Programming for Children
Primary 4 · Science and Elementary Technology
Programming for Children
Lesson 5 of 5
14 min
Let's begin
A small aircraft buzzes over the hills of Rwanda. Nobody is flying it. It drops a parcel of blood on a little parachute beside a health centre, then flies home by itself. It is a delivery drone, a flying robot, and it has saved many lives.
A robot is a machine that can do jobs by itself by following a program. Most robots do three things:
| A robot can… | Using its… | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Sense | sensors: cameras, microphones, touch and distance sensors | A robot vacuum feels that it has bumped into a wall. |
| Think | controller: a small computer that runs the program | It decides: "Wall! Turn left." |
| Act | actuators: motors, wheels, arms, lights, speakers | Its motors turn the wheels to go the other way. |
Robotics is the science of designing, building and programming robots.
A robot only does exactly what its program says. Play the human robot game: one friend is the robot and may only obey FORWARD (one step), LEFT and RIGHT (a quarter turn on the spot). Another friend writes the instructions to guide the robot to a football. If the robot ends in the wrong place, the program has a bug. Finding and fixing it is called debugging.
Some schools use apps such as PictoBlox, which look like Scratch, to program real robots and small circuit boards with blocks.
Tip
Sense, think, act
Sensors are the robot's eyes and ears, the controller is its brain, and motors are its muscles.
Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.
What are the three things most robots do?
Answer: Sense, think and act.
Which part of a robot is like its brain?
Answer: The controller, the small computer that runs the program.
Niyonzima is the human robot. The program says FORWARD, FORWARD, LEFT, FORWARD, but the football is to his right. What is the bug?
Answer: LEFT should be RIGHT. Change it and test again.
Give one job where a robot is safer than a person.
Answer: For example: exploring a volcano, space or the deep sea.
What you learned today
Sources and credits
The exercises (Try it yourself and the practice questions) are written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each part of a robot to what it is like.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
