Create a derailed course description that describes a 2-hour hands-on course on teaching computational thinking using a low-cost STEM robot.
The target audience for this course is teachers that have little or no experience with coding. The goal is to get them exposed to the ideas of teaching computational thinking using a fun hands-on $35 STEM robot.
The robot is built around the Cytron RP2040 Maker Pi board. It has two DC motors and a time-of-flight sensor as well as a 128x64 monochrome display.
The students will need to have Thonny installed on their desktops before the class begins.
The rough outline is:
- What is computational thinking
- Why are fun low-cost robots the best way to teach computational thinking
- Overview of physical computing
- Getting started with Thonny
- Blinking an LED
- Changing color on a NeoPixel
- Playing a sound
- Driving a motor
- Reading the distance sensor
- Updating the display
- Running the collision avoidance program
- Putting your robot in the robot corral
Use Bloom's taxonomy to create a prices list of learning objectives.