The Fast Lane

• Review the Fast Lane lesson in the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App.
• If necessary, pre-teach these related vocabulary words: brainstorm, build, challenge, create, program, and upgrade.
• Consider the abilities and backgrounds of all your students. Differentiate the lesson to make it accessible to everyone. See the Differentiation section below for suggestions.
• If time allows, plan and facilitate the language arts extension. See the Extension section below for more information.

• Facilitate a quick discussion about brainstorming.
  • Talk with your students about going to an amusement park and seeing a long line to enter.
  • Ask questions, like: What could you do to make standing in line more fun? How could you avoid standing in that long line?
• Introduce your students to the story’s main characters and the first challenge: turning on the Fast Lane’s light.
• Distribute a brick set and a device to each group.

• Have your students use the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App to guide them through their first challenge:
  • Create and test the program that turns on the light when Leo shows his yellow ticket to the Color Sensor.
• Have your students iterate and test their models to complete the next two challenges in the app:
  • Program the Fast Lane to react to the yellow ticket in a different way when Leo shows his yellow ticket to the Color Sensor.
  • Upgrade the Fast Lane for Leo.
• You can find coding and building support in the Tips section below.

• Gather your students together to reflect on their completed challenges.
• Ask questions, like: What did you do for Leo? How did you upgrade the Fast Lane?

• Prompt your students to discuss and reflect on how brainstorming helped them come up with ways to upgrade the Fast Lane.
• Ask questions, like: How did you come up with ideas for upgrading the Fast Lane? Why do you think it's important to come up with more than one idea?
• Have your students clean up their workstations.

• Ask guiding questions to encourage your students to “think aloud” and explain their thought processes and reasoning in the decisions they've made while building and programming.

Observation Checklist

• Measure your students’ proficiency in brainstorming new ideas.
• Create a scale that matches your needs. For example:
  1. Needs additional support
  2. Can work independently
  3. Can teach others

Self-Assessment

• Have each student choose the brick that they feel best represents their performance.
  • Yellow: I think I can brainstorm new ideas.
  • Blue: I can brainstorm new ideas.
  • Green: I can brainstorm new ideas, and I can help a friend do it too.

Peer-Feedback

• In their small groups, have your students 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…

Coding Tip

• After your students complete their first challenge, they'll be provided with three Inspiration Coding Blocks to help them modify their programs.
• The Inspiration Coding Blocks are intended to spark their imaginations as they experiment to find their own solutions.

Model Tip

• After your students complete their second challenge, they’ll be provided with three Inspiration Images and an open-ended prompt for improving their models.
• The Inspiration Images are to help spark their imaginations as they experiment and change their models.

There aren't any building instructions for this challenge.

Simplify this lesson by:

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

Increase the difficulty by:

• Adding different Color Sensor Blocks to the Programming Canvas to react to different-colored tickets
• Exploring new and different Coding Blocks in the program

• Have your students create videos of different things Leo can do while he's waiting in line to enter the amusement park.

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

Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.5