River Ferry

• Review the River Ferry lesson in the LEGO^® Education SPIKE^™ App.
• If you feel that it would be beneficial, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: improve, modify, program, sequence, test and upgrade.
• Consider the abilities and backgrounds of all your pupils. Differentiate the lesson to make it accessible to everyone. Please refer to the Differentiation section below for suggestions on how to do this.
• If time permits, plan and facilitate the maths extension. Please refer to the Extension section below for further information.

• Facilitate a quick discussion about creating a sequence in order to complete an activity.
  • Talk with your pupils about a situation in which they had to follow a sequence in order to reach a destination, like their classroom or a playground.
  • Ask questions like these: When you want to go from one classroom to another, how do you get there? How do you know how to get there?
• Introduce your pupils to the story’s main characters and the first challenge: sending the river ferry to the Spike Tower.
• Distribute a brick set and a device to each group.

• Have your pupils use the LEGO^® Education SPIKE^™ App to guide them through their first challenge:
  • Create and test the program that sends the river ferry to the Spike Tower.
• Have your pupils iterate and test their models to complete the next two challenges in the app:
  • Modify the program to improve the river ferry ride.
  • Upgrade the river ferry for Daniel’s next journey.
• You can find coding and building help in the Tips section below.

• Gather your pupils together to reflect on their completed challenges.
• Ask questions like these: What steps did you follow to send the river ferry to Spike Tower? What did you modify in order to improve the river ferry ride?

• Prompt your pupils to discuss and reflect on the process of creating a sequence to solve a problem.
• Ask questions like these: Why does it help to break a problem down into smaller parts when you are trying to solve it? How can you use these smaller parts to create a sequence?
• Have your pupils tidy up their workstations.

• Ask guiding questions to encourage your pupils to ‘think aloud’ and explain their thought processes and reasoning in the decisions they have made while building and programming their models.

Observation Checklist

• Measure your pupils’ proficiency in developing a sequence to solve a problem.
• Establish a scale that suits your needs. For example:
  1. Requires additional support
  2. Can work independently
  3. Can teach others

Self-Assessment
Have each pupil choose the brick that they feel best represents their performance.
- Yellow: I think that I can develop a sequence to solve a problem.
- Blue: I can develop a sequence to solve a problem.
- Green: I can develop a sequence to solve a problem, and I can also help a friend to do it.

Peer Feedback

• In their small groups, have your pupils discuss their experiences working together.
• Encourage them to use statements like these:
  • I liked it when you…
  • I would like to hear more about how you…

Coding Tips

• After your pupils have completed their first challenge, they will be provided with a map.
• Using the map, your pupils can experiment with the available Coding Blocks to modify their programs to follow the route for the trip.

Model Tip

• After your pupils have completed their second challenge, they will be provided with three Inspiration Images and an open-ended prompt, which will help them to improve their models.
• The Inspiration Images are meant to help spark their imaginations as they experiment and change their models.

There are no specific building instructions for this challenge.

Simplify this lesson by:

• Reading the River Ferry story and instructions from the
  LEGO^® Education SPIKE^™ App aloud to your pupils
• Selecting one Inspiration Image to help your pupils to change their models

Increase the difficulty by:

• Exploring new and different coding blocks within the program
• Adding the Light to the river ferry

• Ask your pupils to create a timetable for the river ferry, including departure and arrival times, and travel time. Have them use their timetables to talk about when to take the river ferry.

If facilitated, this will extend beyond the 45-minute lesson.