TEACHER ONLY · LESSON GUIDE
AIR Unit 0 Day 2 — Design for a Constrained Need
Use this page to run the lesson. The student item directly below remains the independent and absence route.
Daily Learning Contract
Topic: User-centered robot design
Objective: Students will apply a user-centered design process to justify how a robot's inputs, process, outputs, and constraints address an identified ocean-research need.
- §126.19(c)(3)(B) — discuss and implement a design process that includes planning, selecting digital tools to develop, test, and evaluate design limitations, and refining a prototype or model; and
Demonstration of learning: Mission Log design brief with the user, need, constraint, sensor or input, process, output, and a sentence explaining how the design meets the need.
Before class
Time: One class period
Student route:
Day 2 · Robot Mission Design Brief
Use what already exists: AIR Unit 0 teacher deck; Mission Log DOCX/PDF; current Day 2 page.
Lesson flow
- Launch: Ask whether a robot that looks impressive is automatically useful.
- Model: Model a weak design and a design that responds to a user and constraint.
- Do: Students choose a job and complete the Mission Log design brief.
- Check + support: Conference with the user/need/constraint check; offer a labeled example and sentence stems.
- Close + handoff: Collect or photograph the brief and hand off to an algorithm that can run the design.
Check before students leave
Ask each student or team to point to the specific evidence named above and explain one choice, test, or revision. Completion alone is not evidence of understanding.
Support + troubleshooting
Scaffold: Keep the visual task sequence visible, assign purposeful partner roles, and use the sentence stems on the student page before simplifying the task.
When stuck: Ask students to show the exact step where the system stopped, then check setup, inputs, and saved work before replacing the task.