Have learners think of combining movements to create a more complex machine. This could become a cooperative drama exercise. 

After the creative work, have them think about the purpose of this more complex machine, as they did for the simple movements earlier in the lesson.

For learners with developmental co-ordination disorder (formerly dyspraxia) or general challenges with coordination, use toys in the classroom that have moving arms and legs to model the movements for the simple machine.

Ask for explanations about what the toy is doing and where the movement is controlled, support left and right awareness.

Teacher Guide

Presentation for Who is Marty

This first lesson is an introduction to Marty and moving parts. Learners will take part in drama and movement activities to see how they move and create a paper model with moving parts to see where Marty's joints are.

Start by reading the text that goes with the presentation, 'Presentation for Who is Marty', in the resources section. The notes will give you ideas for what you can say to support the presentation images. The start of the presentation is setting the scene that Marty is more than a toy and that Marty is a tool that can support our learning.

Following the text presentation, play ‘Marty Says’. All of the moves you will need to program are in the resource, 'Marty Says Code Samples'. Follow the instructions in the Teacher's Guide to see how to do this. If you do not want to program Marty, in the classroom, feel free to use the next part of the presentation, each slide will have a video, which showcases a movement. Additionally, the code blocks are also pasted into the teacher guide.

The order of the slides can be changed as you want. The eyebrow wiggle is one of Marty's movements that learners will likely not be able to complete. It may take them a little while to realise that.

Review the game and ask for some examples of what Marty moved. Identify where the movement starts. Introduce the word joint. 

The following can be done as part of a whole class activity or in small groups.

Have learners explore different movements they can make. Have a mirror type of activity where one learner creates a simple movement and a partner, group or the whole class mirrors that: this is not to be like a dance or walk / run; rather, it is the arm moving from the elbow or shoulder, a finger wiggling, a foot turning at the ankle, or something like that. Focus on where the movement starts - the joint. Have learners indicate the place that controls the movement by pointing to the joint on themselves or the person displaying the action. To extend the creativity of this, have learners pretend that they are a machine and that their movement does a job. Have learners think about why a robot might have this action: how would it help people; why might people not want to do it? Extend questions as needed.  

Share the Marty paper resource with learners. This can be cut out beforehand or learners could use this to practise their cutting skills. Dotted lines are on the page for suggested cut lines, which could be prepared with a guillotine paper cutter - the rectangular cuts should be sufficient to highlight the movement at the joints. Learners will need to find the places where the limbs should be attached to allow Marty to move arms and legs. It might be helpful to say to learners that this isn't the way Marty's arms and legs move but it is the place where the movements start. It is a good idea to have hole punchers available to make the holes in the paper rather than using scissors to make the holes. 

Celebrate the creative work that was accomplished: "You moved your arms or legs at the joints; you copied other people and a robot, you are able to move in some ways a robot can't!"

Remind learners of the goals for the lesson, "Say what helps us move our arms and legs and point to the places that help us move."

Ask learners if they think they did well with the lesson using a familiar formative assessment strategy: thumbs up for good, thumbs to the side for OK, thumbs down for not so good; a green, yellow or red card, indicating their thoughts; a one to one chat about the learning; whole class feedback using a PMI (plus, minus, interesting) approach; or some other strategy with which the learners are familiar. One strategy document is included in the resources.

Read the closing part of the text to tie into the next lesson (from the Story Part 1 text).

Carry out any end of lesson routines. Collect the paper Martys for later use, making sure their names are on each. Personalising the Martys with colour is also a possibility.

To use Marty as a model in the classroom, 

Marty Body Diagram Worksheet

Formative Assessment

Marty Says Code Samples

Story Text for the Lesson

Meet Marty!

