Big Idea
In this lesson, students will learn about autonomous electric vehicles. They will understand how traditional combustion engines contribute to greenhouse gases and discover how electric vehicles can provide a cleaner, zero-emission alternative for transportation.
Take Action!
In the ‘Take Action’ portion of this lesson, students will build a simulated electric vehicle capable of avoiding obstacles. The goal of this activity is to understand how we can leverage technology to create more sustainable transportation methods that are better for the environment and contribute to safer roads.
Learning Goals
Students will:
- Describe how greenhouse gases in the environment accelerate climate change
- Understand the combustion engine and how it works
- Explore how electric vehicles can support a greener future
- Build a prototype of an electric vehicle that:
- Uses sonar sensors to detect objects
- Uses conditionals to trigger different actions
Materials
Per 1-3 students:
- Climate Action Kit or Smart Vehicles Kit
- micro:bit
- Computer with access to Microsoft MakeCode
- Different small objects to use as obstacles
Get to Know the Content
- Make sure you’ve completed the ‘Getting Started with the Climate Action Kit’ course
- It is has been awhile, review the kit components featured in this lesson:
- Review the lesson
Big Idea (40 minutes)
Learn how autonomous electric vehicles transform transportation by exploring the environmental costs of traditional combustion engines and their role in greenhouse gas emissions. Discover how electric vehicles provide a sustainable, zero-emission alternative.
Students will:
- Describe how greenhouse gases in the environment accelerate climate change
- Understand the combustion engine and how it works
- Explore how electric vehicles can support a greener future
- Build a prototype of an electric vehicle that:
- Uses sonar sensors to detect objects
- Uses conditionals to trigger different actions
Take Action (45 minutes)
Build your own electric vehicle with the Climate Action Kit!
We’ve provided 3 ways students may build the project to support scaffolding and differentiation in your classroom: ‘Use’, ‘Modify’, and ‘Create’.*
| Activity | Description |
|---|---|
| Use | Students will follow a step-by-step tutorial to build & test how their electric vehicle responds to obstacles. Success Criteria I can: – build an electric car with the Climate Action Kit – use the sonar sensor to measure if there are objects in its path Resources Tutorial Final Code |
| Modify | Students will follow a step-by-step tutorial to build their electric vehicle. After this, they will modify the code to improve the responsiveness of their vehicle. Success Criteria I can: – build an electric car with the Climate Action Kit – use the sonar sensor to stop my electric car when it encounters an obstacle – use conditionals to trigger specific actions based on input – use a variable to create a way to turn my electric car on and off Resources Tutorial Final Code |
| Create | Students will work in small groups to research electric vehicles build and design a prototype with the Climate Action Kit. Success Criteria I can build an electric car with the Climate Action Kit that uses: – the sonar sensor to stop when it encounters an obstacle – conditionals to trigger specific actions based on input – a variable to create a way to turn my electric car on and off Resources Blank Project |
*Irene Lee, Fred Martin, Jill Denner, Bob Coulter, Walter Allan, Jeri Erickson, Joyce Malyn-Smith, and Linda Werner. 2011. Computational thinking for youth in practice. Acm Inroads 2, 1 (2011), 32–37.
Use the following criteria to assess student learning. Students can:
Conversations
- Define combustion engine
- Describe how greenhouse gases in the environment accelerate climate change
- Explain why using electric vehicles will help climate action
- Explain the purpose of each smart component and building block in the main build (Use, Modify, Create)
- Explain the purpose of loops and conditional statements and variables in the starter code (Use, Modify, Create)
Observations
- Methodically test and debug their code to ensure it functions as intended (Modify, Create)
Products
- Add comments to the code to demonstrate their understanding of each block (Use, Modify)
- Add to the condition statement actions to improve movement of the electric vehicle (Modify, Create)
- Design their own electric vehicle that satisfies the provided criteria (Create)
- US National Standards
- Canada
- US States Standards
- United Kingdom
Coming Soon!
