1. ENGAGE:
   There are several ways to engage students in this activity. You could start by showing PSA: The Astronaut Helper, which can be streamed from the Apple Learning Interchange or the South Carolina Educational TV website to show your students the process of designing robot assistants to help astronauts during space missions. This could be followed by the hands-on activity in the Educators Guide. Start the Robot Challenge web activity with a story involving doing research on the International Space Station and the need for robotic assistance. You could discuss the design process - idea, design, build, test - a cyclic process. Squeak, an engaging multimedia authoring environment, will grab the attention of young learners.
2. EXPLORE:
   In the Robot Launch Challenge, your students should read the mission statement very carefully and work in groups to discuss and understand what the robot requires to complete the mission. They should decide whether they need a Norbot or Zotbot. For this project, the shapes are designed so that the parallelogram and trapezoid can be made from the triangle. There are only a certain number of triangle spaces on Norbot and a smaller number on Zotbot. As a check, they should tally the number of triangles they have in their solution and compare it to the number of spaces available (parallelograms count as two triangles and trapezoids count as three). Now they have to figure out how to place the parts in the robot. Give them the Norbot and Zotbot design sheets so they can draw their placement of parts on paper using the color-code for each part to identify it. You can download the MSWord documents for the Norbot and Zotbot design sheets. There is more than one way to place the parts. Finally, they should implement their solution in the Squeak mission project they chose and check to see if they are correct. Don't forget to challenge them to create their own mission.
3. EXPLAIN:
   Have your students explain their solutions and how their solution satisfies the mission requirements.
4. EXTEND:
   Close this window and follow the link in the Teacher Information area for a list of extensions with ideas ranging from straightforward to very challenging. You can modify the suggested extensions to fit the class time you have available.
5. EVALUATE:
   Have the groups discuss and defend their placement of parts. They should explain why they chose to place the the various parts where they did. The best way for students to see if they understood the process would be to challenge them to create their own mission and design a robot to complete the mission.