First Drive Timing Guide (3 Hours)

Audience: Ages 9-14, no coding experience required.
Goal: Connect to the robot, drive a distance and turn an angle, and calibrate.

9:00-9:15 — Arrival Game: Human Robot

Students command a human “robot” with literal steps to pre-teach “the robot does exactly what you say.”

Objective: pre-teach “the robot does exactly what you say” before anyone touches code.
Flow:
1. As students arrive, one is the “robot” and teammates give literal step commands (“forward 2 steps, turn right, forward 1 step”) to reach a target.
2. When the “robot” does something silly because of a vague command, name it: that’s sensor data — it did exactly what was said.
Watch for: students adding commands the robot didn’t get (“you knew what I meant!”).
Tip: keep it light; this just primes the mindset for the day.

Meet the robot, find labeled hubs, frame the mission (distance, turn, square), assign roles.

Objective: meet the robot and frame today’s mission.
Flow:
1. Introduce the robot and have each team find their named, labeled hub.
2. Today’s mission: drive a distance, turn an angle, trace a square.
3. Introduce the mantra: “Bugs are sensor data.”
Tip: assign the first set of roles (Coder, Builder, Navigator, Tester) now.

Connect over Bluetooth and run straight() and turn(). Milestone: every team drives and turns. Budget 10-15 min for first-time Bluetooth.

Objective: every team connects over Bluetooth and runs straight() and turn().
Flow:
1. Open code.pybricks.com in Chrome/Edge and connect to the hub by name.
2. Run robot.straight(200) — watch it drive.
3. Run robot.turn(90) — note the direction (positive = clockwise/right).
4. If it drives backward, flip a motor Direction.
5. Rotate roles ~halfway through the block.
Off-robot task: Navigator sketches the square path and predicts each command on the worksheet (keeps non-coders busy and feeds Block 2).
Watch for:
- First-time Bluetooth connection friction — budget 10-15 min, connect one yourself first
- Hubs already connected to another laptop (only one connection at a time)
- Students treating 56/112 as “the answer” — remind them those are guesses for later
Tip: get one team fully connected fast, then have them help neighbors.

Calibrate wheel_diameter then axle_track, then loop the moves to trace a square. Tune distance first, then turning.

Objective: calibrate distance and turning, then trace a square.
Flow:
1. Run robot.straight(1000), measure the real distance, adjust wheel_diameter, repeat until it’s ~1 meter. Record tries on the worksheet.
2. Run robot.turn(360), check for one clean spin, adjust axle_track, repeat.
3. Wrap the moves in a for i in range(4): loop to drive a square.
4. Test the square; tighten calibration to close the gap.
Watch for:
- Teams changing both numbers at once — tune distance first, then turning
- Frustration that the square doesn’t perfectly close — “pretty close” is a win
- Make sure the Tester is recording numbers; that’s the day’s artifact
Tip: a tape measure on the floor and masking-tape start lines speed up measuring.

Each team demos a drive-and-turn, debrief with prompts, charge hubs and keep robots intact for tomorrow.

Demo: each team (voluntarily) shows a drive-and-turn of their choice.
Prompts:
- “What did you change to make the square close up better?”
- “When did the robot surprise you, and what did the code actually say?”
Cleanup: label and charge hubs; keep robots intact for tomorrow.
Bridge: “Tomorrow we’ll give these moves names and string them together to solve a maze.”

Calibrate don’t memorize, treat bugs as sensor data, rotate roles so everyone codes, and celebrate the first drive.

Calibrate, don’t memorize: never hand out “correct” wheel/axle numbers.
Bugs are sensor data: when the robot misbehaves, ask “what did the code say?”
Everyone codes: rotate roles and keep the off-robot task going so all four stay engaged.
Celebrate the first drive: it’s the moment that hooks students for the week.