Taxi! Taxi!

• Review the Taxi! Taxi! lesson in the LEGO^® Education SPIKE^™ App.
• If you feel that it would be beneficial, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: backwards, debug, direction, forwards, frustrated and route.
• 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 having to make a change in order to complete a task.
  • Talk with your pupils about taking different routes to get from one place to another, like between classrooms.
  • Ask questions like these: Would you be able to get to that classroom if you were only allowed to make right turns? What would you have to change in order to reach the other classroom?
• Introduce your pupils to the story’s main characters and the first challenge: driving the taxi.
• 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 drives the taxi.
• Have your pupils iterate and test their models to complete the next two challenges in the app:
  • Modify the program to make the taxi follow the route on Leo’s map.
  • Design a new route for Leo’s next trip.
• 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 were you thinking about as you modified the program to follow the route on Leo’s map? How was your program for Leo’s next trip different from the one that you made for Leo’s trip to the art museum?

• Prompt your pupils to discuss and reflect on the process of testing a program in order to identify and fix errors.
• Ask questions like these: Why is it important to test a program to make sure that it works as you had intended? How can you use the results of your tests to improve the program?
• 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 identifying and fixing errors within a program (testing and debugging).
• 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 identify and fix errors within a program (test and debug).
- Blue: I can identify and fix errors within a program (test and debug).
- Green: I can identify and fix errors within a program (test and debug), 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, they should experiment with the available coding blocks to modify their programs to follow the route for the trip.

Simplify this lesson by:

• Reading the Taxi! Taxi! 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
• Creating routes for another group’s taxi to follow

• Have your pupils record their taxi's path. Ask them to identify the shape that has been made by the taxi and investigate the shape's perimeter.

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

ACMMG065
Create and interpret simple grid maps to show position and pathways.