Try the math our students used to program their robots. A student team will guide you through all three challenges at their station.
Stop at a team's station and they'll walk you through all three challenges — each takes 2–4 minutes. Do all three at the same station so the team can sign off your whole card. They've been doing this math all summer, and the team signs each challenge as you finish it.
Each robot stat controls one part of the bot. What does one extra point actually give you?
Students set a Speed stat from 1 to 17. The bot's Motor Power is calculated using:
Motor Power = Speed × 5
Worked example: Speed = 4 → Motor Power = 4 × 5 = 20
Unit rate: 5 Motor Power per Speed point. Every time Speed goes up by 1, the bot gains exactly 5 Motor Power.
Speed = 7 → Motor Power = 7 × 5 =
Is this a proportional relationship? (Does more Speed always mean more Motor Power at the same rate?)
Your answer:
Students use coordinate grids to track robot positions and calculate distances across the arena.
(x, y) means: go x steps right from the left edge, then y steps up from the bottom.
Worked example: Point A = (1, 4) · Point B = (4, 2)
Grid distance (across + up): 3 + 2 = 5 steps
Plot the point (3, 5) on the grid above and mark it with an X.
Grid steps from A (1, 4) to your point (3, 5) =
When a stat doubles, does the result double? Not always — but with Motor Power, it does. Let's test it.
Two quantities are proportional when their ratio stays constant — doubling one always doubles the other.
Motor Power = Speed × 5
Speed 2 → Power 10 · Speed 4 → Power 20 · Speed 6 → Power 30.
Speed doubled (2→4), Power doubled (10→20). Speed tripled (2→6), Power tripled (10→30).
Speed = 3 → Motor Power =
Speed = 9 → Motor Power =
Did Motor Power triple when Speed tripled? Yes No
Motor Power is proportional because it multiplies by a constant (Speed × 5). The Charge Speed formula uses Power² — that one is not proportional. Ask a student to show you how those two formulas make very different graphs.
Thank you for visiting. Every challenge here is math the students have used since day one — they built, programmed, and competed with these formulas for 16 days. Ask your guide team to walk you through their stat allocation and the trade-offs they made.
Show visitors your bot launch and score. A demonstration, not a contest — and only if it passes the morning go/no-go check.
This is a demo, not a match: stationary ball, your programmed launch, one bot at a time — it cannot come out 0–0. But a kick that whiffs in front of visitors is worse than not running it, so every team earns the demo with a quick check first.
Set the bot in its corner and the ball on its spot. Run 3 test launches and mark each.
Launch 1 Scored Missed
Launch 2 Scored Missed
Launch 3 Scored Missed
2 of 3 scored → GO. You may demo the launch for visitors today.
0 or 1 scored → NO-GO. Don't demo the kick today — run the three Visitor Challenge cards + your poster instead (those always work). Keep tuning at Open Lab and re-check later; a GO can be earned any time in the day.
About a minute per visitor group. The point is the math running on the robot — not winning.
1. Set up. Bot in the corner, ball on its spot, goal at the end.
2. Explain first (10 sec): "Our bot drives two legs — corner to the midline, then straight at the ball — using drive times we got from our distance equation. Then it kicks."
3. Press A. The bot launches, rolls up to the ball, and kicks.
4. Ask the visitor: "Where do you think the drive times came from?" — then show them: ms = (distance − start-up) ÷ speed × 1000.
No score, no bracket, no winner — consistent with today's closing circle. If a kick misses during a demo, say what you'd re-tune and move on. Naming the fix out loud is honest engineering, and visitors respect it more than a lucky goal.
Facilitator sheet · one row per student / team · tally from the collected cards.
A visitor does all three challenges at one team's station; the team signs each challenge on the card. A fully-signed card = that team taught all three. After each visitor (or in a sweep), tick the team whose card came back complete. You don't have to watch every interaction — the cards are the record.
| Student / Team | Taught all 3 to ≥1 visitor | Visitors taught (tally) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Challenge | Success condition | Breakdown signal | Facilitator move |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Unit Rate | Visitor writes 35 and can say why it's proportional (same rate — 5 Motor Power per Speed point, every time). | Visitor writes an answer but can't explain "proportional"; the student does the multiplication out loud and the visitor just copies it. | Quietly to the student: "Give them the pencil back. Ask what happens if Speed goes up one more point." |
| 2 · Coordinate Plotting | Visitor places the X in roughly the right spot and counts (or attempts) the total steps. | Visitor swaps x and y, or plots without explaining direction, and the student quietly fixes the dot instead of asking them to recount. | "Hand them the pencil first. Ask: x first — how far right? then y — how far up?" |
| 3 · Proportional Scaling | Visitor fills in both boxes (15 and 45) and answers "Yes," connecting it back to the constant rate from Challenge 1. | Visitor circles Yes/No without doing the math first, or the student answers the "Ask a student" question instead of waiting. | Quietly: "Let them fill in both boxes first. If they're stuck: what did the unit rate tell us in Challenge 1?" |