SPIKE™ Essential

Mini Mini-Golf

Test your skills with Sofie’s mini-golf game!

30-45 min.
Beginner
Years 3-5
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Prepare

  • Review the Mini Mini-Golf lesson in the LEGO® Education SPIKE App.
  • If you feel that it would be beneficial, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: energy, motion, program, 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.

Engage

(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)

  • Facilitate a quick discussion about how an object's speed is related to its energy.
    • Talk with your pupils about a moving ball (e.g. a ball that's rolling down a hill or being kicked across a football pitch).
    • Ask questions like these: Which ball has more energy: a ball that isn't moving or a ball that's rolling down a hill? How could you change the energy of that ball?
  • Introduce your pupils to the story’s main characters and the first challenge: trying to get a hole in one with the mini-golf game.
  • Distribute a brick set and a device to each group.

Explore

(Small Groups, 30 Minutes)

  • Have your pupils use the LEGO® Education SPIKE App to guide them through their first challenge:
    • Create and test the program to get a hole in one.
  • Have your pupils iterate and test their models to complete the next two challenges in the app:
    • Modify the program to improve the mini-golf game.
    • Upgrade the mini-golf game to make it more challenging.
  • You can find coding and building help in the Tips section below.

Explain

(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)

  • Gather your pupils together to reflect on their completed challenges.
  • Ask questions like these: How did you modify your program to ensure that the ball had enough energy to get a hole in one? How did the speed of the mini-golf club affect the ball's energy?

Elaborate

(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)

  • Prompt your pupils to discuss and reflect on the relationship between an object’s speed and its energy.
  • Ask questions like these: What could you do to an object in order to increase its energy? Why is it important to know about the relationship between speed and the amount of energy an object has?
  • Have your pupils tidy up their workstations.

Evaluate

(Ongoing Throughout the Lesson)

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

Observation Checklist

  • Measure your pupils’ proficiency in describing the relationship between an object's speed and its energy.
  • 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 describe the relationship between an
    object's speed and its energy.
  • Blue: I can describe the relationship between an object's speed and
    its energy.
  • Green: I can describe the relationship between an object's speed and
    its energy, and I can also help a friend to do it.

Peer Feedback

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

Tips

Coding Tips

  • After your pupils have completed their first challenge, they'll be provided with three Inspiration Coding Blocks, which will help them to modify their programs.
  • The Inspiration Coding Blocks are intended to spark their imaginations as they experiment to find their own solutions.
Gecko U4L1_ICB_1 - en-gb
Gecko U4L1_ICB_1 - en-gb
Gecko U4L1_ICB_2 - en-gb
Gecko U4L1_ICB_3 - en-gb

Model Tip

  • After your pupils have completed their second challenge, they’ll 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.
U4L1_inspiration_img_1.png
U4L1_inspiration_img_1.png
U4L1_inspiration_img_2.png
U4L1_inspiration_img_3.png

There are no specific building instructions for this challenge.

Differentiation

Simplify this lesson by:

  • Shortening the lesson to include only the first challenge
  • Selecting one Inspiration Image to help your pupils to change their models

Increase the difficulty by:

  • Changing the mini-golf club design to see how it impacts the ball's speed
  • Exploring new and different Coding Blocks in the program

Extension

  • Have your pupils investigate line-symmetric figures in the Mini Mini-Golf lesson. Ask them to record the different angles of the mini-golf club, and then draw and label the figures and all relevant parts (e.g. parallel lines, perpendicular lines, angles).

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

Maths: National Curriculum Maths Ma4/3.2 Properties of Shape

Teacher Support

The pupils will:

  • Explore the basic principles of energy and their connection to an object's speed
  • Identify and describe the relationship between speed and energy
  • Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions

(one for every two pupils)

  • LEGO® Education SPIKETM Essential Set
  • Device with the LEGO® Education SPIKE App installed

National Curriculum

Science
Sc4/1.3

  • making systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, taking accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment,
    Sc5/4.2b
  • identify the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces

English
En4/1i

  • participate in discussions, presentations, performances, roleplay/improvisations and debates
    En4/1k
  • consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others

Maths
Ma4/3.2

  • Properties of Shape

Pupil Material

Student Worksheet

Download, view or share as an online HTML page or a printable PDF.