Title: Shape Run with ROBOTS!!

 
Nicole, Megan, McKenzie 
Grade: ​2nd Grade Math 
Time Duration:​ 1 class period 
Overall Goal:​ The objective of this lesson is for students to understand computational thinking 
while applying it to their mathematicals studies. In this lesson, students are learning about 
geometry and the different features of each shape. These shapes include; squares, rectangles, 
triangles, cubes, and rectangular prisms. By using the robots in the main part of the lesson to 
create the shapes, they will be decomposing the shape and putting together the steps it takes to 
create the shape. By doing this, the students will have a deeper understanding about the creation 
of shapes and will work on their decomposition and algorithm skills.   
 
To meet the objectives of this lesson, the students will participate in a dashbot activity and search 
around the school. In the dashbot activity, the students will be controlling the dashbot by 
programing it to create shapes that are laid out on the floor. Through this activity the students 
should be able to understand decomposition, as the break down the different aspects of the 
shape that they are trying to make. They then should be able to understand algorithm because 
they will be putting together a step by step instruction for the dashbot to follow in order to 
complete the shape. These concepts of computational thinking will be important for the students 
to learn because they can apply these concepts to problems in their everyday lives. By 
instructing the robot to move certain ways to create the shapes, the students will also have a 
greater understanding about the makeup of shapes. For example, by programming the robot to 
create a triangle, the students will see that the robot turns three times and goes straight three 
times. This indicates that fact that a triangle has three points and three sides.  
 
For the search around the school activity, students will be able to showcase what they have 
learned and to take their thinking one step further. They will be given a worksheet where they 
will draw the shapes that they find around the school and will answer questions about the shapes 
make up (sides, points, 2D or 3D, etc). This will help us distinguish if the students understand how 
to recognize the make up of shapes and if they are able to recognize how shapes are used in 
real life. The students will share what they found in front of the class and will be asked how the 
shape of the object they found helps the function of that object. By answering this questions 
students will be able to understand the uses of shapes in our everyday lives and why certain 
objects are designed to be certain shapes.  
 
 
Standards  Learning Objective  Assessment 

2.G.2: Create squares,  Students will be able to identify  See rubric below 
rectangles, triangles, cubes,  features of different 2D and 3D  And Kahoot game  
and right rectangular prisms  shapes 
 using appropriate materials.   
Students will be able to identify 
shapes from the environment 
around them 
 

ISTE Standard:Students
develop and employ
strategies for understanding
and solving problems in
ways that leverage the power
of technological methods to
develop and test solutions.  bot to trace the path of different
Students will be able to use the  Students will be 
Dash Robot to form different shapes  placed into groups 
while improving their coding skills.   and have to form 
  shapes using the 
Students will be able to create an  coding provided 
algorithm by programming the dash  with the Dashbot 
 
shapes.  
Students will be able to use 
decomposition when looking at the 
codes they do use to make the dash 
robot move. 

K-2.E.2 Develop a simple
sketch, drawing, or
physical model to illustrate
and investigate how the
shape of an object helps it
function as needed to solve
an identified problem.
Students will be able to identify the  Lesson ending: 
features of different shapes and  students will walk 
describe/explain how their features  around the school 
are used in the real world  and identify different 
shapes that they see 

 
 
 
 
Key Terms & Definitions:  
● Computational Thinking: ​Identifying a problem and expressing the solution in different 
ways to make it simpler to understand.  
● Algorithm:​ a ​set of rules or ways to solve a problem.  
● Decomposition: ​breaking a problem into parts so that it is easier to understand when 
looking at it step by step. 
● Abstraction: ​a way of rearranging complex parts, things, instructions, etc.  
● Square: ​a shape with four equal straight lines and four right angles. 
 ● Rectangle: ​a shape with four straight sides and four right angles. Not all four sides are 
equal. 2 sides are the same length and parallel and the other 2 sides are a different 
length than the first 2 sides but are equal to each other.  
● Triangle:​ ​a 2D shape that has three straight sides and three angles in the shape. The 
angles could all be equal or unequal.  
● Cube:​ ​a 3D shape contained by six equal squares. A box made of squares. 
● Prism: ​a 3D geometric shape who has two end faces are similar, equal, and parallel 
rectangular figures. The sides are parallelograms.  
● Parallelograms: ​a four-sided plane with the opposite sides parallel. 
 
