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STEAM Unit: Designing Robots
1 2 3 4 5 6 Primary + Unit Plans STEAM Unit Plans Science Language for Expressing & Developing Ideas Interacting with Others Creating Texts Technologies Language for Interacting With Others STEAM 21 Pages

STEAM Unit: Designing Robots

Unlike many of our STEAM activities, this is a full unit, designed for Year 3 and 4 students to fulfil part of the Design and Technologies portion of the Australian National Curriculum, as well as a number of cross curricular skills that STEAM allows. However, you might find students throughout primary school would enjoy this set of activities
In this unit students, working in pairs, move through the design process to develop a robot that solves a real-world problem they have identified at school.
 

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Learning goals

  • We are learning to cooperate with others through turn-taking, social conventions and appropriate forms of address depending on the social situation.
  • We are learning to cooperate with others through turn-taking, social conventions, and appropriate forms of address depending on the social situation.
  • We are learning to use interaction skills to listen to and contribute to conversations, use positive statements to engage and appropriate language to disagree in group and class settings.
  • We are learning to use interaction skills to listen to and contribute to conversations, use positive statements to engage and appropriate language to disagree in group and class settings.
  • We are learning to use active listening skills, appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume to communicate and interact clearly with others.
  • We are learning to re-read and edit texts for appropriate meaning, structure, grammatical choices and punctuation.
  • We are learning to plan and deliver oral or multimodal short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence.
  • We are learning to recognise that we can use language differently with our friends and family, but that language is typically formal in texts and in written form.
  • We are learning to recognise that we can use language differently with our friends and family, but that language is typically formal in texts and in written form.
  • We are learning to use thinking verbs to express opinion, e.g. I think, I believe and to use summary verbs to report findings, e.g. we concluded.
  • We are learning to use thinking verbs to express opinions, e.g. I think, I believe, and to use summary verbs to report findings, e.g. we concluded.
  • We are learning to build new vocabulary from a range of sources including technical and subject specific language, such as synonyms and antonyms.
  • We are learning to build new vocabulary from a range of sources including technical and subject specific language.
  • We are learning to gather ideas and information in spoken texts by making notes, asking questions and seeking assistance and presenting ideas and opinions using appropriate levels of formality.
  • We are learning to use active listening skills, appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume to communicate and interact clearly and appropriately in a range of situations, discussions and presentations.
  • We are learning to plan, rehearse and deliver presentations in an organised manner with relevant facts and description from reliable sources.
  • We are learning to examine design and technologies that impact the design of products, services and environments to meet community needs.
  • We are learning to recognise the role of people in design and technologies occupations and explore how sustainability impacts product, service and environment design to meet community needs.
  • We are learning to describe how forces and the properties of materials affect function in a product or system.
  • We are learning to investigate how forces and the properties of materials affect the behaviour of a product or system.
  • We are learning to explore needs or opportunities for designing and test materials, components, tools, equipment and processes needed to create designed solutions.
  • We are learning to investigate the suitability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment for a range of purposes.
  • We are learning to critique needs or opportunities for designing and explore and test a variety of materials, components, tools and equipment needed to produce designed solutions.
  • We are learning to generate and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate attributions, technical terms and graphical representation techniques.
  • We are learning to generate, develop and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representations.
  • We are learning to select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions.
  • We are learning to select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques and use safe work practices to make designed solutions.
  • We are learning to use design criteria to evaluate ideas and solutions.
  • We are learning to evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions based on success criteria.

Curriculum alignment

AC9S4I01 9 Pose questions to explore observed patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations AC9TDE4P04 9

Use given or co-developed design criteria including sustainability to evaluate design ideas and solutions

 AC9TDE4P03 9

Select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques to safely make designed solutions

 AC9TDE4P02 9

Generate and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate attributions, technical terms and graphical representation techniques, including using digital tools

 AC9E3LA01 9 Understand that cooperation with others depends on shared understanding of social conventions, including turn-taking language, which vary according to the degree of formality AC9TDE4P01 9

Explore needs or opportunities for designing, and test materials, components, tools, equipment and processes needed to create designed solutions

 AC9TDE4K02 9

Describe how forces and the properties of materials affect function in a product or system

 AC9TDE4K01 9

Examine design and technologies occupations and factors including sustainability that impact on the design of products, services and environments to meet community needs

 AC9S3I06 9 Write and create texts to communicate findings and ideas for identified purposes and audiences, using scientific vocabulary and digital tools as appropriate AC9E3LY02 9 Use interaction skills to contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas AC9E4LA02 9 Identify the subjective language of opinion and feeling, and the objective language of factual reporting AC9E3LY07 9 Plan, create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations to inform, express opinions or tell stories, using a clear structure, details to elaborate ideas, topic-specific and precise vocabulary, visual features, and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume AC9E4LA11 9 Expand vocabulary by exploring a range of synonyms and antonyms, and using words encountered in a range of sources AC9E4LA01 9 Explore language used to develop relationships in formal and informal situations AC9E4LY07 9 Plan, create, rehearse and deliver structured oral and/or multimodal presentations to report on a topic, tell a story, recount events or present an argument using subjective and objective language, complex sentences, visual features, tone, pace, pitch and volume AC9E4LY02 9 Listen for key points and information to carry out tasks and contribute to discussions, acknowledging another opinion, linking a response to the topic, and sharing and extending ideas and information AC9S3I05 9 Compare findings with those of others, consider if investigations were fair, identify questions for further investigation and draw conclusions ACTDEP017 8.4

Evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions based on criteria for success developed with guidance and including care for the environment

 ACTDEK013 8.4

Investigate the suitability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment for a range of purposes

