Sphero: OrbBasic Lesson 2

Here is my last post regarding the educational lesson plans one can get for free after receiving/purchasing their Sphero.  Essentially, what the Sphero is, is a robotic ball, that a person can program to move in any direction and light up in any color.  Also, there are a bunch of educational apps, games, and augmented reality activities one can do.   Did I mention that it's waterproof too?

*All data will be recorded by the student in the downloadable worksheet.

Objective (aligned to Common Core Math Standards)

• Create an OrbBasic program to roll Sphero in a circle once, using a variable to store the heading
• Modify the program w/ an if/then statement to fix an error and make it go in a circle indefinitely
• Modify the program w/ an if/then/else statement to light up one color half the circle, and another color the other half
• Modify the program to increase the size of the circle at the end of each cycle

Programming w/ OrbBasic

Students will need to make the Sphero roll in a circle by programming it using the OrbBasic (free) app.  It will need to move a short distance and increase the heading by 5 degrees.  It uses the variable called h which starts at 0 and keeps getting larger.  When it hits 360 an error message occurs because the values must between 0-360.  This causes the Sphero to roll in a circle once then keep going in a straight line.  To fix the error, students will add a new line w/ an if/then statement which checks to see if the h variable has a value of 360, and if it does it will set it back to 0, causing the Sphero to roll in a circle indefinitely.

Adding Color

In this lesson students will learn about if/then/else statements, which will do one command if something is true, and another one if it is not.  For this example, it checks to see if h is < 180, and if it does then it lights up one color, if it's not, it lights up a different one.  Students will use the LEDC command in OrbBasic to light up a color by selecting a number.  The student guide has which number relates to which color, as well as breaks down all programming codes.

I highly recommend checking out Sphero for education by clicking here!!!

For my Pinterest board on the Sphero click here.