C

Today we finally jumped into programming! We introduced the challenge of programming the cars to go a "mystery distance." We explained that to do this, each group would have to program their cars for 10 different times and measure and record the distance it went. The initial programming had mixed results. The students were somewhat confused about the power level, and changed their levels between trials before we explained that this would impact their data negatively. We had set two tape marks at the front of the room so that two groups could measure their distances simultaneously but this was seen as the "mystery distance" that the students attempted to travel until it was clarified. We regrouped and re-explained the challenge and most groups were able to get enough measurements to start plotting their distance versus time graphs for a constant power level. We weren't able to program cars to go the "mystery distance" but we will start with this challenge next week.

We learned that we need to be more explicit about the challenge, but overall this week was successful, and the students seemed to pick up programming very quickly. The activity was adapted from the STOMP network website.