Students in this course will take part in a thrilling international robotics competition this fall that will build skills in coding, robotics, problem solving and more. Each class will be registered as a team of 4-6 students in the Coderz Virtual Robotics League:Novice division, the premier virtual robotics competition for students ages 10-13. 

The novice division presents students with a block based coding system familiar to coders in languages such as MIT Scratch, but perfectly suited for those completely new to coding and robotics. As these are virtual robots there are no costs other than the class cost which includes the Coderz League registration fee for each student. 

NOTE: I will have a few teams entered into the more advanced Junior Division. With few exceptions, only students with past Coderz experience will be considered for the Junior division. Please contact me on OutSchool if your child would like to form a private Junior team or be considered as a member of a already existing Junior team. 

The Competition
This class will teach students the fundamentals of piloting an autonomous robot around a series of challenging obstacles and objectives. These virtual robots provide students with a variety of sensors that mirror those used in live robotics competitions. Student robots can measure distances, detect obstacles and react to various inputs on the obstacle course. We will learn to work as a team to analyze each robotics mission and write a code that will complete the objectives while earning the highest score for our team. 
Coderz Competition Website
https://coderzleague.com/

We will meet a total of 9 times to prepare and compete for each challenge in the competition. The competition will officially open to students on October 11th . Prior to the start date students will practice for the competition using a variety of tools and simulations. built into the Coderz platform. Each class we will discuss, debug and revise our code to find ways in which we might improve our program. Just like the best mental games, the Coderz league is easy to learn, but always presents new challenges to overcome and new ways to approach the problem at hand.

The preliminary round of the competition will take place from October 11-November 14th
Course Fees
As is posted on the Coderz website, the cost of each team’s registration for the October 11-November 14 preliminaries is $290 per team of 4-6 competitors. As the team needs to be paid in full prior to the first day of competition, I have included the $58 entry fee based on a team of 5 in the cost of the course. As stated above, these are virtual robots so there will be no physical robots required. 

Private vs Public Teams
Since this is a public OutSchool course, each class will be composed of students from multiple locations to form a single team. If you would like to organize a private team of 4-6 students please contact me on Outschool and I will be happy to discuss a team schedule  that will work for all of your learners. 

Class Agenda

Week 1(September 26-30) 1 Meeting
We will meet one time this week to get organized as a Coderz team. Students will be guided through the process of getting signed into the Coderz platform, assigned to the correct team and learn how to practice working with the Blockly coding system used by the Coderz virtual robots. Student will have access to the bootcamp challenges by the end of week 1. We will make plans for the opening day of the competition on October 11th

Week 2(October 3-7) 1 Meeting
We will continue to get familiarized with the Coderz system. Students will work through and discuss the Coderz Bootcamp challenges for each mission. We will decide on our final team name and make final plans for the opening day of the competition on October 11th

Week 3(October 10-14) 2 Meetings
We will meet two times during this week to unlock the Coderz league competition and get coding! Students will each begin work on their own account on the preliminary round challenges. On our second meeting students will discuss, debug and work together to improve their codes and overall team score. 

Week 4-6(October 17-November 4th) 1 Meeting Per Week(3 total meetings)
Students will continue to improve on their codes and devise a team strategy with each student being given a different role in the process of improving our team’s code. We will dissect the code and students will take a leadership role on specific components such as the sensors, turns, debugging and more. Students will continue to work outside of class to refine their code and discover new ways to approach the unique challenges of the competition.

Week 7(November 7th-11) 2 Meetings
This will be the final week of the preliminary competition in which we work to finalize and make improvements on our competition codes. Students will have mastered the art of coding and controlling in their virtual robotics and work on the process of finding ways in which to earn the maximum ratings for each aspect of the competition.