Robotics Fun with BEAM

BEAM at UCLA X ACM Teach LA

We partnered with BEAM at UCLA to teach 4th and 5th graders some cool robotics! We have 7 weeks of hour long lessons and you can follow along what we did here!


Setup

In these lessons, we will learn how to code mBots! Before these lessons, you may want to acquire an mBot which you will learn to program, and download mBlock which will be where you code your robot. Here are some download guides to help you out: mBlock Download Guide (for all non-Chromebooks) / mLink Download Guide (for Chromebooks)


a monkey from a game you'll code in our week 1 lesson, sitting under a bananna tree

Week 1: Intro to Coding

How do people make games and websites and all that cool stuff? Learn the basics of coding with mBlock and block code! By the end of this lesson, you will learn how to make this spicy game.


a beetle and leaf from a game you'll code in our week 2 lesson

Week 2: Robot Coding Basics

Explore more with mBlock and learn how to make a bug move just like how a robot would. By the end of this lesson we will have completed our second game!


a blue mbot with wheels

Week 3: Assembling our Robot

Beep boop beep boop. Learn how to put together your robot! Your mBot should come partially assembled along with a manual, and we'll begin the rest of its assembly!


a girl coding her robot

Week 4: ASME at UCLA & Robot Assembly

This week, ASME at UCLA will come in and teach you a bit about the fancy robots and Battle Bots we make in university. Then, we'll finish assembling our robots!


a robot being assembled

Week 5: Coding our Robot

Robots. Coding. Finally time to code robots?? In this lesson, you will learn how to make your robot move at your command!


a girl coding her robot

Week 6: Making our Robot Dance

After learning the basics of programming our robot last week, this time we'll be coding our robot to dance!


a robot being assembled

Week 7: Coding our Robot to Follow a Line

In our final lesson, we'll be programming our robot to follow a line underneath itself! If you'd like to learn more, check out some of our other materials below! We hope you had fun with us!


Additional Scratch Lessons

Making a Scratch Skit

In this Scratch lesson, we'll be learning some new Scratch blocks to make some skits with Scratch!


Extra Materials

More Fun Ideas for your Robot

If you’d like to learn more or help your robot do more cool things such as to dance or follow a line, check out our link below!