TacTile Reader Lesson Ideas

Using the TacTile Reader helps students:

• understand that programs contain precise sets of instructions
• design, write and debug programs that accomplish specific goals
• use sequence and repetition in programs
• use logical reasoning to explain how simple algorithms work
• detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs

Lesson Idea #1: Getting to a Target Destination

Have a small group of students decide where the robot should go.
One student places tiles in the TacTile Code Reader.
A second student reads off the commands to the others.
When the group agrees that the set of tiles is placed correctly, a third student presses the Send button.
The group determines if the robot reached its target destination.
If it didn’t, the group needs to go back to the TacTile Code Reader and make changes to correct the problem.

Lesson Idea #2: Predicting the Result of a Program

Have a student place a random set of tiles in the TacTile Card Reader.
The other students confer and determine what action the robot will take when Send is pressed.
After the program is over, students decide if they were correct in their prediction.
If they weren’t correct, how can they fix the program?

Lesson Idea #3: Debugging a Program

The group decides where the robot should go.
A student places tiles in the TacTile Card Reader, deliberately making an error.
After a student presses the Send button and the robot finishes its program, students figure out where the problem is in the code and switch out or rearrange tiles to fix the program.

Lesson Idea #4: Using Extended Tiles

Ask students to use the extended tiles to move in the shape of a square or other shape, such as an octagon.

The example below would make Blue-Bot or Tuff-Bot move forward 1 square, turn 90° right and repeat that sequence 4 times. This code would make robot move in a square shape.