Microduck StudioIndependent project

Duck Cards, a free deck for classrooms

Code on paper.
Then make it move.

Every card is one thing a Microduck can do. Lay the cards in a row and you have a program a class can read, act out, fix, and run in Microduck Studio.

Print the starter deck See the lessons

Nothing scans these cards yet. A person reads the row, and that is the first lesson.

  1. Control

    Start

    start

    100

  2. Sound

    Hello

    greet

    80

  3. Walk

    Walk forward

    walk_forward

    • Studio
    • Pad: L stick
    0

    Speed

    Slow

    slow

    • Studio
    20

  4. Walk

    Turn left

    turn_left

    • Studio
    • Pad: R stick
    2

  5. Trick

    Kick, right

    kick_right

    • Studio
    • Pad: RB
    61

  6. Control

    End

    end

    101
Read it left to right. Start. Say hello. Walk forward, slowly. Turn left. Kick with the right foot. End.

Three ways to run a row.

Start with people. Move to the phone when the class is ready, and to a real duck when there is one.

Act it out

One student is the duck and does exactly what the cards say, one at a time, and nothing else. When the duck does something nobody meant, the class has found a bug.

Run it in Studio

The duck in Microduck Studio walks in physics on an iPhone or iPad. Record the row as you drive it, or type the walking part as a sentence the phone reads by itself. Here is how.

Run it on a duck

Every card the gamepad can do names its button. Read the row aloud and press the buttons in order. Nobody has a Microduck yet, so this one waits for the robot.

The starter deck.

The cards below, then a sheet of blank ones. Print two copies for each group, so a row can say Walk forward twice.

Walk

Where the duck goes, and when it holds still.

  • Walk

    Walk forward

    walk_forward

    • Studio
    • Pad: L stick
    0

  • Walk

    Walk back

    walk_backward

    • Studio
    • Pad: L stick
    1

  • Walk

    Turn left

    turn_left

    • Studio
    • Pad: R stick
    2

  • Walk

    Turn right

    turn_right

    • Studio
    • Pad: R stick
    3

  • Walk

    Stop

    stop

    • Studio
    4

Speed

How fast. A Speed card changes the card above it.

Goes under Walk forward, Walk back, Turn left or Turn right.

  • Speed

    Slow

    slow

    • Studio
    20

  • Speed

    Fast

    fast

    • Studio
    21

Look

Where the head points. A Look card changes the card above it.

Goes under Walk forward, Walk back, Turn left, Turn right or Stop.

  • Look

    Look left

    look_left

    • Pad: Y
    40

  • Look

    Look right

    look_right

    • Pad: Y
    41

  • Look

    Look up

    look_up

    • Pad: Y
    42

  • Look

    Look down

    look_down

    • Pad: Y
    43

  • Look

    Straight ahead

    straight

    • Pad: Y
    44

Trick

A whole move the duck already knows, from start to finish.

  • Trick

    Kick, left

    kick_left

    • Studio
    • Pad: LB
    60

  • Trick

    Kick, right

    kick_right

    • Studio
    • Pad: RB
    61

  • Trick

    Sit or stand

    sit_or_stand

    • Studio
    • Pad: ▼
    62

  • Trick

    Roll

    roll

    • Studio
    • Pad: X
    63

  • Trick

    Peck the ground

    peck_ground

    • Studio
    • Pad: A
    64

Sound

The duck makes a sound.

  • Sound

    Hello

    greet

    80

  • Sound

    Chirp

    chirp

    81

  • Sound

    Coo

    coo

    82

  • Sound

    Alarm

    alarm

    83

  • Sound

    Wheee

    wheee

    • Pad: LT
    84

Control

These shape the row. They never move the duck.

  • Control

    Start

    start

    100

  • Control

    End

    end

    101

  • Control

    Repeat

    times

    repeat

    102

  • Control

    End repeat

    end_repeat

    103

When

Starts a second row that waits for something to happen.

  • When

    When it falls

    when_falls

    120

Your card

Blank cards with codes of their own, for moves your class invents.

The last sheet of the deck is these, each with its own code.

  • Your card

    Draw it here

    Name it

    card_1

    It does

    200
Print the starter deck Download the deck file

Make the deck yours.

The starter deck is the duck's own vocabulary. The best cards in your room will be the ones your students invent.

Invent a move

In Studio's Play screen, Mimic puts the duck in the pose of whoever stands in front of the camera. Strike a pose, keep it as a motion, then draw a card for it and give it a name.

Agree what a card means

A blank card can mean anything the class agrees on: Bow, Dance, Celebrate. Write what the duck does on the card. Its code is its own, so a reader can tell it from every other card.

Use the words Studio left out

Studio's plan has a few words the starter deck skips, like Normal and Inquire. Their code numbers are already set aside in the format, so a card you make for one matches everyone else's.

