Beyond the Queue: Designing Smart Systems with Lego Coding in ‘The Fast Lane’

Welcome to the ‘Amazing Amusement Park’ unit! This lesson, ‘The Fast Lane,’ immediately challenges young learners (Years 1-2, Beginner, 30-45 minutes) to use Lego Coding and Lego Robotics principles to solve a familiar problem: long queues.

The challenge is to help Leo skip the line by designing an automated Fast Lane entrance. This activity is a rich introduction to building smart systems using inputs and outputs. Students will:

1. Build a Sensor-Based System: Construct their Fast Lane gate, incorporating the SPIKE Essential Colour Sensor—the robot’s “ticket checker.” This is the core Lego Robotics build.
2. Program Selection (If/Then Logic): Use the SPIKE App to create a program that makes the Fast Lane’s light switch on only when Leo presents his yellow ticket to the Colour Sensor. This reinforces the concept of selection (“IF yellow ticket, THEN open light”).
3. Iterate and Upgrade: The lesson encourages brainstorming and upgrading, asking students to change the program to react differently to the ticket and then physically upgrade the Fast Lane design.

By linking a specific input (the ticket colour) to a desired output (the light), students gain hands-on experience in designing and testing responsive systems. ‘The Fast Lane’ is a crucial lesson for showing how Lego Coding can be used to create efficient, automated solutions in the real world, propelling your students into the fun side of Lego Robotics.

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