TEKS - Elementary Technology Applications: Kindergarten to Grade 2

Georgia Standards of Excellence - Computer Science:

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Craft, Design, Engineering and Graphics

Georgia Standards of Excellence - English Language Arts: Writing

TEKS - Middle School Technology Applications: Grade 6 to Grade 8

Australian Curriculum - Mathematics: Number and Algebra - Number and place value

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Computing Science

National Curriculum - Computing, Design and Technology: Design and Technology

Common Core - English Language Arts: Writing

Australian Curriculum - Mathematics: Measurement and Geometry – Geometric reasoning

Georgia Standards of Excellence - Mathematics:

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Relationships

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Technological Developments in Society and Business

Next Generation Science Standards - Earth and Space Sciences:

National Curriculum - Science KS2: Physics – Light

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS2: Geometry – position and direction

Common Core - English Language Arts: Speaking & Listening

Georgia Standards of Excellence - Science:

Common Core - English Language Arts: Language

Curriculum for Excellence - Science: Planet Earth 

CSTA Education Standards

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS2: Number - fractions

TEKS - Elementary Technology Applications: Grade 3 to Grade 5

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS2: Geometry – properties of shapes

Curriculum for Excellence - Technologies: Digital Literacy

Curriculum for Excellence - Science: Materials

Common Core - Mathematics:

Curriculum for Excellence - Numeracy: Information Handling

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS1: Number - addition and subtraction

Australian Curriculum - Mathematics: Measurement and Geometry – Location and transformation

National Curriculum - Science KS4: Chemistry – Earth and atmospheric science

Australian Curriculum – Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Design & Technologies

Curriculum for Excellence - Literacy & English: Listening and Talking

Curriculum for Excellence - Science: Forces, electricity and waves

Australian Curriculum - Science: Science as a Human Endeavour

Georgia Standards of Excellence - English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Physical Activity and Sport

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Mental, Emotional, Social and Physical Wellbeing

Curriculum for Excellence - Numeracy: Number, Money and Measure

Curriculum for Excellence - Health and Wellbeing: Planning for Choices and Changes

TEKS - Elementary Science: Knowledge and Skills

Curriculum for Excellence - Numeracy: Shape, Position and Movement

Australian Curriculum - Mathematics: Number and Algebra - Fractions and decimals

National Curriculum - Science KS3: Physics – Motion and Forces

Australian Curriculum – Digital Technologies, Design & technologies: Digital Technologies

National Curriculum - Computing, Design and Technology: Computing

Curriculum for Excellence - Literacy & English: Reading

Next Generation Science Standards - Science and Engineering Practices:

Australian Curriculum - Science: Science Understanding - Physical Sciences

Next Generation Science Standards - Physical Sciences:

Curriculum for Excellence - Literacy & English: Writing

TEKS - Elementary Math: Knowledge and Skills

Georgia Standards of Excellence - English Language Arts: Reading

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

Georgia Standards of Excellence - English Language Arts: Knowledge of Language

National Curriculum - Mathematics KS1: Number - number and place value

0.01: Who is Marty the Robot?

Have groups come together and see if they can think of a way to make their program more interesting and complex by combining ideas.

Have cards to remind learners of the order of the steps as they create them: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th; or just 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. This will support those learners who become distracted with the images and forget the order.

Presentation for What is a Program

Create steps that tells something what to do

Now that learners have their own paper Marty prototype, we will start to introduce programming as a list of instructions. Learners will see how creating a program relates to real life. Learners will start breaking down steps to make sense of each individual instruction before putting together their own instructions.

Start by reading the text that goes with the presentation, 'Presentation for Who is Marty', in the resources section or use the separate Story text part 2. The notes will give you ideas for how to pace the text from the resource to support the presentation images.

Ask learners if they have ever followed some instructions for a game, recipe, or something else. Tell learners that this is like a program and the person who wrote the instructions is like a programmer. 

Following the text presentation, show the jumbled up steps for Marty making a sandwich. Tell learners that they are going to check if Marty has the correct steps for making a sandwich and if the steps are in the correct order. In groups or as a whole-class activity, learners need to think about what happens first, second, third, etc and order the images and text properly. The images on the Powerpoint slides could be looked at, in order, and learners could decide if something is incorrect and what needs to be changed. The work could be done by cutting out the sandwich file images, for individuals or small groups (included in the resources section), or the images could be rearranged in the PowerPoint file as a whole class activity. There is text at the bottom of each image with a suggested script.

