Sphero Olympics

We are continuing to work on our Sphero Olympics projects!

Our first event is the Olympic opening ceremony, where each group's Sphero Athlete needed to walk around the arena one time.

Here are some videos of our athletes entering the stadium!

Sphero Olympics Hype!

In 3rd-6th Grade, we are currently doing a unit called "Sphero Olympics."

Spheros are spherical robots which can be controlled using an iPad or Computer. We started to get a taste for the Spheros by driving them around our classroom. Here's a little video from last year when we started the first time:

For the the JWP version of the Olympics, we paired up and each pair of students picked a country that participates in the Olympics from this list. Students then researched the country, learning the population, what money they use, athletes from the country, and how far they had to travel to get to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Games.

Students then designed a paper doll athlete from their country, choosing colors based on the outfits that the athletes wore in the Parade of Nations. I think they look pretty good!

Our Olympic Village is taking shape! Here are our Sphero Athletes from many nations! #mncodes #SpheroOlympics pic.twitter.com/G4TwFHEYVu

— Rachel J. Pierson (@RPiersonEdu) January 19, 2017

Our first event will be the Parade of Nations where the athletes will walk into the games, and then our first competition will be a "running" race around the track on the floor in our room. The students will have to use a block programming app called SPRK Lightning Lab to program the Sphero Robots to accomplish these tasks.  Look for the second January blog update with the results!