Microbit Robotics & Engineering

Expert

45 mins

Teacher/Student led

+175 XP

What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC
Microbit
Move Motor Car

Move Motor Pen Challenges

Using the pen slot in your Move Motor Car, can you program it to draw different shapes.

Lesson Files

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1 Introduction
2 Create a new Microbit project
3 Program a circle
4 Draw the circle
5 Program a square
6 Draw the Square
7 Explore
Quiz

1 - Introduction

The Move Motor comes with a pen slot that will fit a marker such as a sharpie. In this project we're going to put a marker in the slot and code the Move Motor to draw some shapes.

You'll need the following for this project:

Your Move Motor assembled with your Microbit attached.
A marker such as a sharpie. You may need to test a few different markers to find one that fits.
Lots of sheets of paper. The larger the sheets the more room you have to draw!

You may also want to put some newspaper down under the sheets of paper you will draw on, just in case the car drives off the sheets of paper.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+20 XP

2 - Create a new Microbit project

Go to the https://makecode.microbit.org website, create a new project and add the kitronik-move-motor extension to your project.

Microbit: How to add an extension

To add an extension follow these steps:

Click on 'Advanced' in the toolbox
Click 'Extensions'
Type the name of the extension in the search box
Click on the extension in the search results
The extension and all it's blocks will be added to your toolbox

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Program a circle

Try and work out how you could program your car to draw a circle when you press the A button on the Microbit. Think about what code you would need to use and then try create the code in your project. If you need a hint click on the button below.

see the code

Note that each car may be slightly different with different battery levels etc. so you may need to change and tweak the values in the blocks to get them to work better for your car.

+30 XP

4 - Draw the circle

Now let's test to see if it works.

Download and send the code to your Microbit in the Move Motor.
Unplug the USB cable.
Put in the marker.
Place your Move Motor on your sheet of paper.
Turn your Move Motor on.
Press the A button and your Move Motor should drive in a circle while the pen draws.

+25 XP

5 - Program a square

To make it move in a square we will get it to drive forward and turn 90 degrees. As a square has 4 sides we need to do this 4 times.

Think about what code you would need to use to program the B button to draw a square and then try add the code to your project. If you need a hint click on the button below.

see the code

Note that each car may be slightly different with different battery levels etc. so you may need to change and tweak the values in the blocks to get them to work better for your car.

+30 XP

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Copyright Notice
This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2025. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

Your Answer or Description of Your Work

Project URL This can be a link to your project (e.g. a Scratch, Microbit, Arcade or CodePen URL link).

Upload File

You must be logged into Scratch to share your project, otherwise the link will not work.

To get the URL link of your Scratch project:

Make sure you're logged into Scratch.
Click on the Share button in the project editor.
Click on the Copy Link button.
Click on the Copy Link link. This will save the URL of your project page into your clipboard.

To get the URL link of your Microbit project:

Click on the button in the project editor.
Click on the Publish Project button.
Click on the Copy button. This will save the URL of your project page into your clipboard.

To get the URL link of your Arcade project:

Click on the button in the project editor.
Click on the Publish Project button.
Click on the Copy button. This will save the URL of your project page into your clipboard.

To get the URL link of your CodePen project:

Make sure you're logged into CodePen.
Open your project in the editor.
Click on the Save button at the top of the editor.
Copy the link from the address bar in your web browser (e.g. https://codepen.io/Jane-Smith/pen/gOVXxBQ)

Move Motor Pen Challenges

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Introduction

Send your work to your teacher

2 - Create a new Microbit project

Send your work to your teacher

3 - Program a circle

Send your work to your teacher

4 - Draw the circle

Send your work to your teacher

5 - Program a square

Send your work to your teacher

Unlock the Full Learning Experience