In today’s lesson, students will build on their understanding of directional commands by learning how to program their Bee-Bots to move in square shapes. This activity is designed to deepen their grasp of sequencing and spatial awareness, essential skills in coding.

By focusing on creating both small and large squares, students will also begin to understand the importance of precision and planning in programming.

This lesson sets the stage for more complex coding challenges and reinforces the foundational concepts they’ve been practicing.

Start the lesson by playing a variation of the "Student as Bee-Bot" game from the previous lesson. Explain to the class that their goal is to guide the student Bee-Bot to a specific spot in the room, just like they would program a Bee-Bot to follow directions.

Select a student to be the Bee-Bot, and point out a target location in the room, such as the sink, a chair, or a specific corner, making sure all the other students can see the target location.

Choose a student to be the leader, who will guide the student Bee-Bot to the target location. Encourage the leader to think carefully about the directions and give precise instructions, one step at a time.

The leader will give verbal instructions, using commands like "two steps forward," "turn right," and "turn left." The student Bee-Bot should follow each command exactly as given. After reaching the target, rotate roles so that other students have the opportunity to be the Bee-Bot and the leader.

Explain to the students that today they will be programming their Bee-Bots to move in a square. Begin by emphasizing the key features of a square: it has four equal sides and four right-angle turns, one at each corner. Point out that to create a square, the Bee-Bot will need to make four precise turns, each time changing direction, and moving forward after each turn to form the sides of the square.

Discuss how important it is to carefully think about each command—how every turn and step contributes to completing the square. Explain that after each forward movement, they must program the Bee-Bot to turn left or right to ensure it stays on track to create the square shape.

Encourage students to write their instructions on a whiteboard!

Next, using the interactive game below, demonstrate how you would program the Bee-Bot to move in a square. Start by programming the Bee-Bot to move forward for one side of the square, then turn 90 degrees to the right or left. Repeat this process until the Bee-Bot completes all four sides of the square.

After the demonstration, challenge the students to think about how they could make the Bee-Bot move in a bigger square. Ask them to consider how they would adjust the number of forward steps between each turn to create a larger square while still keeping the 90-degree turns at each corner. Encourage them to experiment with different square sizes to see how the Bee-Bot's movements change.

Divide the students into small groups, ensuring each group has a Bee-Bot, a mat with a grid, and whiteboards with markers.

Begin by explaining that their first task is to program the Bee-Bot to move in a small square on the grid. 

Instruct each group to work together to write down the sequence of commands on their whiteboards. 

Once the sequence is written, have the groups input their commands into the Bee-Bot and test it on their grid. 

After successfully programming the Bee-Bot to move in a small square, challenge the groups to take it a step further by programming the Bee-Bots to move in a larger square, such as a 2x2 or even a 3x3 square.  Encourage the students to experiment with different square sizes and see how they can modify their commands to achieve the desired shape.