Draw it first

A good card shows one action, has a picture that someone who cannot read yet understands, and has been acted out before it is printed.

Change the rules

Should a Look card go under a kick? Studio's plan says no. Your class can say yes, as long as everyone acts it out the same way.

Share it back

Photograph your deck and open an issue on this site's repository. CC BY means anyone can print it, with your name on it.

Lessons to start with.

Each one fits a class period with paper only. The Studio step is there when you want it.

Sequences

Be the duck

One student is the duck. The class builds a row that gets the duck from the door to a chair, and the duck does exactly what it says.

Ask: what did the duck do that you did not mean?

Debugging

Find the bug

Draw where the duck should end up. Hand out a row with one wrong card. Groups act it out, find the card, and fix the row with a single swap.

Ask: how did you find it without trying every card?

Loops

Say it shorter

Write a dance that does the same few cards again and again. Then rewrite it with Repeat and End repeat, and count the cards you saved.

Ask: what changes if the dance repeats once more?

Parameters

What goes under

A Speed or Look card changes the card above it. In Studio's plan a walk can carry both, a stop can carry a Look, and a kick carries neither.

Ask: why would a kick take nothing under it?

Events

When it falls

Walking robots fall. Start a second row with When it falls: what the duck does once it is back on its feet. To test it, the student playing the duck sits down when you say "fall".

Ask: should it do the same thing after every fall?

Timing

Duck band

Groups write rows of the same length, with Stop cards as rests. On a count, every duck runs its row at once, and the class watches for who drifts.

Ask: which card put the ducks back in step?

A game for every grade.

A pack turns the deck into a game for one grade band: the cards in play, a board, challenges that ramp from easy to hard, and lessons. Each challenge prints as its own activity card.

See the packs

Run a row in Studio.

Studio's duck walks in physics on an iPhone or iPad. Every control named here is already in the beta.

Join the TestFlight beta
  1. Turn on every tool. In Settings, set Detail to Everything. Learn's last lesson can turn it on too.
  2. Record the row. Open Play and tap Record what I do, on the picture of the duck. Then read the cards aloud and do each one: the left stick walks, the right stick turns, and the buttons the cards name do the tricks.
  3. Keep it. When the row ends, tap the same chip again; it now says Name it. Keep the take, named for the row.
  4. Or say it. A row of Walk and Speed cards can be typed instead. Tap Say it and write the row as words, like forward for two seconds then turn left. The app tells you how it read them: No model was asked. This is a fixed list of words matched against the drive limits this app already enforces, which is why it works on a phone with nothing configured.
  5. Judge two rows. In Studio, open Compare, choose Pick any two, and pick between two groups' sequences.

Look and Sound cards stay with people. The bench in Studio takes walking and the tricks, but no head pose, and it moves no beak. Act those cards out. On a real duck, the Look cards and Wheee have buttons; the other sounds wait for a reader.

The square in the corner.

Every card carries a code a camera can read, an AprilTag, with the code's number under it.

A code nobody reads yet

Nothing in Studio reads these. They are printed now so the cards you cut out today mean the same thing when something does. A number never changes meaning; a new card gets a new number.

NFC, if you like

A sticker on the back of a card, or inside its sleeve, can carry the same card. The format says exactly what to write on it, and a phone that taps it opens that card's entry on this site.

Build a reader

A row of cards becomes the same kind of plan Studio's plan editor works with, so a reader written for a class project lands in a format Studio already speaks.

Read the card format

Questions teachers ask.

Does the duck read the cards?
Not yet. The cards are paper, and nothing reads them: not the duck and not Studio. A person reads the row. To make a duck do it, drive it in Studio with the sticks and buttons the cards name, or type the walking part as a sentence.
Do we have to train the duck first?
No. Every card is a move the duck already knows. A row only puts those moves in order.
Do we need a Microduck?
No. The lessons need only the printed cards, and the duck in Studio walks in physics on an iPhone or iPad. Nobody has a Microduck yet anyway.
Who is it for?
Anyone who can follow a picture can play Be the duck. Students who want more can read the format and write a reader of their own.
Why does a card say Kick, left, with a comma?
Because that is how Studio writes it. The cards use Studio's own words wherever Studio has one, so a student who finds the same words on the phone has found the same thing.
Can we change the cards?
Yes. The cards, their pictures and these lessons are CC BY 4.0. Print them, change them, share them, and credit Duck Cards.
Is this from Pollen Robotics?
No. Duck Cards are part of Microduck Studio, an independent project. Microduck is Pollen Robotics' robot.

Nobody has the hardware yet. Everything on this page works without a Microduck: paper first, then the duck in Studio.

Print it. Teach it. Change it.

Everything here is free, and the format is open.