KIPR · Botball Explorer
Activity Sections

Discovery · Systems Project 4

Draw the Plan

A picture of your program, before you write a line of it.

Student PIN:

Project
Systems Project 4
Strand
Systems
Phase
Think Like an Engineer
Time
One class period
What You Are Doing
Learning the four shapes engineers use to draw a plan, then swapping charts with a partner to see if yours can be followed.
Strand Link
Do this before Coding Project 6
Before You Start
Systems Project 3. You should have written a plan for a person to follow.
What You Need
Before you start: type your PIN in the box at the top of the page. Your teacher gave you this number. When you finish, press Submit & Download to turn in your work and save a copy.

Try It — Follow This Chart

Here is a plan for a robot. Nobody has told you how to read it. Work it out.

A flowchart: start, then a loop of drive forward two feet and turn right, repeated four times, then stop

Read it from the top down. Follow the arrows.

In your notebook, draw the path this robot takes. Then answer here.

QuestionMy answer
What shape does the robot’s path make on the floor?
Where does it finish, compared to where it started?
How many times does it drive forward?

Now compare your drawing with a partner’s.

Did you both draw the same path? If not, where did you differ?

You Read It Without Being Taught

Nobody explained the shapes. You worked out that the oval starts things, the rectangles are jobs to do, and the diamond asks a question.

That is the whole point of a . The shapes are the same everywhere in the world, so anyone can read your plan.

Learn It — Four Shapes and Some Arrows

An is a list of steps that solves a problem. A flowchart is a way to draw one.

Engineers draw the chart before writing any code. It is far easier to fix a picture than to fix a program.

The four flowchart shapes: oval for start and stop, rectangle for an action, diamond for a decision, arrow for flow

Everyone Uses the Same Shapes

These are not KIPR’s shapes. Engineers all over the world use them. A flowchart drawn in Oklahoma can be read by someone in Japan who does not speak a word of English.

The diamond is the interesting one

Every other shape has one arrow in and one arrow out. A has one in and two out — one for yes, one for no.

Label both. An unlabelled diamond is a chart nobody can follow.

⚠ Arrows Can Go Back Up

Look again at the chart in Try It. The “no” arrow goes back up to an earlier box.

That is how a plan repeats itself without you drawing the same boxes four times.

Rules that keep a chart readable

  • One START at the top. One STOP at the bottom.
  • Every box has an arrow leading into it and an arrow leading out.
  • Only diamonds get two arrows out, and both are labelled.
  • One job per rectangle. “Drive forward and turn” is two boxes, not one.

Do It — Draw, Swap, Fix

1. Three feet forward

Draw a flowchart for the simplest program there is.

  • START
  • Move forward 3 feet
  • STOP

Draw this one in your notebook

How many shapes did you use?

2. There and back

Now add to it. Forward 3 feet, then backward 3 feet, then stop.

How many shapes now? What changed?

3. Chart a path you invent

Draw a route on paper — a path with at least four turns in it. Do not show anyone.

Now draw the flowchart that would make a robot follow that route.

Route on one page, flowchart on the next

4. Swap and test

Hand your partner only the flowchart. Keep your route hidden.

They draw the path your chart describes. Then compare it with your original route.

QuestionMy answer
Did their path match my route?
Where did it first go wrong?
Was the chart unclear, or was a step missing?

Fix your chart and have them try again.

5. Add a decision

Draw a new chart. This one must have a diamond in it with two labelled ways out.

Something like: drive forward — is there a wall? — if yes turn, if no keep going.

Draw it with a diamond in the middle

What question does your diamond ask?

What happens on yes? What happens on no?

6. Swap the decision chart

Hand it over. Your partner draws the path twice — once as if the answer were yes, once as if it were no.

Did they get two different paths?

If Both Paths Were the Same, the Decision Did Nothing

A diamond only earns its place when the two answers lead somewhere different. If they end up the same either way, you did not need to ask.

7. Chart a real mission

Pick any mission from the game field. Draw the flowchart your robot would follow to score it.

Include at least one decision — something the robot should check before it carries on.

Mission flowchart

QuestionMy answer
Which mission?
How many rectangles?
What does the robot check?

Keep This One

In Coding Project 6 you will chain several missions into a single run. This chart is where that run starts.

Score It — Checkpoint

Name the shape

I need to show…Which shape?
The robot closes its claw
The very beginning of the program
Is the pressed?
Which box comes next
The end of the run

Spot the mistake

In this chart…What is wrong
A diamond has only one arrow coming out
A rectangle says “drive forward and turn right”
Two arrows leave a diamond but neither is labelled
There is no oval anywhere

Can you do it again?

Think about it

In Systems Project 3 you wrote your plan as a list. Here you drew it. Which one is easier to check for a missing step, and why?

Your partner followed your chart and got the wrong path. They did exactly what it said. Whose fault is that?

Engineers draw the chart before writing the program. What would it cost you to skip that and go straight to code?

Next

You can draw a plan for something you already know how to do. But most engineering starts with a problem nobody has solved yet.

In Systems Project 5 — The Design Process, you get a problem and the steps for working through it.

You are also ready for Coding Project 6, where several missions become one run.

When you are finished, press the button to turn in your work and save a copy.

KIPR · Botball Explorer · Discovery