Major site overhaul: resources hub, content migration, new blog posts, forms
- Redesign /resources as sectioned hub with category pages - Migrate 645 Squarespace CDN images to local /images/content/ - Create 9 new news/blog posts with event photos - Fix blog post slugs (rename gibberish filenames) - Rename Design Blog to Design Blogs across site - Remove education page, replace with Platform in nav - Redesign rover repair request form with dynamic rover entries - Add school search combobox to contact, store, and repair forms - Extract shared KNOWN_SCHOOLS data - Make /rover-expansion-3d-printing dynamically pull from MDX - Add related resources sections to product pages - Fix homepage broken /quote links to /store - Store page: sample kit cards, inline quote builder, mailing list opt-in
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Tim Hadwen
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Sumo is a great cumulative activity to run for digital technologies classes. Sum
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- Building knowledge needed for sumo.
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### **What Skill Level Is Sumo Appropriate For?**
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@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Sumo is a great challenge for students of any skill levels. For a student, the d
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To compete in the sumo ring, students will need to design and program a sumo algorithm that utilises branching and iteration. Sumo algorithms will typically use:
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- Branching logic using **IF / Else / Else If **and **conditional operators (>, `<, ==, !=)**. The more complex the student's algorithm, the more sophisticated the branching logic will need to be as more conditions are introduced.
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- Branching logic using **IF / Else / Else If** and ** conditional operators (>, `<, ==, !=)**. The more complex the student's algorithm, the more sophisticated the branching logic will need to be as more conditions are introduced.
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- Iterating their logic using a variety of **Loops**.
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@@ -41,9 +41,9 @@ Using sensors effectively is the key to a successful sumo robot. Students will n
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- The **Infrared (IR) distance & ultrasonic distance sensor** is used to locate opponents for offensive moves, like charging or pushing.
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- More sophisticated algorithms may use the **gyroscope & accelerometer. **An example is using the accelerometer to detect if the rover is being tipped over by the opponent to deploy defensive measures.
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- More sophisticated algorithms may use the **gyroscope & accelerometer.** An example is using the accelerometer to detect if the rover is being tipped over by the opponent to deploy defensive measures.
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**The Design Process & 3D Modelling **
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**The Design Process & 3D Modelling**
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Sumo units can even be expanded with 3D printed attachments for the rover e.g. battering rams or shovels attached to the front of the rover. Including a 3D printing component to your sumo unit allows you the opportunity to cover Design and Technology curriculum requirements. For example, students can explore 3D printing technology, its sustainability and other pros and cons relative to other manufacturing methods. After they have a satisfactory understanding of 3D printing, they can dive into an iterative design process to create a sumo attachment. This can include:
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@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ Sumo works well as an individual and team-based challenge. Having students work
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### Setting Up For Sumo Battles
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To the right is an example diagram of a simple sumo setup. The grey circle is the sumo ring and the border for the sumo area. Inside the arena there are normally two rovers battling. The two rovers are in their default starting position, with backs facing the middle of the ring.
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@@ -81,11 +81,11 @@ For a circular arena with 2 rovers battling we recommend a diameter of 50cm-60cm
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We recommend starting rovers back-to-back or side facing. Starting rover’s face to face will often lead to head on collisions immediately that won’t be very interesting and don’t always allow students to get creative with their algorithms.
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**Line Colour **
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**Line Colour**
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The colour sensor will be the primary tool students can use to detect the sumo arena walls. Having the wall colour contrast the floor clearly will make it easier for the rover colour sensors to detect the wall. For example, white arena with a black line, or vice versa. This allows students to use the brightness of the line rather than actual colour making the process much simpler. For a challenge make a red or orange ring and let students explore out what works for them.
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Octagon shaped sumo arena made with masking tape on the floor making for a very cheap setup.
