At the end of each school year I find that I am challenged with how to fill the last week or two of school with meaningful activities that do not include watching movies to just "fill time". State testing is completed and I have gone through all of my 8th grade Science units. I typically try to find a project that will take up a good amount of time and will be engaging for all the students. For many years this included the creation of Rube Goldberg projects. This was a huge hit year after year. However, earlier this school year my students had the opportunity to use Sphero Bots with our unit on speed and velocity. They greatly enjoyed using the Sphero Bots, so I researched other ways to use the Sphero Bots for an end of the year project. Behold, Putt Putt Sphero Bots! As I researched this idea, I thought to myself "who doesn't love to play putt-putt?" I also remembered how much the students really enjoyed working with the Sphero Bots earlier in the school year. Putting the two together sounded like a plan! The students worked in groups of 3-4 students, each group creating their own hole for the putt putt golf course. Each putt putt hole had a different theme, many students using the 8th grade science concepts learned this year as their guide. I have attached a photo of one of my favorite putt putt holes created by a group of girls. Their theme was Hawaiian with the volcano in the background, tropical plants and lounge chairs near the beach. This theme represented our unit on plate tectonics and hot spot formation of volcanic islands, such as Hawaii. On the last day of the project the students laid out their putt putt holes around the perimeter of our small gymnasium. Each student was able to use their Sphero bot to take a turn playing putt putt at each other's themed putt putt hole. The orange triangle represented the "starting point" and white circle was the "ending point" of the putt putt hole. What a lot of fun had by everyone and great way to end the school year!
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