Brain DeCoded with CodeX - Mission 5, Objective 6: Reaction Revolution

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Mission 5 · Objective 6 Lesson Plan

Reaction Revolution

Students build a Go No-Go brain training game across a set of networked CodeX devices, then use their own trial data to find ways to sharpen focus and reaction time.

⏱ 45-70 min 🎯 Grades 8-12+ 💻 CodeSpace 🎮 CodeX 📡 Radio 🐍 Python
View Lesson Outline
📋

Overview

This objective closes out the mission and the pack. Students build train_your_brain, a Go No-Go game that runs across several CodeX devices at once. One device controls the trial, the others light up, and students tap the right ones while ignoring the "no-go" color. The program keeps score.

The concept underneath is the difference between a reflex and a reaction. A reflex bypasses the brain and is faster. A reaction is voluntary, which means it can be trained, and that is where neuroplasticity comes in. Students run trials, record statistics, and look for what actually improves their scores.

This is the most flexible objective in the mission. It runs with or without the 3D printed pods, works with the class split into teams, and has more test variations than you will get through in one period. There is a list of alternatives in the Teacher Notes below.

🎯 Project Goal: Students add code to a program that tests brain-muscle attention, performance, and accuracy.

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Learning Targets

  • I can explain the difference between a reflex and a reaction.
  • I can explain ways to improve brain focus and performance.
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Key Concepts

  • Reflexes bypass the brain and are faster than reactions.
  • Reaction time is the time it takes to respond to a stimulus voluntarily.
✅

Assessment Opportunities

  • Exit ticket: discuss a way to improve reaction.
  • Turn in the Activity Guide.
  • Complete the program train_your_brain.
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Success Criteria

  • Complete the CodeTrek steps
  • Program runs correctly without errors
  • Activity Guide is completed
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Digital Resources

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Classroom Materials

  • ▸CodeX device and USB cable, one per student
  • ▸Laptop/computer with Chrome browser
  • ▸Optional: 3D printed pod box for each CodeX
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Extensions & Cross-Curricular

ExtensionReview the code for control_pod(). Near the bottom, hit_percent and score are calculated. Change the calculations to find the error percent instead, and design your own scoring system.
ExtensionChange the code to get a random number for each delay.
MathResearch Fitts's Law, a predictive model usually applied to human-computer interfaces. Run experiments with it on a user interface, or adapt the model to the train-your-brain activity.
Life ScienceResearch reaction time tests that use different stimuli, such as audio or touch. Many examples are available online, such as this visual motor reaction time experiment from Backyard Brains. Then have students design and conduct their own experiments.
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Vocabulary

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Neuroplasticity - The brain's ability to change and adapt in response to stimuli.
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New Python Code

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n_pod = random.choice(pod_list)Select a random item from a list.
msg = f"pod_light({n_pod}, {choice})"Using an f-string to format a string with variables.
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Standards

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Computer Science

9-12.AP.12

Physical Education

PE-HS1.1.3
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Preparing for the Lesson
  • Decide your team layout before class. The simulation needs 6 CodeX devices: one to run it and five that get tapped. Every student still writes their own program.
  • If you are running multiple teams at once, assign each team its own non-adjacent GAME_CHANNEL ahead of time and write the assignments on the board. Adjacent channels interfere.
  • Sort out the pods. If you have 3D printed pod boxes, get them out. If not, the program runs fine with button presses instead.
  • Decide how students get the Activity Guide. It has a chart for trial statistics, so they need it before the first trial. A spreadsheet works too if you would rather they analyze the data digitally.
  • Run a trial yourself first, ideally with a colleague or a few students. Knowing the pace of a round tells you how many trials will actually fit in your period.
  • Plan your floor space. Teams need room to spread pods out and move between them, so decide now whether you are pushing desks aside.
🧑‍🏫
Teacher Notes
  • Each student should complete their own program. The simulation itself only needs 6 CodeX devices: one to run the simulation and five that are tapped during the training.
  • You can divide the class into teams, and each team can run their own trials at the same time.
  • The program can run without pods. Students press BTN_A or BTN_R instead of tapping.
  • If you divide the class into teams, put each team on its own non-adjacent GAME_CHANNEL.
  • The time for medium and hard can be adjusted if the timing seems too fast or too slow for your students.
  • The Activity Guide has a chart for students to fill out with their trial statistics. Students can build a spreadsheet instead and use it for data analysis.
  • Extensions and cross-curricular projects are included to enhance the concepts in the objective. You can use the extensions to extend students' learning.
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Test Alternatives

There are many test variations students can try beyond what the Activity Guide suggests. Each one is a small experiment with its own question.