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@@ -99,13 +99,10 @@ Octagon shaped sumo arena made with masking tape on the floor making for a very
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We recommend that you establish your sumo rules before students start designing their algorithms as the rules will change how students create their algorithms. Here is our general ruleset for sumo and the same ruleset we use in the example sumo diagram depicted above. Feel free to copy or iterate on these rules to use it in your unit:
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[
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DOWNLOAD RULES - PDF
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](/s/Sumo-Ruleset.pdf)
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[DOWNLOAD RULES - PDF](/s/Sumo-Ruleset.pdf)
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[DOWNLOAD RULES - DOCX](/s/Sumo-Ruleset.docx)
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[
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DOWNLOAD RULES - DOCX
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](/s/Sumo-Ruleset.docx)
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**Sumo Battle Setup**
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@@ -123,19 +120,17 @@ All competitors must start their code at the same time on the referee’s call.
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- A rover is defeated when one of the following conditions are met:
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It has been **knocked out**
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- It has been **incapacitated**.
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It has been **knocked out **- It has been** incapacitated**.
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- It is **disqualified** by the referee
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The referee will remove rovers from the battle once they have been defeated.
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**What is a Knockout **
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**What is a Knockout**
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When the majority of the rover’s is outside the arena. The referee decides when a knock has happened.
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**What is Incapacitation**
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@@ -171,7 +166,7 @@ We like to make our prepared AI very difficult and so they act as a “final bos
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### Expanding Sumo With 3D Printed Attachments
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Including 3D printed attachments in your sumo unit is a great way to give students more creative freedoms when designing their sumo algorithm. It can also offer opportunities to integrate an iterative design process and learn more about 3D printing as a manufacturing process into digital technologies classes. This can also provide an excellent introduction to manufacturing and industrial design concepts used in senior subjects.
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@@ -191,11 +186,11 @@ A sumo algorithm will become more complex as more conditions (most commonly intr
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Sumo algorithms also need to be efficient at correctly positioning and pushing opponent rovers out of the ring. Creating an efficient algorithm requires an understanding of material robotics concepts. For example, understanding how to account for acceleration and momentum of rover movement or understanding how friction will grip an opponent rover to the sumo floor and ways of destabilizing it. Understanding these concepts are even more relevant if you are using 3D printed attachments which create more variables to consider.
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**Complexity vs Efficiency **
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**Complexity vs Efficiency**
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In general, the more complex the sumo algorithm is, the more efficient it will be. However, this isn’t always true. Complex algorithms utilising many sensors may still move poorly in the ring and be easily defeated by a less complex algorithm. The difference between sumo and other digital technologies activities is that more advanced students are able to produce a less complex algorithm that is still very efficient. We don’t want to punish them for having a simple algorithm that is highly efficient.
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To the right you can see an example of a less complex but still efficient sumo rover from a workshop we ran at a school in Brisbane. The winning rover just moves forward slowly with the bigger attachment. This is definitely not a complex algorithm but regardless the student has demonstrated an understanding of how to counter the opponent rover and has created an efficient sumo rover.
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@@ -247,7 +242,7 @@ Here is an example task description for a potential supporting document,
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- *Data from sensors, including what type of data the sensors generate. (4 marks)*
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**Assessing The Code Itself **
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**Assessing The Code Itself**
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It’s necessary to look at the code produced by students but also important not to judge a program just by it’s code quality. As with all programming assessments, it’s hard to judge the quality of an algorithm based entirely on how many lines of code or how clean the code looks. Two different programs may run with the same speed and efficiency, but the code may be completely different. It’s a good idea to check students' code to make sure they are producing a genuine algorithm and not a hard coded solution, but we wouldn’t recommend creating marking criteria solely based on how the code is written. Instead, provide marks based on if and how the algorithm competes in the sumo arena and on how students explain and understand the code as we’ve outlined in the previous sections.
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@@ -255,19 +250,16 @@ It’s necessary to look at the code produced by students but also important not
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Below is an example assignment sheet you can use your classroom. You can use this template as a starting point for designing your assessment. The ruleset we have outlined above is also included.
