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Gotham Tech · Mon Jul 27 – Thu Jul 30

What To Do, Monday to Thursday

Print this. Do the steps in order. If you only do the steps on this page, the week works.

Set up once before Monday

There are no matches this week — and that's on purpose
The bots drive fine, but scoring a goal needs stats tuned for it, which is not where this group is — so matches keep coming out 0–0, and a 0–0 tells you nothing. The whole week runs on the Distance Lab instead: drive the bot, measure how far it went, predict the next one. Distance can never come out 0–0 — it needs no opponent and no goal, just a tape measure, so every bot produces a real number every time.
What you need on the tables Monday
A tape measure or meter stick for every team — the most important object in the room — a strip of tape on the floor as a start line, and the Distance Lab worksheet printed (one per team). Load the Distance Lab MakeCode onto every bot: button A drives, button B adds half a second.
Say this before every single run "Write down one number, before the bot moves. How many centimeters will it travel? No ranges."
Say this after every single run "We predicted ____. We got ____. The gap was ____. Because ____."

Monday — the Distance Lab Jul 27

  1. 10:00Launch the lab. Hand out the worksheet, load the code, and each team locks 4 stats that add to 20 (write them on the board — they don't change all week). Teach the two rituals above.No warm-up video. The bot driving is the hook.
  2. 10:15Distance Lab worksheet. Trial 1: drive 1 second, measure cm → that's the bot's speed. Then predict-and-measure at longer times; subtract two runs to fix the speed, find the start-up, write distance = speed × time + start-up (start-up is negative, so it reads as −; "speed" = cm/sec from Trial 1, not the 1–17 stat).Put these three on the board: too far/short (model off) · not straight (motors) · different every run (batteries/start line — fix before tuning).
  3. 12:00Lunch.
  4. 1:00TARGET CHALLENGE — Precision Final. Tape a target line. Teams solve the drive time, turn it into milliseconds (× 1000), and put it on the ★ line of the Target Challenge code, download, drive. A few practice targets, then a surprise target: best of 2, closest wins, crown a champion.Everyone programs the exact time, so it's fair. One neutral ref measures. TEST that bots reach the line first.
  5. 1:55Make the equation poster in Canva. Equation + the graph of the five dots. Poster how-to → · Poster worksheet →Also write the equation big on a sheet of paper and tape it to the wall — that's what the class compares tomorrow.
  6. 2:40Close. Each team names the one thing they were most wrong about today. Preview: "Tomorrow you compare equations, build a launch, and measure how much you improved."
How you know Monday worked
Every team leaves with five measured trials and a written equation. Three trials is the minimum; five is the target.

Tuesday — compare, launch, measure Jul 28

  1. 10:00Read the equations on the wall. "Whose bot is fastest? How can you tell from the equation?" (The speed is the number in front of the time.)Every team's is different — that's correct, don't fix it.
  2. 10:15MODEL SWAP. Each team picks one other team, types that team's speed and start-up into the equation tool to see both bots on one graph, then writes what they'd keep and what they'd re-check in their own — citing a number.
  3. 10:45LAUNCH SEQUENCE. A two-leg launch: corner → midline → ball. Turn out to the midline and drive; turn to face the ball head-on and drive to it; then it kicks. Each drive time is ms from their equation, done twice. Angles are 45° to start or measured with a protractor. Worksheet · Launch Test. Get it landing reliably.TEST the kick first — wide goal, short distance behind the ball.
  4. 12:00Lunch.
  5. 1:00LAUNCH-AND-SCORE. Put the launch up against the other teams — same field for everyone (corner, ball spot, goal), five launches — most goals of 5 wins. Rules + scoreboard.
  6. 1:45PERCENT CHANGE. How much did fixing your method change your speed? The tool teaches it, gives eight practice problems, then they compute their own: first-guess speed (1-second run) → corrected speed → percent change.Both numbers are on their Distance Lab sheet.
  7. 2:30Finish the Canva poster. Add the percent-change result.