Take time to talk about what happens when the order is wrong. The images do show the jam being spread but they are just to show what the step should look like, in isolation. The discussion should occur when a step is shown that should have occurred before an already seen step, the discussion could be something like, "Hmm, this step says to get the jam. A step we already saw said spread the jam. Would you be able to spread the jam if you didn't already have the jam? 

We could get the jam before we spread the jam.

" This discussion should result in a lot of back and forth, which is the important part of this exercise.

There is no one right answer for this activity; however, getting the ingredients and materials ready should happen before the 'recipe' steps, and clean up.

Have learners think back to the different moves that Marty could make, from the last lesson. Have them think about a routine, or a compound movement they do that they could get Marty to do. Think about each individual, small step that is needed to complete the movement. Have groups order the steps properly. To support the work, learners could use their paper Martys to model each movement; the paper Martys are not a perfect match for the real one's movements but the joints are appropriate. Also, the file called Marty Poses can be used by learners to sequence a routine for Marty. They can be cut out and arranged in the order that learners want Marty to perform actions. There are more actions than the ones available, but 8 may be enough for learners to chooes something they like. Alternatively, learners could take turns pretending to be Marty and carry out the instructions, one at a time. Finally, there is a video reminding learners of the movements in the presentation; feel free to delete the slide if you feel the printout or physical actions of the learners are sufficient.

Take time to walk around with a device and a Marty to quickly code some of their ideas to show what their created sequence will look like, each of the movements featured in the printouts and video are shown in the video, below. 

Allow time for learners to think again if they have everything in the correct order or if there are changes that are necessary. Once learners have decided on the best sequence, either with the provided Marty moves cards or with drawings they create, record the evidence with a camera or fix the sequence on some paper that could be displayed in the classroom. If learners find that some of the steps they have devised do not appear in the sample movements provided, encourage learners to draw, and describe, their ideas; adult helpers could support the recording of the steps.

Below is a second video displaying a potential sequence of actions that looks like Marty is washing a window or cleaning a board.

Take time to have learners showcase their Marty sequence; if possible, display some of the movements with Marty. Alternatively, learners could become Marty and display their movements to the rest of the class. As learners display their program, ask them to describe for you what the movement or action is and what Marty is able to do at the end of the program.

Celebrate the created sequences. Share with the learners that, "You were able to create a program that told a robot what to do.  As we continue our journey with Marty, we will be creating more programs for Marty to complete a variety of tasks."

Remind learners of the goals for the lesson, "To create steps that tells something what to do," and, "to check that the steps make sense and work properly."

Ask learners if they think they did well with the lesson using a familiar formative assessment strategy: thumbs up for good, thumbs to the side for OK, thumbs down for not so good; a green, yellow or red card, indicating their thoughts; a one to one chat about the learning; whole class feedback using a PMI (plus, minus, interesting) approach; or some other strategy with which the learners are familiar.

Read the closing part of the story, to close off this lesson and tie into the next part.

Paper Marty (created from Who is Marty Lesson)

Marty Poses Resource

Sandwich images

Create Instructions for Marty!

0.02: What is a Program?

Make the finish area farther away, if you make the goal farther than 50 cm, learners will need to use a second green card to keep moving in that direction. This will require learners to use a bit more trial and error as Martys movement is affected by bumps in the carpet or slidy surfaces.

Use a long ruler to guide the placement of Marty, for the initial direction. Encourage learners to get low to the ground to get a 'Marty-eye' view.

Presentation for Marty's First Moves

Story Text

Story text

In this lesson, learners will create a sequence of steps to allow Marty to move forward and stop, making use of Robotical's colored cards. Each card has an instruction built into it, that Marty understands, without the need to write or arrange any code.

