3 Unplugged Coding Options

Want to avoid screen time? Robotics and coding require computation thinking that can be developed through various unplugged activities. 

1. Barefoot At Home: Barefoot provides lessons that promote computational thinking. For example, one activity includes creating a sequence of instructions to program a friend to move. These are great introductory activities intended for ages 4 - 11. 
2. Vivify’s Rover Engineering Challenge: Students will use a vibrating motor and coin cell battery to power a mini rover. The students will need to design and build a rover to transport a ping pong ball using materials such as paper cups, construction paper, tape, and index cards. While not a real robot, students will “program” the rover by modifying the materials to direct the movements of the rover. The lesson also includes an instructional video interviewing a robotics engineer. 
3. Vivify’s Robonaut Tool Challenge: There has been an emergency on the International Space Station! A special tool is required to make repairs, but only Robonaut (a robotic astronaut) can build this tool. NASA’s Mission Control must send commands to tell Robonaut exactly how to build the tool to save the astronauts on the ISS. One of our favorite unplugged activities is to introduce coding and this lesson provides a distance-learning option.

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