Teaching article
Forward means the way the robot faces
Separate the token's direction from the reader's viewpoint.
Turn an arrow-marked token to face left, then execute forward. The resulting page-left movement helps separate the robot's own heading from the reader's habitual idea that forward should point towards the top of a worksheet.
Forward from a left-facing token moves left across the page.
Track heading and position separately
Mark its heading. Execute forward. Compare with the grid direction.
Track heading and position separately. This prevents a reader's preferred viewing direction from silently replacing the robot's defined orientation.
Forward does not always mean page-up.
Which way is the robot facing? Rotate the whole board initially.
Resources
- Draw the Robot’s Grid Route – Open-Ended Drawing Worksheet — Use the route drawing as a spatial planning prompt; add your command key separately.
Further reading
- CS Unplugged — Kidbots and algorithm activities
- Australian Curriculum Version 9 — Technologies overview
Read next
- A turn changes heading without moving to another square
- Break a robot delivery task into connected subtasks
- Sorting requires one rule applied all the way through
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