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STEAM Unit: Designing Robots

STEAM Unit: Designing Robots
View Curriculum Codes   
Description

Unlike many of our STEAM activities, this is a full unit, designed for Year 3 and 4 students to fulfil part of the Design and Technologies portion of the Australian National Curriculum, as well as a number of cross curricular skills that STEAM allows. However, you might find students throughout primary school would enjoy this set of activities
In this unit students, working in pairs, move through the design process to develop a robot that solves a real-world problem they have identified at school.
 

Suitable for
  • Parents
Lesson Structure
  • Individual Activity
  • Rotations / Group Work
Curriculum Codes

AC9E3LA01 9

Understand that cooperation with others depends on shared understanding of social conventions, including turn-taking language, which vary according to the degree of formality

AC9E4LA11 9

Expand vocabulary by exploring a range of synonyms and antonyms, and using words encountered in a range of sources

AC9E4LY02 9

Listen for key points and information to carry out tasks and contribute to discussions, acknowledging another opinion, linking a response to the topic, and sharing and extending ideas and information

AC9E4LY07 9

Plan, create, rehearse and deliver structured oral and/or multimodal presentations to report on a topic, tell a story, recount events or present an argument using subjective and objective language, complex sentences, visual features, tone, pace, pitch and volume

AC9S4I01 9

Pose questions to explore observed patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations

AC9TDE4P04 9

Use given or co-developed design criteria including sustainability to evaluate design ideas and solutions

AC9S3I05 9

Compare findings with those of others, consider if investigations were fair, identify questions for further investigation and draw conclusions

AC9TDE4P03 9

Select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions

AC9E4LA01 9

Explore language used to develop relationships in formal and informal situations

AC9TDE4P02 9

Generate and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate attributions, technical terms and graphical representation techniques, including using digital tools

AC9TDE4P01 9

Explore needs or opportunities for designing, and test materials, components, tools, equipment and processes needed to create designed solutions

AC9E3LY07 9

Plan, create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations to inform, express opinions or tell stories, using a clear structure, details to elaborate ideas, topic-specific and precise vocabulary, visual features, and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume

AC9TDE4K02 9

Describe how forces and the properties of materials affect function in a product or system

AC9TDE4K01 9

Examine design and technologies occupations and factors including sustainability that impact on the design of products, services and environments to meet community needs

AC9E3LY02 9

Use interaction skills to contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas

AC9E4LA02 9

Identify the subjective language of opinion and feeling, and the objective language of factual reporting

AC9S3I06 9

Write and create texts to communicate findings and ideas for identified purposes and audiences, using scientific vocabulary and digital tools as appropriate

ACSIS058 8.4

Reflect on investigations, including whether a test was fair or not

ACTDEP015 8.4

Generate, develop, and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques

ACELA1489 8.4

Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording

ACSIS060 8.4

Represent and communicate observations, ideas and findings using formal and informal representations

ACELY1676 8.4

Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and negotiate in collaborative situations

ACELA1498 8.4

Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources into students’ own texts including vocabulary encountered in research

ACELA1488 8.4

Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others for example when exploring and clarifying the ideas of others, summarising their own views and reporting them to a larger group

ACELY1792 8.4

Use interaction skills, including active listening behaviours and communicate in a clear, coherent manner using a variety of everyday and learned vocabulary and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume

ACELY1687 8.4

Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and information

ACTDEK011 8.4

Investigate how forces and the properties of materials affect the behaviour of a product or system

ACELY1688 8.4

Use interaction skills such as acknowledging another’s point of view and linking students’ response to the topic, using familiar and new vocabulary and a range of vocal effects such as tone, pace, pitch and volume to speak clearly and coherently

ACSIS064 8.4

With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and make predictions based on prior knowledge

ACTDEK013 8.4

Investigate the suitability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment for a range of purposes

ACTDEP017 8.4

Evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions based on criteria for success developed with guidance and including care for the environment

ACELA1476 8.4

Understand that successful cooperation with others depends on shared use of social conventions, including turn-taking patterns, and forms of address that vary according to the degree of formality in social situations

ACELY1689 8.4

Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular purposes and audiences

ACTDEP014 8.4

Critique needs or opportunities for designing and explore and test a variety of materials, components, tools and equipment and the techniques needed to produce designed solutions

ACELY1677 8.4

Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence

ACTDEP016 8.4

Select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques and use safe work practices to make designed solutions