 ACELY1792 8.4 Use interaction skills, including active listening behaviours and communicate in a clear, coherent manner using a variety of everyday and learned vocabulary and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume ACTDEP015 8.4

Generate, develop, and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques

 ACELY1688 8.4 Use interaction skills such as acknowledging another’s point of view and linking students’ response to the topic, using familiar and new vocabulary and a range of vocal effects such as tone, pace, pitch and volume to speak clearly and coherently ACTDEP016 8.4

Select and use materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques and use safe work practices to make designed solutions

 ACELY1687 8.4 Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and information ACTDEP014 8.4

Critique needs or opportunities for designing and explore and test a variety of materials, components, tools and equipment and the techniques needed to produce designed solutions

 ACSIS064 8.4 With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and make predictions based on prior knowledge ACELA1498 8.4 Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources into students’ own texts including vocabulary encountered in research ACELA1489 8.4 Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording ACELA1488 8.4 Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others for example when exploring and clarifying the ideas of others, summarising their own views and reporting them to a larger group ACSIS060 8.4 Represent and communicate observations, ideas and findings using formal and informal representations ACELY1676 8.4 Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and negotiate in collaborative situations ACSIS058 8.4 Reflect on investigations, including whether a test was fair or not ACELY1677 8.4 Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence ACELA1476 8.4 Understand that successful cooperation with others depends on shared use of social conventions, including turn-taking patterns, and forms of address that vary according to the degree of formality in social situations ACTDEK010 8.4

Recognise the role of people in design and technologies occupations and explore factors, including sustainability that impact on the design of products, services and environments to meet community needs

 ACTDEK011 8.4

Investigate how forces and the properties of materials affect the behaviour of a product or system

 ACELY1689 8.4 Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular purposes and audiences
EN2-1A old Communicates in a range of informal and formal contexts by adopting a range of roles in group, classroom, school and community contexts ST2-11DI-T old Describes how digital systems represent and transmit data ST2-3DP-T old Defines problems, describes and follows algorithms to develop solutions ST2-10ES-S old Investigates regular changes caused by interactions between the Earth and the Sun, and changes to the Earth’s surface ST2-9PW-ST old Describes how contact and non-contact forces affect an object’s motion ST2-8PW-ST old Describes the characteristics and effects of common forms of energy, such as light and heat ST2-7MW-T old Investigates the suitability of natural and processed materials for a range of purposes ST2-6MW-S old Describes how adding or removing heat causes a change of state ST2-5LW-T old Describes how agricultural processes are used to grow plants and raise animals for food, clothing and shelter ST2-4LW-S old Compares features and characteristics of living and non-living things ST2-2DP-T old Selects and uses materials, tools and equipment to develop solutions for a need or opportunity ST2-1WS-S old Questions, plans and conducts scientific investigations, collects and summarises data and communicates using scientific representations EN2-9B old Uses effective and accurate sentence structure, grammatical features, punctuation conventions and vocabulary relevant to the type of text when responding to and composing texts EN2-11D old Responds to and composes a range of texts that express viewpoints of the world similar to and different from their own EN2-6B old Identifies the effect of purpose and audience on spoken texts, distinguishes between different forms of English and identifies organisational patterns and features EN2-UARL-01 new Identifies and describes how ideas are represented in literature and strategically uses similar representations when creating texts EN2-OLC-01 new Communicates with familiar audiences for social and learning purposes, by interacting, understanding and presenting EN2-VOCAB-01 new Builds knowledge and use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, and by defining and analysing words EN2-RECOM-01 new Reads and comprehends texts for wide purposes using knowledge of text structures and language, and by monitoring comprehension EN2-CWT-01 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for imaginative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-CWT-02 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for informative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-CWT-03 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for persuasive purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-SPELL-01 new Selects, applies and describes appropriate phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling in a range of contexts EN2-HANDW-02 new Uses digital technologies to create texts
VCDSCD028 Critique needs or opportunities for designing and explore and test a variety of materials, components, tools and equipment and the techniques needed to create designed solutions VCDSCD029 Generate, develop, and communicate design ideas and decisions using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques VCELA304 Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others VCELA305 Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording VCELY275 Listen to and contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas and negotiate in collaborative situations and use interaction skills, including active listening and clear, coherent communications VCELY276 Plan and deliver short presentations, providing some key details in logical sequence, using appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume VCELA271 Understand that successful cooperation with others depends on shared use of social conventions, including turn-taking patterns, and forms of address that vary according to the degree of formality in social situations VCELA293 Incorporate new vocabulary from a range of sources, including vocabulary encountered in research, into own texts VCELY308 Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular audiences and purposes such as informative, persuasive and imaginative, including multimodal elements VCSIS072 Represent and communicate observations, ideas and findings to show patterns and relationships using formal and informal scientific language VCSIS065 With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and predict what might happen based on prior knowledge VCELY307 Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and use interaction skills VCDSTC027 Investigate the suitability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment for a range of purposes VCDSCD031 Evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions based on criteria for success developed with guidance and including care for the environment and communities VCSIS071 Reflect on an investigation, including whether a test was fair or not VCDSTS023 Recognise the role of people in design and technologies occupations and explore factors, including sustainability, that impact on the design of solutions to meet community needs VCDSCD030 Select and use materials, components, tools and equipment using safe work practices to produce designed solutions VCDSTC024 Investigate how forces and the properties of materials affect the behaviour of a designed solution

Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.

Differentiation

Modifications

This can be done as a simpler, whole class activity in younger classrooms, that will still let students get an experience of the design and development process.

Extensions

While designed with the middle years in mind, older students will love this activity. You can make it an individual activity or run it like a science fair, with students completing construction at home to increase the challenge. You can also choose global issues to focus on and incorporate research as part of the preparation.

Teach it your way

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Linked resources & worksheets

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