Wednesday — get ready to teach, then measure the growth Jul 29

  1. 10:00Teach it in 30 seconds. Turn to the next team: in 30 seconds, no notes, explain what your speed number and start-up number mean — not the numbers. Then swap.
  2. 10:25Teach the Math. In the tool, each team picks Linear Equation (or Percent Change) and explains it with their real numbers. Ask each: "How did you get that specific number?"
  3. 11:25TEACH-BACK rehearsal. Team A plays a confused visitor and tries Team B's challenge after one explanation — no rescuing. Note where they got stuck, rewrite that one sentence, swap.
  4. 12:00Lunch.
  5. 1:00Post-Task Diagnostic. 12 minutes, individual, no talking.Say: "This is not a test of you. We're comparing you to yourself four weeks ago."
  6. 1:15Post-Reflection Survey. Same sitting. Check every name is spelled the same as Day 1.
  7. 1:25Reflection Time — finish the station. Poster up, bot ready, target line down, staged as a visitor will meet it. One last rehearsal.
  8. 2:15Open Lab — finish posters + free build. Finish posters, help another team, keep tuning launches — get every station exhibition-ready. Borrow from here if the diagnostic or a rehearsal ran long.
Protect the diagnostic and the reflection
They're the only things this week that can't be done later — the research before/after. If Wednesday runs late, cut the Reflection-Time polish, never the diagnostic, the reflection, or the teach-back.

Thursday — teach it for real, then celebrate Jul 30

  1. 10:00Expert setup + last rehearsal. Poster, bot, target line, the sentence they rewrote yesterday. Run the launch go/no-go now if teams want to demo.
  2. 10:45Community Exhibition (until 12:00). Visitors try each team's challenge — the team teaches them to hit the line with the equation — plus the printed mini-challenge cards. Fill the tracker.The question: did the visitor succeed after one explanation? The students teach. Optional Demo Your Launch: only teams that pass the morning go/no-go (3 launches, 2 score) demo the kick; it's a demo, not a contest.
  3. 12:00Lunch.
  4. 1:00Celebration — Victory Laps + Sign the Wall. Team by team, a 3-2-1 countdown and one last bot run for fun (no scoring). Then music on: sign each other's equations/posters and a class banner with one thing you're proud of. Group photo.Loud and quick — the reflective part is the closing circle next.
  5. 1:45Closing circle + final journal. Each student names one moment this week they solved something they thought they couldn't.
  6. 2:30Open Lab — pack up + send-off. Strike the stations, take posters and notebooks home, last photos and goodbyes.

If this happens, do this

If…Then…
You're tempted to run a real match "just to try." Don't. Scoring needs stats tuned for it, so a match will almost certainly come back 0–0 and cost an hour for no data. The Target Challenge and Launch Sequence are the scoring skill — precision to a spot — with no opponent, so they can't come out 0–0.
The kick won't reliably score (Target or Launch). Widen the goal, shorten the distance behind the ball, and dry-run a few yourself before competing. If it's still flaky, score on precision instead — closest to the target line wins — and skip the goal. Don't let a weak kick get blamed on the math.
A bot won’t move at all. Check in order: LEDs showing a number? (if not, re-flash) → batteries + the Cutebot’s power switch → Cutebot Pro extension. If only one or two work, share them — each team still writes its own prediction and measures its own trial.
A team's numbers jump around ("different every run"). Don't build an equation on them yet. Fresh batteries, same start line, re-measure. A consistent change per second (38, 38, 38) means the data is good.
You get fewer than 3 trials Monday. Pool the class's runs so there are at least three good time-and-distance pairs, or teach the method on the worked bot in the Distance Lab answer key (distance = 38t − 7), then have each team rebuild the equation on whatever real numbers they got.
Wednesday is running late. Cut the Reflection-Time station polish. Keep the diagnostic, the reflection, and the teach-back — those can't be recovered.
A team says "our equation is wrong." Good. Ask: "What number tells you that?" A wrong equation they can explain beats a right one they copied.
Velocity Arena · NYC FIRST — Gotham Tech. This is the short version. Companion sheets: Distance Lab (protocol + code) · student worksheet · answer key.