  • Run tests with the dominant hand, then the non-dominant hand, and compare the results.
  • Switch the "no-go" color so it is not the same every time, RED on one trial and GREEN on the next. How does that affect focus?
  • Move the pods into different configurations for each test: clustered, in a line, spread in a circle. Which configuration gives the best results? This is where Fitts's Law comes in.
  • Change NUM_SEQUENCE so each trial runs longer than the last. This only changes on the Control CodeX, not the pods. Does trial length, or the number of "no-go" colors, make a difference?
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Lesson Outline

🗣️Warm-up / Hook

Separate the two things students have been calling the same word.

  • Ask: "When you touch something hot, do you decide to pull your hand away?"
  • Ask: "Now think about catching a dropped phone. Is that the same kind of response? Which one is faster?"
Teaching tip: Reflex versus reaction is the whole first learning target, and this pair of questions gets students to the distinction themselves. The reflex skips the brain, which is exactly why it wins on speed.
📡Team & Channel Setup

Logistics first. This objective has more moving parts than the others.

  1. Split the class into teams and give each team its own non-adjacent GAME_CHANNEL.
  2. Within each team, name the Control CodeX and the five pod devices.
  3. Set out the pods, in the 3D printed boxes if you have them. Teams without pods use the buttons instead.
  4. Hand out or assign the Activity Guide, with its trial statistics chart.
Teaching tip: Write the channel assignments on the board. When two teams start setting each other's pods off, the board is the first place you will look.
💻Student Work Time

Students build train_your_brain. Everyone writes their own program.

  1. Students work through the CodeTrek steps, adding code to train_your_brain.
  2. They use random.choice() to pick which pod lights up and an f-string to build the message that gets sent to it.
  3. Teams load the program onto their Control CodeX and their pod devices, then run a practice round.
  4. Adjust the medium and hard timing if the pace is wrong for your students.
Teaching tip: If pods are not responding, check the channel before the code. A device left on the wrong GAME_CHANNEL looks exactly like a bug.
🏃Run the Trials

The training activity, and where the data comes from.

  1. Teams run their trials, tapping the go colors and holding off on the "no-go" color.
  2. Students record hit percentage and score for each trial on the chart or in a spreadsheet.
  3. Run enough trials to see whether scores improve with practice, not just once each.
  4. Pick one variation from the Test Alternatives list and run it as a comparison.
Teaching tip: Dominant versus non-dominant hand is the fastest variation to set up and gets the clearest split in the data. Start there if your period is tight.
📊Analyze & Discuss

Turn the statistics into the neuroplasticity idea.

  • Have teams report whether their scores improved across trials, and by how much.
  • Ask what changed. Nothing about their muscles got stronger in twenty minutes, so what did?
  • Introduce neuroplasticity as the answer: reactions are voluntary, which is exactly why practice moves them.
  • Ask what else would improve focus and performance outside this game.
Teaching tip: Watch for a team whose scores got worse. Fatigue and overthinking are real results, and explaining a decline is better science than reporting a tidy improvement.
✏️Wrap-up & Exit Ticket

Close out the mission and the pack.

  • Exit ticket: each student describes a way to improve reaction.
  • Look back across the mission: motor neurons, action potentials, rhythms, the CPG, recruitment, and now training. It is one pathway from the brain to the muscle.
  • Collect the Activity Guides and pack up the pods and devices.
Teaching tip: This is the last objective in the pack, so it is worth spending a few minutes walking back through the mission. Students who can trace the whole chain out loud have earned the wrap-up.
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