MYP Design · Year 8 · Main unit

Robotics & Control

Physical computing with the BBC micro:bit and TPBot robots, taught through the full design cycle

Year 8 Design is one sustained course: students learn to program the BBC micro:bit, then put that programming to work driving TPBot robot cars to solve real control challenges. The micro:bit is a small programmable circuit board with a grid of LEDs, two buttons, a radio, and a set of sensors, programmed in the block-based MakeCode environment. Over the year students move from lighting a single LED to building a robot that follows a line, responds to radio control, and completes a task they have designed themselves.

The course is built as a thirteen-unit progression. Each unit introduces one computing idea through an unplugged activity, a guided coding activity, and an open project where students design and build something of their own. The robotics challenges, making a robot follow a line, drive a set path, or pick up an object, draw on the programming concepts as they are learned. Lessons run for about 52 minutes a week, and the kit lives in room BY3.

The shape of the year: learn to code the micro:bit (react to surroundings, take inputs, control a robot and servos), study how robots are used in real life, then design and build a robot that solves a chosen task. The course closes with a short web-design strand in which students build a stylish webpage on a topic of their choice.

The thirteen-unit progression

Each unit builds on the last, so the concepts accumulate towards the final independent project.

  1. Making. First contact with the micro:bit and the MakeCode environment: importing a program and downloading it to the board. Students interview a partner about an imaginary pet, then design and build a "micro:pet" housing that fits the board and battery, an introduction to design thinking and prototyping.
  2. Algorithms. The four parts of a computer and the idea of input and output. Through unplugged work on algorithms and functions, then pseudocode, events, and event handlers, students program the micro:bit to make faces and build a fidget cube that responds to different inputs.
  3. Variables. Using variables to store and change information, with meaningful names and basic arithmetic. Students code a scorekeeper that uses the buttons for input and the LED screen for output, then build an object that counts score, steps, or turns.
  4. Conditionals. Decision-making with the if…then and if…then…else logic blocks. Students act out conditionals unplugged, code Rock Paper Scissors, then design and build their own micro:bit board game.
  5. Iteration. Making things repeat with the repeat, while, and for loop blocks, alongside sprite and music blocks. Students build a project that uses sound, display, and motion, often driving a micro-servo for the first time.
  6. Mini Project. A consolidation unit. Students plan, track, and showcase a short independent project that demonstrates one concept from the year so far, with a rubric that rewards the problem-solving process as much as the finished result.
  7. Coordinates. The 5×5 LED grid as a coordinate system, with the origin at the top left. Students play a Battleship variant unplugged, plot and animate individual LEDs by their x and y values, then make a screensaver or game.
  8. Booleans. The Boolean data type and Boolean operators to control program flow and track state. Students write pseudocode to simulate two coins tossed at once, code a double coin flipper, then build a project that uses Booleans throughout.
  9. Binary. Bits, bytes, and the base-2 number system. Using a "binary vending machine," students convert between decimal and binary, code a binary calculator, then build a working cardboard binary counter that displays decimal values.
  10. Radio. Using the micro:bit's radio to send and receive data between two boards. After a Hotter/Colder call-and-response game, students work in pairs to design a program that communicates number and string data, the foundation for radio-controlling a robot.
  11. Arrays. Storing lists of related values and retrieving them by index, plus the bubble, selection, and insertion sorting strategies. Students code a charades game and random LED constellations, then build a musical instrument that stores note sequences in arrays.
  12. Accelerometer. Sensing position and movement through space along the x, y, and z axes. Students build a program that reminds them to stand up, then design a "multi-tool" that combines the accelerometer with other sensors to solve a problem.
  13. Final Project. An extended independent project, an expansion of the Mini Project framework. Students create an original solution that combines something they already know, something they researched, and something drawn from a cited source, and document their process throughout with an emphasis on metacognition.

The robots

The programming concepts above are applied to TPBot robot cars driven by the micro:bit. The robotics challenges escalate across the year and let students choose their own level of ambition: a line-following robot that clears paper off a track, a radio-controlled robot that picks up a pen, a combat robot reusing earlier remote-control code, and EDU kits for robots that drive a precise path from a chosen start point. Each challenge is framed as a design task, inquire into the problem, specify and design the robot, build and program it, then test and evaluate against the brief.

How it is assessed

The year carries two summative strands flagged in the handover: an A–D assessment built around investigating, analysing, and evaluating robots used at school, and a B–C assessment built around designing a robot to solve a task.

Curriculum built on the BBC micro:bit Educational Foundation's micro:bit teaching materials. Unit content is described and adapted here, not republished; the original educator and student resources remain the work of the Foundation.