 
Lesson Introduction (Hook, Grabber): 
 
To introduce the lesson the students will stand up in the front of the class and together we will go 
over the shapes and make them with our body. One student will go up at a time and make a 
shape and then the other students will say what shape they made. We will then have the students 
fill out a worksheet​ that includes what they know, what they learned, and what questions they 
have about shapes in general.  
 
After that we would show a ​video​ on the different shapes and their properties. After the video 
they will talk and finish the worksheet in small groups of 3 or 4 about what they learned and what 
they still have questions about after watching the video. Before jumping straight into the activity 
the students will do a kahoot to identify each shape to see how much they remember or learn 
from the video.  
 
 
 
 
 
Lesson Main: 
 
Students will do an activity where they use the dash bots to draw shapes. We will place tape on 
the ground making various shapes (squares, rectangles, triangles, cubes, and rectangular prisms). 
We will indicate a start and stop position on each of the shapes. Before sending the students off 
to complete this activity, we will show a short video that we have created to explain how to do 
this with the triangular shape.  
 
Groups of three students will go to each shape with the dashbot. They will first draw the shape on 
the ground on a piece of paper and discuss the steps to creating the shape and what makes up 
the shape such as how many points, angles, etc. Then they will use what they broke down about 
the shape to program the dashbot to follow the tape and create the shape on the ground. This 
will be a trial and error experience for the students. They most likely will not be able to get the 
correct distance or angles on their first try which is okay! During the lesson students should be 
writing down the distances and angles they use so that they can compare it with their classmates 
at the end of the lesson. If students are excelling during the lesson, allow them to use the other 
fun features of the dashbot such as sound or other movements such as dancing! There can also 
be added challenges such as drawing their own shape if they complete the one provided for 
them. Students should use their creativity and knowledge of the features of shapes to create a 
new shape. If they get to this point, they scan they share this with the class! 
 
 
 
Lesson Ending: 
 
For the end of the lesson, students will be given a worksheet (attached down below). They will be 
asked to go around the school (or classroom) and find the shapes we have discussed throughout 
the lesson (squares, rectangles, triangles, cubes, and rectangular prisms). The worksheet will ask 
them to draw the shape, describe where it is, how many sides it has, how many points it has, and 
is it 2D or 3D. The worksheet answer key (attached below) goes over examples of what students 
could find around the school and how they would answer the questions. After the students 
explore for shapes, they will come back to the classroom and each student will share one of the 
shapes that they found. One by one the students will come up to the white board, draw their 
shape, and give their answers to the questions on the worksheet. Lastly they will describe why 
the object that they found is the shape that it is. For example if they found a book, they would 
describe why books are shaped as rectangular prisms. They could say that it needs to be 3D to 
hold the the pages and has flat sides to be able to stand up. If students have trouble with this 
question, the teachers can help prompt them by asking questions such as “what helps this shape 
stand up?,” “how would the object be different if it were made up of a different shape?,” “did they 
decide to make the floor out of a certain shape because it fits better in the dimensions of the 
hall?,” etc. By going the step further and thinking about shapes uses, it will get them to think 
deeper about the makeup of shapes and they will understand standard ​K-2.E.2 Develop a simple 
sketch, drawing, or physical model to illustrate and investigate how the shape of an object helps 
it function as needed to solve an identified problem.  
 
Worksheet answer key: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RZkvjCij398jNFqxPlCPEGgdS7fMIIVQscZi57eyS6o/edit?us
p=sharing 
 
 
 
Assessment Rubric: Worksheet for Lesson Ending 
  Great  Average  Poor 

Application  Students are able to  Students are able to  Students cannot 
apply their knowledge to  apply some of what  apply their previous 
how shapes are used in  they previously  knowledge to how 
their everyday life  learned about how  shapes are used 
 shapes are used 

Understanding  Students are able to  Students can identify  Students cannot 
identify the features of all  some features of  identify any features 
of the shapes that were  shapes  of shapes 
found in their 
environment 

Completion  Students completed the  Students find almost  Students were only 
worksheet by finding all  every shape in their  able to identify a few 
of the shapes around  environment, but not  shapes in their 
their environment  all  environment 

