Editor’s note: for updated lesson links and instructional video activities that account for the new normal of learning during COVID-19, head to the 2020 edition of our Ozobot Hour of Code Activities.
It’s almost that most magical time of the year: the Hour of Code! Each year, we set out to hack the halls and share new, standards-aligned lessons to help you celebrate CS Education Week and the Hour of Code. For 2019, we’ve got two new lessons you can download for free. Whether you plan to lead an Ozobot class session or not, we’d love to hear how you’ll be ringing in the Hour of Code in the comments below.
Why participate in the Hour of Code? The holidays can be a time of unbridled consumption, but in terms of digital media kids are consuming more than ever all year long, with teens spending up to 9 hours per day looking at screens.
A foundational education in computer science can give children the opportunity to go from passively consuming technology to actively creating it–producing the apps, algorithms, and inventions that will shape the future.
Every child deserves access to these 21st century skills, but in 2019 school districts and states are still working hard to meet demands for technological fluency. For example, while 90% of parents want their kids to learn to code fewer than half of all schools teach CS. That’s why Code.org started the Hour of Code six years ago, and it’s why Ozobot and other coding and STEAM-focused organizations get on board each year and contribute free content.
Read on to access 19 coding lessons–with both online and offline options–that span grade levels K-12.
1. Pop Star | Creating Functions with Color Codes
Color Codes
Grades 2–12
It’s a well-received teaching strategy that leveraging students’ everyday realities can drive deeper levels of content learning. And chances are high that pop stars–from Beyonce to Lady Gaga to the Jonas Brothers–have made their way into your students’ day-to-day. Enter our new Pop Star lessons, one for each way to code.
The Pop Star: Creating Functions With Ozobot Color Codes lesson introduces the concept of functions offline and through the lens of popular music and performance. Students break down a performer’s routine into groups of identifiable, repeatable behaviors like dancing and singing. Then, they use Color Codes and an Ozobot to create their own pop concert-inspired function.
NOTE: To access the new Pop Star lessons, you’ll need to create a free Ozobot Classroom account. Learn more about Ozobot Classroom and the new features coming soon here.
2. Pop Star | Creating Functions with OzoBlockly
OzoBlockly
Grades 3–12
With the online version of our Pop Star lesson, students start the same way as the offline version: by brainstorming what behaviors a pop star might display on stage. From there, they’ll build and call functions within the OzoBlockly visual programming editor. Pop Star: Creating Functions With OzoBlockly meets various NGSS, CSTA, ISTE, and CCSS standards, and lasts 60 to 90 minutes with optional extensions if your students are engaged in creating more elaborate programs and functions.
Other Ozobot Hour of Code Lessons
With technology changing every industry on the planet, CS knowledge has become part of any well-rounded skill set. For educators, this can mean that integrating coding and CS into other content areas can make for a powerful and engaging lesson combination. The lessons below span subjects from social-emotional learning to social studies to math and beyond.
Offline Lessons (Color Codes)
3. Write your Name with Color Codes – Arts, Grades K–2
Pre-readers can get in on the Ozobot coding fun by writing their names in thick black lines that and adding Color Codes that Ozobot can respond to.
4. Ozobot and Color Codes intro – Robotics/CS, Grades K–12
Introduce students of all ages to computational thinking with Ozobot and Color Codes, short sequences of color drawn with markers on paper to tell Ozobots what to do.
5. Drive to School with Ozobot – Robotics/CS, Grades K–12
Students are challenged to solve a maze and help Ozobot find the way to school using Color Codes in this lesson with zero coding experience required.
6. Modeling Animal Habits and Habitats – Science, Grades 1–5
Students use an Ozobot and Color Codes to model how a rabbit living on a grassy hill eats its fill and then stops.
7. Ozobot Expedition to Neptune – Robotics/CS, Grades 3–10
Students practice drawing lines and Color Codes that Ozobot can follow in a fun way with this printable board game.
8. Eclipses and Celestial Mechanics – Science, Grades 2–12
Even with little Ozobot programming experience, a class can create a demonstration of eclipses with two bots (online and offline extensions available).
Online Lessons (OzoBlockly)
9. The OzoBlockly Tutorial – Robotics/CS, Grades 1–12
Introduce students of all ages to coding Ozobots with OzoBlockly, a visual programming editor powered by Google’s Blockly that has five skill levels from Pre-Reader to Master.
10. Ozobot Dance-Off – Robotics/CS, Grades 1–12
Students of all ages can learn how to code by creating and programming a dance routine for Ozobot with OzoBlockly,
11. Pair Programming with Ozobot – Robotics/CS, Grades 2+
Students learn how to work in teams as Drivers and Navigators, and then practice by creating a program for an Ozobot robot.
12. Magellan’s Journey – Social Studies, Grades 3–12
Students program their Ozobots to navigate around the continents along the path Ferdinand Magellan took.
13. Ozobot Random Story Generator – ELA/CS, Grades 4–8
Students learn about randomness then use an Ozobot programmed with random number generating code blocks to collect some random words from a map and write an original story.
14. Evo the Troll – SEL, Grades 6–8
Students learn the difference between Internet trolls and fairy tale trolls, then teach Ozobot Evo how to practice supportive behavior with OzoBlockly.
15. Make a Multiplication Algorithm – Math, Grades 6+
Students with an understanding of programming concepts will enjoy the challenge of making Ozobot choose a random multiplication fact, then draw the array of the fact on a grid and blink and/or say the answers.
16. Ozobot Second Timer – Math/Science, Grades 6+
Students already comfortable with OzoBlockly programming can take on the challenge of turning Ozobots Evo or Bit into a timer using OzoBlockly Level 4 blocks for line navigation, timing, and light effects.
17. Intro to Evo: Evo’s Force Field – Robotics, Grades 6–12
Students create a program to make Ozobot Evo move when its proximity sensors are activated by obstacles, and play a victory dance once it detects certain colors.
Help, I Don’t Have Ozobots!
If you don’t have Ozobots in your classroom or makerspace yet, we still have lessons you can use to join in for the Hour of Code. The lessons below use simulation to teach programming principles and CS concepts.
18. How to Program Robots (without Robots) – CS, Grades K–12
Students program a simulated robot on-screen using ShapeTracer, one of Ozobot’s programming games.
19. Program Simulator – CS, Grades K–12
To learn about programming languages without a computer or robot, students take on the role of a computer and use psuedocode to teach the basics of how to write a program a computer can read.
