The Apple Orchard Challenge and the Thoughtful Robot

My students progressed faster than I expected through the Movement tutorials of the EV3 Curriculum. Being in the computer lab with 18 pc desktops and only 11 students works out well. I bought some cheap earbuds and some splitters so that each pair of students could plug in and listen to the same curriculum video on one computer while programming in Mindstorms on another.

The students' level of engagement ramped up when I brought in a robotics table (the kind used in the FLL) and built the Apple Orchard Challenge right before there eyes. The curriculum called for black electrical tape, but I did not want to have to hem and haw about whether it counted or not if one wheel crossed the tape etc. Using some cardboard aluminum foil tubes, different colored post-it notes and tape, I created a more 'realistic' orchard. I also figured the kids would enjoy it more if they hit something rather than simply motored over the black tape. The Mandarin teacher, a great friend of mine, helped me 'plant' the 'trees' on the cardboard tubes and suggested I make them fruit trees. I love collaboration!

The video above was of the first group to get down the last row. So close they were. Eventually, all five groups completed the challenge. There was definitely some frustration along the way as the students realized that starting the robot in a slightly different position could throw angles and distances off and cause a crash into the trees as shown below. They persisted, over and over and over again. Give kids challenges and they persevere.

You may have noticed one robot moving much slower than the others. That was Orange Blossom, named for the colored tape on the robot. Paige and Eve decided to take a more slow and steady approach in programming their robot than the other four groups. This elicited sighs of impatience as the other students had to wait for their turn on the board. Emily, a member of the second group to complete the challenge, watched Orange Blossom seemingly stroll through the orchard as if looking for an apple to pick and quipped, "That is such a thoughtful robot." Knowing what she might I asked her why because I wanted to hear it from her. "Because it is moving so slowly." Ahh, so there are benefits to moving slowly. Maybe this realization could be applied to other aspects of school and life. If I haven't written it yet, I am now. Kids learn so much more than robotics in a robotics course.

On to sensors. A student already gave me an idea for a theme song for this unit. 

Stay tuned and thanks for reading. 

First Day of School: No! No! Yes!

Classes on our first day of school are only 20 minutes long. A few years ago, I realized that instead of wasting this time with logistics such as name cards and what did you do this summer, I wanted to do something that I could and would refer to throughout the entire course. Something that I could refer to constantly as "What did you learn on the very first day?" For robotics, I thought that I would have the kids write pseudocode from the very first program as simple as it would be. Then I thought, "No." I should wait until the programs become more complicated and then introduce pseudocode. But then I thought that, "No!" again. I should do it from the very beginning so that it becomes engrained and automatic. "Yes!" This is what I will do. Thus, I had the students write in their journals the directions/steps for making a robot go around a stack of their journals. I put out a couple of meter sticks and the kids went right to work. It was great. The students then shared their steps out loud. Forward some inches (Next time, it will be metric.), then turn 90 degrees etc. It was great. After stacking their journals on top of each other in the middle of the table, I then demonstrated an actual program with a base robot that I had already created to complete the task. I chose not to introduce the word pseudocode until later, but simply refer to what they wrote as directions or steps. With the hook set, the next day I will have the students build the base robot, review some of the course expectations and get started on the EV3 Curriculum. 

Robotics Academy PD at CMU NREC

(I am in the front row, 3rd from the right in the dark shirt, if you care to know.)

With one year of teaching LEGO EV3 Mindstorms under my belt piecing together a curriculum as I went along, it was time for some formal training. I decided on the Robotics Academy Certified EV3 Professional Development at the NREC, "part of the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, a world-renowned robotics organization, where you'll be surrounded by real-world robot research and commercialization." The mecca of robotics! 

Twenty-four teachers from all over the United States and several from schools abroad, including Doha, Ireland, Madagascar and Vietnam converged on the NREC for one week of training using the EV3 Curriculum. After the program and facility overview and introductions, we entered the secure facility by signing in and collecting our badges and name cards. This is the real deal, the vanguard of robotic engineering research. Indeed, each of the five mornings Norman Kerman, the designated mayor of the NREC, and CHIMP welcomed us into the giant converted warehouse as we walked to our classroom.

An articulate, knowledgeable and thorough teacher, Ross Higashi, wasted no time starting us programming using the EV3 Curriculum for the Mindstorms software. You can get an idea of what the curriculum is like by testing out the free online version. The organization and presentation of the software hooked everyone that I spoke with almost immediately, including one woman who was truly skeptical and didn't want to be there in the first place, but her school insisted on sending her. 


Last year I used the Robot Educator within the Mindstorms software and challenges from Classroom Activities for the Busy Teacher: EV3 by Damien Kee. (This book has great activities that I will continue to use). The students did not notice the lack of depth and continuity that I noticed and felt badly about. (I tend to be hard on myself.) With the EV3 Curriculum from the NREC, I had found what I was looking for. On day one of the program, a sound pedagogical philosophy emerged. The course was not just about learning the Mindstorms' programming environment; it was about teaching for understanding, i.e. the portion of the iceberg beneath the surface. Moreover, the philosophy was modeled, not simply talked about. A well organized, engaging curriculum, real world examples, clear explanations and a sound pedagogical philosophy?! I was sold! 

The free version includes the basics, but the bonus segments on My Blocks, Data Wires and Logic come with the purchased version. 

Overall, this program was one of the most productive, effective, and applicable professional development experiences that I have ever had. I had considered taking the online course, but much preferred to be there in person and interact with the instructors, the other teachers and experience the facility. Moreover, I had never been to Pittsburgh, PA. Carnegie Mellon University; The University of Pittsburgh; the beautiful stadiums; the three rivers; the bridges; the museums, etc. I loved it and will definitely be back, hopefully for the RobotC professional development course. If you are new to EV3 or wish to upgrade your understanding I strongly recommend these courses. 

