For teachers
👩🏫 Teacher Guide
A hands-on, project-based course for Grade 6 (ages 11–12): 8 sessions of about 80 minutes. Every session mixes a real-world story, an activity without computers, simulation time, and a small project.
What students learn
- Explain how a drone flies using lift, weight and balance.
- Write programs with sequences, loops and debugging.
- Use sensors and IF–THEN decisions so a robot or device can act by itself.
- Choose good thresholds and combine conditions with AND.
- Explain why edge devices (that decide on the spot) matter where the internet is unreliable.
- Use the engineering design cycle to design, test, improve and present a solution to a real community problem.
Before you start
💻 Devices
- Works in any modern browser on computers, tablets or phones. Nothing to install.
- Best: 1 device for 2 students (pair programming: a "driver" and a "navigator" who swap every level).
- Only 1 projector? Run the simulation at the front; groups take turns deciding the next block or the next power setting.
- After the site has loaded once, it keeps working if the internet drops for a while. Stars are saved in each browser, so students should use the same device every session.
✂️ Materials for unplugged activities
- Paper, scissors, paper clips, a stopwatch (or phone)
- Chalk or masking tape for a floor grid (5 × 5 squares)
- A scarf for the "blindfolded robot" game
- Cardboard, bottle caps, straws, glue for model drones
- Optional: a thermometer and a cup of cold water
Session plans
Assessment
| What | How | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Simulation stars | Students show their stars on the home page. 1 star = completed, 2–3 stars = efficient or high-quality solution. | 30% |
| Unplugged activities | Participation and recorded results (paper helicopter table, floor-grid programs). | 20% |
| Big Project | Use the rubric below (design + plan + model + presentation). | 40% |
| Exit questions | One "Think about it" question answered at the end of each session. | 10% |
Big Project rubric
| Criteria | ⭐ Beginning | ⭐⭐ Developing | ⭐⭐⭐ Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drone design | Can take off with the box | Flies 30 km | Flies 30 km within budget, and the student explains the trade-offs |
| Flight plan | All villages served safely | Close to the best plan | Best plan, and the student explains the strategy |
| Model / drawing | Drawing with few labels | Labelled model or drawing | Labelled model; parts match the design choices |
| Presentation | Reads answers | Explains clearly | Explains clearly and links it to a real problem in our community |
Tips for a great class
- Celebrate bugs. When a program fails, say "Great, we found a bug! Where is it?" The red block shows where.
- Ask before telling. "What do you think will happen if…?" Let them predict, then test.
- Stars are for effort and improvement. Encourage students to replay a level to get more stars.
- Fast finishers help others ("Ask 3 before me"), or try to beat their own block count.
- Body movement: before robot levels, everyone stands up and turns left/right as the robot would.
- Local examples: ask students where drones, robots or sensors could help in their own town: farms, water, health posts, school.
- Real drones: if you show a real drone, follow your country's aviation rules and keep students behind a safety line.
Word wall (key words)
| Lift | The upward push from propellers or wings. | Loop | Repeating some steps. |
| Weight | Gravity pulling down. | Bug / Debug | A mistake / finding and fixing it. |
| Hover | Staying still in the air. | Sensor | A part that measures (heat, distance, light…). |
| Program | A list of steps for a computer. | Threshold | The number where a rule switches on. |
| Algorithm | A plan of steps to solve a problem. | Edge device | A device that decides by itself, without the internet. |
| Range | How far a drone can fly on one battery. | Trade-off | Getting more of one thing means less of another. |