Excerpts from student journals:

In the BiMathlon we used a giant measuring-stick to measure the length of how far a Lego robot could travel. It was so much fun! Wyatt was my partner for that activity. One of the robots went 78 inches up, then went back down to 38 inches, until it went back up to the 117 inch mark. Then we made a line graph of the distances that we had noted down.
Mike

Today at the BiMathlon we experimented with distances by using clicks as our unit of measurement. The experiment was using programmable Lego robotics to try to get the closest to the goal line at the end of the measurements. The reason we used clicks was that the Lego robots used a click counter. The click counter was installed in the back of the motor and tells the robot’s motor when to stop. The number of clicks in a foot was used a lot because most of the lengths were measured in inches. There are 58 clicks in a foot.
I thought that this project was very enjoyable because I got to program a working robot.
Cole

I did a game on Distances and Time. I got a computerized Lego car and saw how far it went and timed how fast it went. I made a graph of the distances and the time. On the computerized car there was a on/off button and a start button. Before I pressed the start button I had to set a number of clicks I wanted the car to go. (54clicks is only about a foot.) In this project I learned graphing skills and I learned how to use estimating. I also did some measuring to find how far and how fast the car went. I enjoyed doing this project and I’m glad I went because I learned a lot.
Kari

Distance Dilemmas was an activity where we were estimating how many “clicks” the robot would take to get to the finish line. There were 4 different lengths and each of them had a different type of measurement (example: inches, meters). Here is how we did it:
First we had to program the Lego robot to do what we wanted it to do by using estimation. Then we would go and test it to see how close or far away we were from the finish line. Finally we would record it and do the other challenges.
It took a lot of estimation and thinking. It also took some multiplying and using what we already knew. It was kind of fun, but hard at the same time. I hope I can do it again. Distance Dilemmas rocks!!!!!
Peggy