ACTDEK010 8.4

Recognise the role of people in design and technologies occupations and explore factors, including sustainability that impact on the design of products, services and environments to meet community needs

ST2-9PW-ST old

Describes how contact and non-contact forces affect an object’s motion

EN2-1A old

Communicates in a range of informal and formal contexts by adopting a range of roles in group, classroom, school and community contexts

ST2-11DI-T old

Describes how digital systems represent and transmit data

ST2-3DP-T old

Defines problems, describes and follows algorithms to develop solutions

ST2-10ES-S old

Investigates regular changes caused by interactions between the Earth and the Sun, and changes to the Earth’s surface

EN2-6B old

Identifies the effect of purpose and audience on spoken texts, distinguishes between different forms of English and identifies organisational patterns and features

ST2-8PW-ST old

Describes the characteristics and effects of common forms of energy, such as light and heat

ST2-7MW-T old

Investigates the suitability of natural and processed materials for a range of purposes

ST2-6MW-S old

Describes how adding or removing heat causes a change of state

ST2-5LW-T old

Describes how agricultural processes are used to grow plants and raise animals for food, clothing and shelter

ST2-4LW-S old

Compares features and characteristics of living and non-living things

ST2-2DP-T old

Selects and uses materials, tools and equipment to develop solutions for a need or opportunity

ST2-1WS-S old

Questions, plans and conducts scientific investigations, collects and summarises data and communicates using scientific representations

EN2-9B old

Uses effective and accurate sentence structure, grammatical features, punctuation conventions and vocabulary relevant to the type of text when responding to and composing texts

EN2-11D old

Responds to and composes a range of texts that express viewpoints of the world similar to and different from their own

EN2-UARL-01 new

Identifies and describes how ideas are represented in literature and strategically uses similar representations when creating texts

EN2-HANDW-02 new

Uses digital technologies to create texts

EN2-SPELL-01 new

Selects, applies and describes appropriate phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling in a range of contexts

EN2-CWT-03 new

Plans, creates and revises written texts for persuasive purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience

EN2-CWT-02 new

Plans, creates and revises written texts for informative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience

EN2-CWT-01 new

Plans, creates and revises written texts for imaginative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience

EN2-RECOM-01 new

Reads and comprehends texts for wide purposes using knowledge of text structures and language, and by monitoring comprehension

EN2-VOCAB-01 new

Builds knowledge and use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, and by defining and analysing words

EN2-OLC-01 new

Communicates with familiar audiences for social and learning purposes, by interacting, understanding and presenting

VCSIS071

Reflect on an investigation, including whether a test was fair or not

VCDSCD030

Select and use materials, components, tools and equipment using safe work practices to produce designed solutions

VCDSCD029

Generate, develop, and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques

VCELA271

Understand that successful cooperation with others depends on shared use of social conventions, including turn-taking patterns, and forms of address that vary according to the degree of formality in social situations

VCDSCD031

Evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions based on criteria for success developed with guidance and including care for the environment and communities

VCDSCD028

Critique needs or opportunities for designing and explore and test a variety of materials, components, tools and equipment and the techniques needed to create designed solutions

VCELY308

Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular audiences and purposes such as informative, persuasive and imaginative, including multimodal elements

VCSIS065

With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and predict what might happen based on prior knowledge

VCDSTC027

Investigate the suitability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment for a range of purposes

VCELY276

Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence, using appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume

VCDSTC024

Investigate how forces and the properties of materials affect the behaviour of a designed solution

VCELY307

Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and use interaction skills

VCDSTS023

Recognise the role of people in design and technologies occupations and explore factors, including sustainability, that impact on the design of solutions to meet community needs

VCELA293

Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources, including vocabulary encountered in research, into own texts

VCELA304

Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others

VCELY275

Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and negotiate in collaborative situations and use interaction skills, including active listening and clear, coherent communications

VCELA305

Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording

VCSIS072

Represent and communicate observations, ideas and findings to show patterns and relationships using formal and informal scientific language

Differentiation

Modifications

This can be done as a simpler, whole class activity in younger classrooms, that will still let students get an experience of the design and development process.

EXTENSIONS

While designed with the middle years in mind, older students will love this activity. You can make it an individual activity or run it like a science fair, with students completing construction at home to increase the challenge. You can also choose global issues to focus on and incorporate research as part of the preparation.