SPIKE™ Essential

Underwater Quest

Maria is curious to explore life below the sea. How can she get the submarine in and out of the water?

30-45 min.
Beginner
Years 1-2
U1L5_web_thumbnail.png

Prepare

  • Review the Underwater Quest lesson in the LEGO® Education SPIKE App.
  • If you feel that it would be beneficial, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: loop, submarine, turtle, and underwater.
  • 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 language arts extension. Please refer to the Extension section below for more information.

Engage

(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)

  • Facilitate a quick discussion about a time when your pupils had to repeat an action over and over in order to complete a task.
    • Talk with your pupils about how they must move their bodies in order to swim.
    • Ask questions like these: What do your arms and legs do when you're swimming? What else must you do to keep your body moving in the water?
  • Introduce your pupils to the story’s main characters and the first challenge: making the submarine move.
  • 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:
    • Make and try the program that moves the submarine.
  • Have your pupils iterate and test their models to complete the next challenge in the app:
    • Change the submarine for Maria's next trip.
  • You can find 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 the submarine move? How did you make the submarine repeat its movement?

Elaborate

(Whole Class, 5 Minutes)

  • Prompt your pupils to discuss and reflect on ways of using loops, or a program with repeated movement.
  • Ask questions like these: How do you think programming the submarine using a loop made it easier for Maria to visit the turtles? Why do you think it was helpful to use a loop to program the submarine?
  • 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 how an action can be repeated in order to complete a task.
  • 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 how an action can be repeated in order to complete a task.
  • Blue: I can describe how an action can be repeated in order to
    complete a task.
  • Green: I can describe how an action can be repeated in order to complete a task, 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'd like to hear more about how you…

Tips

Model Tip

  • After your pupils have completed their first 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.
U1L5_inspiration_img_1.png
U1L5_inspiration_img_1.png
U1L5_inspiration_img_2.png
U1L5_inspiration_img_3.png

There are no specific building instructions for this challenge.

Differentiation

Simplify this lesson by:

  • Reading the Underwater Quest 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:

  • Adding the Light to the model and including blocks to control it in the program
  • Clicking Show Full Palette in the app to utilise more Coding Blocks

Extension

  • Have your pupils research and write a short paragraph about why they think it's important to look after wildlife, like turtles.

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

Language Arts: National Curriculum English En1/1e Give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings.

Teacher Support

The pupils will:

  • Understand that an action can be repeated
  • Develop programs that use simple loops (repetition) to address a problem
  • Practise helping a story character
  • Participate in collaborative conversations

(one for every two pupils)

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

National Curriculum

Computing
Co2/1.2

  • use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output

English
En1/1e

  • give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings.
    En1/1i
  • participate in discussions, presentations, performances, roleplay/improvisations and debates
    En1/2.2c
  • participate in discussion about what is read to them, taking turns and listening to what others say
    En1/2.2d
  • explain clearly their understanding of what is read to them

Pupil Material

Student Worksheet

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