For this entire lesson, Marty should be on the ground, not on a table. Additonally, the story text can be read with or without the presentation. There are instances in the presentation where media will showcase Marty moving, delete these slides if you want to model Marty in the classroom while reading the story; keep them to have Marty's movements modelled in the presentation. In preparation, all Marty's could be turned on and in 'unplugged' mode before the lesson starts.

; alternatively, the Martys could be turned on during the 'time for practice' section of the lesson.

Read to learners the learning objectives and success criteria using whichever method is familiar. They are on the ppt slides but the presentation does not need to be shown if you don't want it to be.

Warm up with a game of musical statues or musical bumps (there are links on the game names if you do not know how to play them). 

Here is a link to an audio track on YouTube that has a child-friendly music track

. Decide how long you want to play, the track is about 11 minutes long.

Ask learners how they knew when to start dancing. 

 Ask them how they knew to stop dancing. 

 Tell learners that these were instructions that were given to them and they followed the instructions. You didn't tell them to start dancing, every time, when the music started and you didn't tell them to stop, every time, when the music stopped. 

You could say that we followed the commands of the game. Now we are going to learn about something that needs our commands to get moving.

Read the story from the presentation. Much of the knowledge and understanding part of the learning for the lesson will occur as you read the story. Encourage learners to ask questions during the story, or pause during the story if you see thoughtful faces to further explore what is happening.

The following videos feature in the presentation:

video of Marty walking when light changes

video of Marty walking after the green card

video of Marty stopping with the red card

Let learners know that they will need to instruct Marty to reach their destination by using the color cards. Reinforce that learners need to be gentle with Marty, perhaps something like, "If we were all to touch Marty, the destination would never be reached. Let's do our best to just use the controller colors to tell Marty where to go and we can celebrate together at the end, when Marty reaches the goal." 

Have learners choose their starting point and place down the green card where they decide it should be. Have them then place the red card at the goal for where they want Marty to walk. Have learners line up Marty so that they are facing the red card, from the direction of the green card. Once they are happy with the way Marty is pointing, have them, or an adult in the classroom, 

. Then, place Marty on the green card and they will automatically start walking. It may be that Marty will not reach the red card on the first attempt; because Marty is a walking robot, the floor surface can affect his distance and direction: sometimes there is more friction and they do not walk as far, sometimes there is less, sometimes Marty's foot can catch on something, etc. It is important that learners see there are occasions where trial and error is a necessity with robots and writing programs.

Once learners all manage to reach the goal, celebrate with them. "You just created a program to tell Marty to do something. You are at the very start of a journey to create instructions for computers and robots!!" 

Remind learners of the amazing work that they accomplished, "You were able to instruct a robot to move from a starting point to a finishing point! That is just amazing! I wonder what we will get up to with Marty, next time?"

Remind learners of the goals for the lesson, "To tell a robot to move to a finish place," and, "to have Marty reach the finish place."

Ask learners if they think they did well with the lesson using a familiar formative assessment strategy: thumbs up for good, thumbs to the side for OK, thumbs down for not so good; a green, yellow or red card, indicating their thoughts; a one to one chat about the learning; whole class feedback using a PMI (plus, minus, interesting) approach; or some other strategy with which the learners are familiar. A formative assessment document is included in the resource section.

Object to represent a goal, or just the red card

Beginning with Unplugged Coding

0.03 Marty's First Moves

Have learners think of routes they could plan and break it. then have them draw or photograph the route to have a different group find and fix the instructions.

Remind learners of the commands for each of the colours and remind learners to look for Marty on the card: "Is Marty in the correct place when you put down the card?"

Presentation for Marty Finds and Fixes Mistakes

In this lesson, learners will be presented with imperfect instructions. Marty is trying to get somewhere and the person who created the instructions has made a mistake. Learners will need to identify the mistake and fix them so that Marty can progress on his journey.