Assessment   Students completed all  Students completed  Students were not 

aspects of the dashbot  the dashbot activity,  able to complete the 
activity and can show  but they are slightly  dashbot activity and 
their knowledge of the  struggling with how to  need help with using 
dashbot by showing the  show the different  the coding aspects 
different aspects of  aspects of coding 
coding 
 
 
 
Resources / Artifacts: 
 
Nicole: Worksheet for Intro (with sample on the bottom) 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b1EdMp5csrGZmC0cu3nCHt4zpDGd3qkynKrwWz5TVfA/e
dit 
 
Megan: worksheet for Ending (with answer key) 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wgNyS14eOofKcPE5pTnTU-JAlI_bwOpkhC_tlJp9qDw/edit
?usp=sharing  
  
Answer key: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RZkvjCij398jNFqxPlCPEGgdS7fMIIVQscZi57eyS6o/edit?us
p=sharing 
 
McKenzie 
Kahoot Game for lesson plan and MT 
https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/97d05d05-a496-4c38-a56f-22aaeeb156c6 
https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/42e7dc87-961b-4338-8580-bd4b950a0a0a 
 
All: Youtube video explaining how to use the dashbot 
https://youtu.be/91JI6UE41n0 
 
Youtube video explaining shapes 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgQJcN-hMpc 
 
 
 
 
 
Differentiation: 
 
1. Differentiation for ability levels 
● High ability learners, low ability learners 
○ High ability learners: For the dashbot portion of the lesson, students that are high 
ability learners could be given harder shapes to draw with the dashbot. For 
example, instead of doing basic triangles, we can make more irregular triangles 
with sharper or wider angles. Also we could give them challenge shapes like 
hexagons, octagons, etc. to draw on the ground if they get done doing the shapes 
we have provided for them to do.  
○ Low ability learners: For the dashbot portion of the lesson, students that are low 
ability learners will be able to work in groups with students that may be of higher 
ability than them. This way the higher ability students can help the lower ability 
students understand how to work the robot and how to draw the shapes. Also the 
lower ability students could be given less complex shapes with less sides and 
turns. For example we could give them a simple square instead of a triangle 
because they would only have to move the robot straight and turn it 90 degrees 
instead of going straight and trying to figure out the angle of a triangle.  
 
2. Differentiation for demographics 
● Not applicable 
 
3. Differentiation for languages 
● ESL, EFL, ENL 
○ When using the ipads to control the dashbots, students will have the ability to 
change the language or have the ipad read out loud to them. This way students 
who don’t have english as a first language can understand the coding better. Also 
students who have trouble seeing can hear what is going on to help them. 
Students in the groups can also read the codes out loud to other students in the 
group if they choose not to have the ipad read out loud or if the student would still 
understand english through the students reading out loud.  
 
4. Differentiation for access & resources 
● Computers, Internet connection, and/or Wifi access 
 ○ The technology we use in this lesson are the dash bots, ipads to control the 
dashbot, and the projector to play kahoot. These materials are provided to the 
students so there will be no problem with students not having access. If the wifi 
access or internet access fails, we will have the questions for kahoot on paper and 
will play a game similar to kahoot but without using the internet. This game will 
consist of us asking the question and the student writing on a piece of paper their 
answer. If the get it right they add 5 points and if they get it wrong they don't get 
any points. If we are unable to use the dashbots, the students will act as the 
dashbots. For example one student will volunteer to be the “dash bot” and the 
other students will instruct that student on where to move (ex: turn 90 degrees, go 
straight for 15 inches, etc.) in order to make the shape that is taped on the ground.   
 
 
 
 
 
Anticipated Difficulties: 
 
One difficulty we could encounter would be the students would not know how to use the dash 
bots. If the students do not know how to use the dash bots we would show them a demonstration 
on how to use them and everything they can do. A video has been created for the students to 
look at if they need to know how to find certain features on the dash bot app. Another difficulty 
would be if the dash bot does not work. There are possibilities that either the dashbot is not 
charger or the ipads are not charged. If the dash bots do not work, we would have the students 
draw the shapes with tape and label the different parts of the shape. The parts that they would 
label would include the side lengths, angle measurements, vertices, and faces.