Students in Johnson Creek have been working during Connect and Apply Time, as well as in Coding Club to learn to write computer code. Recently, students have been experimenting with Sphero, a programmable robotic ball. The Sphero Corporation has created a program for schools called SPRK (Schools, Parents, Robots, Kids). From here, students were able to download two applications for iOS (MacroLab and OrbBasic). OrbBasic is a script based programming language that requires students to type out the instructions to give to Sphero. Currently, our students are using MacroLab. Macros are a set of instructions given to a program to perform a specific task quickly. For example, a student can tell the ball to roll forward, and then provide the program with a heading, speed, and duration instruction. Students calculated that Sphero will roll forward two floor tiles when traveling for 1000 milliseconds at 25% speed. Using this information, the students were challenged to navigate Sphero around the classroom. After a lot of trial and error, Freshman Madison Graf successfully had her Sphero navigating the rows of computers.
Madison Graf runs her macro to move Sphero around the classroom
Students in Coding Club are creating macros for Sphero.
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