RoboTrig · Math in Motion · for teachers

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RoboTrig is a 4-week Algebra 2 unit that teaches trigonometry through robotics. Students learn the trig behind inverse kinematics — turning a target position into the joint angles that reach it — by designing one real motion for one real person and running it on a 2-joint robot arm. Everything runs in a guided web app, one step at a time, backed by a physical arm for the "does the math actually work?" moments. Four Gates/Milestones carry the assessment. Every day runs from a single card, whatever your own comfort with trig.

Your first twenty minutes — do this a week before Day 1
1
Sign in at robotrig.org/teacher, then create your class Setup → Manage. Name it so you'll know it in a list: "Algebra 2 · Period 3" beats "Algebra 2."
2
Add your students — paste names one per line, or Import CSV. Only the first column is read. 
Paste            CSV (first column)      Gradebook "Last, First"
Maya Rodriguez   name,email,grade        "Rodriguez, Maya" ← quoted, one name
Jordan Lee       Maya Rodriguez,m@s,10   Rodriguez, Maya   ← imports as "Rodriguez"
3
Print credentials Manage → Print credentials. One slip per student, username and login code. Students never set their own password — if a slip is lost, you reprint it.
4
Set the per-class switch, if it applies: Trig-Only — a lighter Week 3, one endpoint instead of two.
The Paper diagnostic switch does not apply this year — leave it off. In 2026–27 RoboTrig runs as a curriculum program with no research instrument attached, so no diagnostic is asked of your classes. That switch is for the measured implementation beginning in 2027–28.
5
Put the class on Day 0 Live class. Day 0 is the week before the unit: students take the diagnostic and take the interview assignment home. Send Day 0 Prework with them. Move to Day 1 when you actually start.

Then check Live class before every lesson. The day the class is on is the day it gets, and a new class normally starting on Day 1 does not make the check unnecessary. Confirm the day before you teach it, every time.
The four Gates/Milestones — the only graded artifacts; everything else is practice
Day 5
Project Brief
Day 10
FK Prediction Card
Day 16
IK Solve Card
Day 20
Final Presentation
The components — and what each is for
💻

The app · robotrig.org

One guided step at a time, saving every artifact. For you: a live class view, and a preview that walks the day exactly as a student sees it.

🗂️

Daily Cards · your main tool

One page per session: warm-up, run of show, arm check, exit, below/at/above tracks, "if behind today," and a weekly "if it goes sideways" card.

🖥️

Slides · Materials → Slides

One deck per day, 20 in all, matched to the run of show on that day's card. Project and go.

✏️

Worksheets · Materials → Worksheets

Eleven sheets on the days that need pencil time: Days 2, 3, 4, 6–9 and 12–15. Day 13 carries two, so twelve handouts in all. The other nine core days use cards and artifacts instead. The supplement adds twenty more, two on each of Days 21–30. Print one per student — individual work, not a table copy.

🎯

Boost Cards · BC0–BC9

Single-skill refreshers: right triangles, SOHCAHTOA, Law of Cosines, the IK steps, arm setup. Surfaced per day and via Math Move.

↩️

Catch-Up Cards · one per day

What a student missed, on one page. Your answer for absences — and students can reach it themselves.

🗣️

Vocabulary · EN · Español · 中文

Every term with a plain-English gloss plus Spanish and Chinese, and sentence frames for the days that ask students to justify.

✅

Skills Checks · mid-unit + final

Closed-resource checks on plain triangles and unfamiliar machines, to see whether the skill transferred. Student copy + key.

📘

Curriculum · Materials → Full Curriculum

The full 20-day scope: every day's math, worked example, Gate/Milestone, and draft standards alignment. Read this to plan.

🌐

IK Everywhere · + extensions

A one-page handout showing where inverse kinematics lives beyond the arm, plus early-finisher extension challenges (EC1–EC3).

🧪

2026–27 is a curriculum program, not a study. No diagnostic is asked of your classes. The measured implementation begins in 2027–28. Tell us what runs long or falls short.

RoboTrig — Algebra 2 through robotics NYC FIRST · Math in Motion · robotrig.org