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[
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DOWNLOAD ASSIGNMENT SHEET - DOCx
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](/s/Sumo-Assignment-Sheet-Rules.docx)
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[DOWNLOAD ASSIGNMENT SHEET - DOCx](/s/Sumo-Assignment-Sheet-Rules.docx)
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[DOWNLOAD ASSIGNMENT SHEET - PDF](/s/Sumo-Assignment-Sheet-Rules.pdf)
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[
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DOWNLOAD ASSIGNMENT SHEET - PDF
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](/s/Sumo-Assignment-Sheet-Rules.pdf)
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### Building Knowledge Needed For Sumo
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If students are not at the skill level yet to write a Sumo algorithm, we’ve outlined a general structure of how you can teach the skills required incrementally. Start at the step which feels most appropriate for how familiar your students are with coding in general and using the Micromelon Rover. These steps don’t have to be rigid lessons, you may cover multiple steps in a single lesson or delegate some tasks to homework. In the outline we will mention some potential activities you can run with your class, all of these activities can be run in the Micromelon Robot Simulator.
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Micromelon Robot Simulator
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@@ -281,21 +273,19 @@ If you’re looking for information on how to get started with the Robot Simulat
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The primary challenge of the maze is to navigate the path formations. To deal with these path formations, students will need to be familiar with how to program the Rover’s motors to move and turn the Rover.
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#### Activity: Driving Shapes
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[Read More](/resources/driving-shapes)
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**Activity**
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If your students have no knowledge of Micromelon Rover’s and how to program them, start with the activity **Driving Shapes**. This is a beginner activity which has students learn the basics of moving their Rover forwards and turning with the potential for some loop usage. You can run this activity from the **Free Roam** exercise in the robot simulator.
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**Activity** If your students have no knowledge of Micromelon Rover’s and how to program them, start with the activity ** Driving Shapes**. This is a beginner activity which has students learn the basics of moving their Rover forwards and turning with the potential for some loop usage. You can run this activity from the** Free Roam** exercise in the robot simulator.
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**Step 2: Introducing The Colour Sensor, Branching and Iteration**
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Once students have a basic understanding of programming the Rover you can move onto incorporating sensors into some simple algorithms using branching and iteration. This will give students a chance to start getting familiar with incorporating branching and iteration into a single algorithm and also learning how to program the colour sensor. Because the edge of the sumo arena will be detectable with the colour sensor this will be a very important step to cover as it will help students keep their rovers inside the arena.
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#### Basics Of Colour Sensor
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@@ -307,23 +297,15 @@ This post will cover some of the science behind how the colour sensor works, the
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If you’re limited on in class time, assign this post (and the other Basics of posts) as homework reading before class. You can even ask questions at the start of the next lesson or get some students to present their findings.
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**Activity**
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The activities **Stop on Colour** and **Prison Escape** are great for learning how to implement sensor data into simple algorithms that use branching logic and iteration. Both of these activities are built into the Robot Simulator.
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**Activity** The activities ** Stop on Colour** and ** Prison Escape** are great for learning how to implement sensor data into simple algorithms that use branching logic and iteration. Both of these activities are built into the Robot Simulator.
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The complexity of program necessary for completing these activities will be similar to the programming of a very basic sumo robot.
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[
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](/resources/stop-on-colour-change)
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#### Activity: Stop On Colour
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[Read More](/resources/stop-on-colour-change)
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#### Activity: Prison Escape
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@@ -337,23 +319,21 @@ A key part of any sumo algorithm is being able to locate the opponent in the rin
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Knowing the science behind how the ultrasonic & IR sensors work provides students with a knowledge base that allows them to understand the limitations of the sensors and how to use them appropriately. We’ve written a post about each of these sensors that students can read to get familiar with the sensors.
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#### Basics Of The IR Sensors
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[Read More](/resources/ir-sensor)
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Basics Of The Ultrasonic Sensor
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[Read More](/resources/ultrasonic-sensor)
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**Activities**
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**Activities** Maze challenges require distance sensing to complete successfully. In their most basic form solutions for maze solving will require students to understand how to use sensor data in conditional operators. They will also allow students to continue practicing how to use the ** IF / ELSE / ELSE IF blocks** to create branching logic and ** Loops** to repeat sections of code.
