Teacher's Notes: Bumper Cars Pro Preview

In this lesson, students learn about the if/then block and inertia.

The lesson can be divided into three parts: inertia, the if/then block, and the game. You can use the game as an incentive for students to work quickly through the other parts. The game involves seeing how many bumps their car can get in one minute within a designated field. You can choose the size of the field: it could be small, like a sumo field, or as large as the entire room. If they program their robot to just bump into a static object or the wall, that is allowed unless you decide to ban it.

The most important part of the lesson is introducing students to the if/then block. It's not expected that they understand it fully at this point, as they will have plenty of time to practice it in this and future levels. If you wish, you are free to dive deeper into the concepts of inertia and the center of mass, as these are very useful when students need to construct their own robots. Be careful to manage your time correctly. The main program should look like this: