"Amazeing Dancer": Where Robotics Connects Math & Design

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Every year, Grade 8 students at WAB participate in an interdisciplinary unit (IDU) that combines math and design. This year's theme was "Geometry and Robotics," which challenged the students to explore how to calculate the rotation of a robot's wheels to navigate through a maze. The learning then came to a thrilling finale at the “Amazeing Dancer” competition in the HUB Blu Theatre.

Throughout the unit, students had to calculate the circumference of each rotation the robot would make to travel a specific distance. As they delved deeper into the unit, students came to understand the relevance of mathematics in real-world situations:

“It was really interesting how the math and design department combined the robotic lessons. A lot of my peers question the purpose of learning math, especially during this geometry unit. This activity really demonstrated how subjects are connected. I enjoyed the several lessons where we were able to construct our own robot and program it, collaborating with a peer,” said Grade 8 student Claire X.

Students also discovered the crucial role of math in both design and functionality. As Ben Newman, High School Math Learning Leader, noted:

“This project helped students see how the concepts of a circle's circumference and the value of Pi are essential when trying to determine how far a vehicle, in this case a Lego robot, moves forwards or backwards. On the flip side, students also saw how math is an integral part of Design. In addition, the whole process of planning and changing the plan after testing it out, redoing the math and adjusting the programming, reinforced the Design Cycle.”

“I did learn lots of coding skills, but the most significant skill I learned is to be patient and supportive at all times. Our robot was not going straight and kept bumping into walls, we had to be patient and solve it step by step. Teamwork helped us solve problems quickly, for example to save time, we had one person building the robot and one person starting to code,” said Grade 8 student Ali W.

Their learning and skills were then put to the ultimate test during the “Amazeing Dancer” competition in WAB’s Blu Theatre. Adding a competitive element to the learning process encouraged students to enhance their level of engagement. As Ben explained:

“We kept the competition between homerooms to strengthen the sense of homeroom community. We saw different teams helping and advising other teams in their own homeroom. We were particularly impressed with students' ability to meet a problem with their robot's trajectory and rather than be discouraged and frustrated, they simply kept retrying and adjusting their programming.  This display of a growth mindset and a set of problem-solving skills was inspiring!”

The Amazeing Dancer Competition was an electric, high-energy event, made all the more exciting by the vocal audience – fellow classmates who had come to cheer on their friends. At the helm of the impressive audiovisuals was the talented Middle School broadcasting team, the same group of students behind the thrilling WAB Mario Kart Cup a few months earlier.

Multiple groups competed against each other to see which robot could travel the fastest and longest without stopping. When a robot touched a wall, the whole run would be ruined.

“I think the most significant skill I gained was perseverance because throughout this unit we had to constantly change the code, fix errors and not give up. This was very challenging because some checkpoints were harder to pass and depending on the position that your robot started in, it could change your entire run. Sometimes this was very frustrating because on good runs our robot made it to checkpoint 7 and one bad ones the robot couldn't even pass checkpoint 2,” said Grade 8 student Kyleigh P.

This overall IDU and competition served as an introduction to robotics, which was the final unit of the design course. In the next unit, the students will learn how to program sensors and tackle more complicated tasks.

We’re looking forward to seeing more exciting displays of robotics skills and innovation from our students!

Images: Courtesy of WAB

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