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Rescue Mission

Beginner robot Difficulty 1/5 Screen-free lesson Stop 6 / 11 ages 5-7

A hands-on, screen-free CS Unplugged lesson for ages 5-7 (about 30 minutes), part of the 'Kidbots' unit.

For a grown-up to do with a child.

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Your guide

AI-written overview

What is it?

Rescue Mission is part of a CS Unplugged unit about giving clear instructions to a robot, like a toy bot or a friend pretending to be one. You learn what a program is by writing one for a friend to follow.

Is it for me?

It is for children about 5-7 and up who like moving around and giving or following instructions. You do not need a computer. It is a Beginner activity to do with a grown-up or teacher.

Grown-ups: bugs are good. Praise finding and fixing mistakes, not only getting it right the first time.

How to start

  1. Make a grid on the floor with tape or chalk.
  2. Choose who is the programmer and who is the robot, and agree on simple commands.
  3. Write the program, run it, and fix any mistakes you find.

How much time?

Most lessons take 30 to 45 minutes. Plan about 15 minutes for a session. (estimate)

15 min per session 2 sessions estimate

A plan you can follow

  1. Day 1 30 min Be the robot and follow a friend's instructions.
  2. Day 2 30 min Write a longer program for a new route.
  3. Week 1 45 min Add a rule and find the bugs.
  4. Week 2 30 min Teach someone else the game.

Times are estimates. Go at your own speed.

Start the lesson

Open our lesson page for Rescue Mission. It is a short, simple version of an open lesson you can do together.

Go to the lesson

Adapted from CS Unplugged by the University of Canterbury Computer Science Education Research Group, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made: simplified, shortened and translated by Open Cosmos with AI.

On this site. From the list: uccser/cs-unplugged · License: CC-BY-SA-4.0 · CS Unplugged: Kidbots

Lesson from CS Unplugged, University of Canterbury CSER Group, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes were made: translated and level-tagged by Open Cosmos, with AI. Shared under the same license.

Your path through Kidbots

Stop 4 Move to a number Screen-free lesson Stop 5 Moving in a shape Screen-free lesson Stop 6 Rescue Mission Screen-free lesson Stop 7 Storytelling Screen-free lesson Stop 8 Sending a rocket to Mars Screen-free lesson Stop 9 Sending a rocket to Mars: programming challenges Screen-free lesson Stop 10 The Modulo operator Unplugged Screen-free lesson

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