For this entire lesson, Marty should be on the ground, not on a table. Additonally, the story text can be read with or without the presentation. There are instances in the presentation where media will showcase Marty moving, delete these slides if you want to model Marty in the classroom while reading the story; keep them to have Marty's movements modelled in the presentation.

Share with learners the objectives and success criteria, from the presentation. Then, have learners all stand up and face the front; make sure that each child has space so that no one bumps into anyone else and that no one is too close to a wall, this lesson will have everyone moving forward, back, and to the side. To start, let everyone have a good shake to loosen up their muscles. Tell learners that they are going to be following the leader, today, and that then they will be helping a real-live robot to follow instructions, properly.

With your back to the learners, adult support will be watching what is going on, tell learners to follow your lead. Say and move in a sequence of steps: 

"take 1 step forward" (point with your hand where forward is, to support), saying, 'one', 

"take 2 steps to the right side" (point with your right hand) and step, saying, 'one, two', 

"take 1 step back, but be careful not to step on anything" (point behind yourself), saying, 'one', 

"take 3 steps to the left side" (point with your left hand) and step, saying, 'one, two, three'

"stand with your feet still and wiggle your hips"

Tell learners that you don't know how they are doing so you are going to face them. Repeat the steps from above: forward, right, back, left. This time, you are facing the learners. There should be some confusion because when you say, 'forward' you will go forward and they will not go your forward. Stop and say, "But I said forward and you are not going 

 forward. Hmmm" Perhaps learners will respond by saying, "But we are going 

 forward," or perhaps they won't and they will just copy 

Take time to discuss this confusion before saying, "take 2 steps to the right side." At this point, there should be a number of learners who go to their right side, be careful as there may be some bumps, so watch for learners who may be close together. Again, address the confusion. "Why did you go that way," if there are learners who moved to their right. "I said to move to the right." Learners may respond that they moved to their right. Have a talk and a think about how we might address this confusion. There is no right answer here, it is a chance to talk about how it is important that a person giving instructions is clear in what they are asking: the person listening needs to know where/what they should do from their own perspective.

Share that, "The children in Marty's village were having difficulties with instructions, too. Let's listen to their problem and see if we can help them."

Read the story text from the slides in the presentation or from the resources section.

The following video clip features in the presentation. It shows Marty responding to instructions with a bug in them. The slide with the video has an image showing how the cards are arranged, without Marty. Take time to think and talk about where the bug might be in their 'code'.

Let learners know that they will need to investigate the children's instructions and see if they can figure out where they went wrong. The work will involve looking at the placement of color cards and what the children, from the story, are trying to do. Let learners in the class explore, with the color cards, what the villagers' sequences do and what they think they can work on to fix it. The examples from the workbook do not include measurements, so you may need to support the learners to line up the cards as they are displayed so that Marty will walk from one to the next.

The last part of the story is on the presentation slide that is after the example with the buggy instructions.

Remind learners of the amazing work that they accomplished, "You were able to fix the instructions for a robot by changing the steps to move Marty! Well done! I'm sure the village children would be happy, too."

Remind learners of the goals for the lesson, "To find mistakes in instructions," and, "to fix the mistakes."

Ask learners if they think they did well with the lesson using a familiar formative assessment strategy: thumbs up for good, thumbs to the side for OK, thumbs down for not so good; a green, yellow or red card, indicating their thoughts; a one to one chat about the learning; whole class feedback using a PMI (plus, minus, interesting) approach; or some other strategy with which the learners are familiar. There is a traffic light emoji page in the resources section called formative assessment.

Read the closing part of the story to close off this lesson and tie it into the next part.

Story text for the lesson

Instruction Bug Examples

First Debugging Practice

0.04 Marty Finds and Fixes Mistakes

In this pack, learners with very little or no programming experience will be introduced to robots and computational thinking. In addition, learners will have the opportunity to command real-life robots with movement instructions via colored cards.

Learning Portal

Learner Resources —

1: Introducing Marty and Programming

Lesson Pack Overview