey on the Moon Iris is a lunar rover that drives on the moon collecting data for geological sciences. Build your Iris robot and program it to move forward and explore on the moon!
	Unit 5: Dodging Craters Iris may come across some craters on the moon. Program the robot to be able to turn so that you don't run into them!
	Unit 6: Strawberry Spotting Build the Strawberry Plant Sorter. Use the Color Sensor to detect red ripe strawberries! Unit 7: Loopy Strawberries Reuse the Strawberry Plant Sorter. Identify patterns and program with loops to repeat behaviors. Unit 8: Sorting Strawberries Program the Strawberry Sorter to make decisions so that it can... sort strawberries! You will use if-then-else blocks to program simple decisions and looped decisions. Unit 9: Tilt it, Shake it, Bot-It! Learn how to program Events with the Gyro Sensor!