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Maze challenges require distance sensing to complete successfully. In their most basic form solutions for maze solving will require students to understand how to use sensor data in conditional operators. They will also allow students to continue practicing how to use the **IF / ELSE / ELSE IF blocks** to create branching logic and **Loops** to repeat sections of code.
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**Activity: Maze Solving**
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@@ -363,7 +343,7 @@ Maze challenges require distance sensing to complete successfully. In their most
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Once students are familiar with how to use all the sensors required and are familiar with branching and iteration it’s a good time to jump into sumo battles. Treat this as a time for students to start sparing and iterating on their sumo algorithms. No perfect algorithm was ever created in the first try. The more time students have to battle the more effective their sumo algorithms will become. If you’re using the robot simulator the students can practice their algorithms against the built in AI rovers.
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Activity: Sumo
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@@ -374,115 +354,3 @@ Activity: Sumo
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In this post we’ve covered what Sumo challenges are, what they teach, how to assess them and how to prepare our students for them. Hopefully from here you can incorporate Sumo into your digital technologies classroom.
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If you’ve got any questions about running Sumo challenges or about Micromelon Robotics please feel free to [reach out the Micromelon team](https://micromelon.com/contact.html?blog-maze-challenges).
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### Related Posts
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Resources
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[
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](/resources/creating-a-sumo-unit)
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[All](/resources?category=All)
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[Creating A Sumo Unit For Your Digital Technologies Class](/resources/creating-a-sumo-unit)
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[All](/resources?category=All)
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How to run a sumo unit in your digital technologies classroom.
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[Read More →](/resources/creating-a-sumo-unit)
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[All](/resources?category=All)
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[
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](/resources/ultrasonic-sensor)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Guides](/resources?category=Guides)
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[The Ultrasonic Sensor](/resources/ultrasonic-sensor)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Guides](/resources?category=Guides)
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Learn all about the ultrasonic sensor!
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[Read More →](/resources/ultrasonic-sensor)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Guides](/resources?category=Guides)
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[
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](/resources/year-7-digital-tech-at-st-peters)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Customer Stories](/resources?category=Customer+Stories)
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[Case Study: Year 7 Digital Tech at St Peters Lutheran College](/resources/year-7-digital-tech-at-st-peters)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Customer Stories](/resources?category=Customer+Stories)
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See how Meg Foley at St Peters conducted a challenge for their Year 7s using Micromelon.
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[Read More →](/resources/year-7-digital-tech-at-st-peters)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Customer Stories](/resources?category=Customer+Stories)
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[
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](/resources/robot-simulator)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Getting Started](/resources?category=Getting+Started)
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[Getting Started With The Robot Simulator](/resources/robot-simulator)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Getting Started](/resources?category=Getting+Started)
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How to get started with the Micromelon Robot Simulator.
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[Read More →](/resources/robot-simulator)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Getting Started](/resources?category=Getting+Started)
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[
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](/resources/getting-started-with-the-micromelon-rover)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Getting Started](/resources?category=Getting+Started)
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[Getting Started With The Micromelon Rover](/resources/getting-started-with-the-micromelon-rover)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Getting Started](/resources?category=Getting+Started)
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Crash course on basic rover function, how and what to program and starter activities to attempt.
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[Read More →](/resources/getting-started-with-the-micromelon-rover)
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[All](/resources?category=All), [Getting Started](/resources?category=Getting+Started)
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[
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](/resources/prison-escape)
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[Activities](/resources?category=Activities), [All](/resources?category=All)
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[Activity: Prison Escape](/resources/prison-escape)
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[Activities](/resources?category=Activities), [All](/resources?category=All)
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Learn branching and iteration using the colour sensors and motors.
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[Read More →](/resources/prison-escape)
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[Activities](/resources?category=Activities), [All](/resources?category=All)
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