Mars Pathfinder Relay Race. (Brownies)
This is a toned down version of the Guides’ Mars Pathfinder Race
Age group:Brownies
Location:Field, can be scaled down for a hall.
Numbers:A number of teams of no more than 11 girls.
e.g. 24 girls = 3 teams of 8 girls, or divide them into patrols.
Preparation:Medium
Clearing Up:Low
Skills:Team work, distances, running.
Equipment:a tape measure or equivalent to measure out 1 metres
A rope or line “to toe the line” for teams to stand behind
Set of Instructions to be read aloud
per team
2 hula hoops (or skipping ropes tied in loops)
1 bucket
1 “Mars Rock” or beanbag
Set of “Movement Program” Cards
One “Mission Accomplished” Card
Prepare “Movement Program” Cards:
A set of “movement program” cards should be prepared for each team. These should be index card size. They should be numbered and given to the Brownies in order. Each team should have an identical set of cards.
- Power On
- Move 1m forwards
- Pick up Mars rock
- Move 1m forwards
- Put down Mars rock
- Turn Left
- Turn Left
- Move 1m forwards
- Move 1m forwards
- Power off
Prepare “Mission Accomplished” Cards:
A “mission accomplished” card should be prepared for each team. It should be a different colour from the other cards and say “mission accomplished” on it.
Setting Up:
At one end of room put the 2 hoops and bucket in a line for each team. They should be 1m apart. This may be along the line of the hall or perpendicular to it, depending on how much room you have. Put a beanbag in the middle hoop. At the other end of the room, put down a rope to indicate the teams’ start line.
Layout should look like:
MARS1. Start/FinishHoop
2. BeanbagHoop
3. Put down beanbagBucket
SPACE↓↓ to teams ↓↓
------
EARTHteams
Divide the girls into teams and get them to choose one person from each team to be a robot.
Read the instructions aloud
“You are the programming team for our exploratory robot on Mars. You are on Earth. You need to get the robot to pick up a Mars rock and put it in the “Scientific Test Object Receptacle” or bucket for short. The robot is a very simple robot. It responds to only basic commands, such as move forwards 1 metre or turn left. It can also only follow one instruction at a time. You are provided with a set of program cards. These will tell the robot what to do, but you need to send it the instructions.
“You need to turn the robot on, move it from its start position to pick up the rock, move it to the bucket, put down the rock and then go to back to the start position and finally turn off!
“Just like a relay race, you need to take the program cards up, one at a time and give them to the robot. She will then follow the instructions on the card. When the instruction says “power off” she will give you a mission accomplished card. The first team to get this card back to Earth wins”
Take the robots up to their start hoops; make sure they are facing along the line of the hoops towards the beanbag. Give them the mission accomplished card and make sure they know what to do – to follow the instructions and hand over the mission accomplished card at the end.
Check all the Brownies know what to do – run up one by one, give the robot the instruction card, run back, collect “mission accomplished” card at end, do not get cards out of order.
Start the race.
Winners: first team back with the Mission Accomplished card on Earth.
Suggested prizes: a small stick of rock each, or a fun size Mars bar.