As always, thank you for reading. 

Robotics Innovation Design- Spring Assembly

While it is not quite the dance off that my first semester class came up with to end the term, the students made some mini ad hoc presentations and shared their projects. I have a lot to think about and some good ideas to improve the course for next year. I will share those ideas in a later post.

Demonstrations include:
- general programming with large motors and medium motor
- ultrasonic sensor to detect distance
- color sensor detecting light from laser and colored tape
- elephant from the EV3 expansion kit

I hope you enjoy the video. Robotics Presentation at Assembly

I'll Be Honest, Today Was Frustrating

We are coming towards the end of the semester and the students have picked core and expansion robots to build from the EV3 software. Gyroboy, puppy, color sorter, robot arm from the core set and tank bot from the expansion set were the chosen bots. Great progress was made on the color sorter, the robot arm and the tank bots. The gryoboy and puppy have been very problematic. After many calls to LEGO Ed by my students, disappointedly, they abandoned gyroboy and moved on to something else.

Today, I had two sets of girls that I worked with on the puppy. I am really conscientious about encouraging girls, but they were getting very frustrated with the puppy build. They made many errors building and had to take it apart to rebuild. I realize that this part of it all, but they just were not into having to do this. I persisted with them and eventually got them to fix the build. Then we noticed that one sensor was plugged into the wrong port and contained too short of chord. With another girl, I was trying to decipher the program that does not seem to work like it does on the video. Frustrating. We figured out how one of the my blocks worked, but the program is so complicated. Then the other group noticed that the puppy can't walk. Argh.

I called LEGO and wrote on the online community and asked if there were written explanations anywhere for what these robots are supposed to do and how they are supposed to respond. There isn't. They only have the videos, which are only moderately helpful. In addition, every LEGO workshop I have been to the instructor has encouraged us as teachers to have the kids write notes above the blocks so that they can go back and read easily what they do. Yet LEGO doesn't do that with their programs. I wish they did because then students and I could learn from their programming.

At the end of class, I spoke to the kids about frustration and problem solving and that is part of this whole venture. Butting up against frustration isn't bad, I told them. It's how you respond to the frustration that is either bad or good. So some important lessons were hopefully learned.

Thanks for reading.

Grabber Challenge: "It's my robot! It's doesn't work!"

After completing the Robot Educator Basics in the EV3 Mindstorms software, I turned to Damien Kee's Classroom Activities for the Busy Teacher: EV3. The Grabber challenge seemed like a good one. I gave the kids the option of designing and building their own grabber attachment or using the instructions provided in Damien's pdf of his book. Most if not all chose his design. A spectrum of success ensued. Two groups had quick success while others struggled. "It's my robot! It doesn't work!" (Of course. How could it be something they have done?) I heard this over and over again from one group. We examined the program. We tried someone else's program that worked. It did not work on this robot. I began to think that the student was right, that maybe there was something wrong with their brick or robot. Then one girl came to rescue and spotted the problem. Can you?

                                  Figure 1.

                                  Figure 2.

Give up? Figure 1 has a piece positioned incorrectly. Figure 2 has the same piece correctly positioned. See if you can find it. 

Spoiler alert. 

In Figure 1, the 2 module cross block that the worm gear axle goes through has the axle in a locked position so that the medium motor cannot move or rotate. Notice the difference in Figure 2.

It was not the brick after all. How long will it take before I learn that the problems the kids and myself have while programming or building are rarely, rarely ever due to a malfunctioning robot. Throwing up your hands and simultaneously declaring, "It's my robot!" is a way to avoid ownership and responsibility for the problem and to avoid making the effort to troubleshoot and problem solve. In my opinion, students need more experience in both of these areas. Taking responsibility and problem-solving apply to life in general. 

As always, thank you for reading.  

US Sensor Wait Block: The Difference between the Change and Compare Modes

During my semester teaching with the Mindstorms EV3 software, I actually had to call and speak with a LEGO technical support representative because the difference between the ultrasonic sensor change and compare modes was eluding me. The representative was very helpful, and I basically came to understand the simplicity of the settings as the difference between the meaning of two prepositions, 'to' and 'from.' (See EV3 Wait Block- Ultrasonic Sensor.)

This semester, I designed an activity for the students to figure this out for themselves. The activity involved collecting class data in a Google spreadsheet so that the kids could draw the conclusion for themselves. They simply followed the instructions in the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Education edition software. The kids used the Robot Educator-Basics-Stop at Object tutorial. This tutorial uses the ultrasonic sensor wait block on the "change" mode. The students completed this tutorial from different distances that I tried to control and then they recorded their  data in a spreadsheet shown below.

Stop at Object Change Mode (11 cm)
Start Distance from Object (cm)	How far Robot Moved (cm)	End Distance from Object (cm)
90	11	79
70	12	58
40	15	25
80	12	68
60	10	50
90	12.5	77.5
45	5	39
90	11	79
60	8	49
50	11	39
30	17	13
90	80	10
20	10	30
44	13	31
47	11	36
83	10	73

From this data, the students were able to conclude that even with a couple of outliers, eleven of the data points show movement of 11 cm +/- 1-2 cm TO the object. 

The students then repeated the same experiment using the compare mode instead of the change mode. Their data is shown below. 

Stop at Object Compare Mode (11 cm)
Start Distance from object (cm)	How far Robot Moved (cm)	End Distance from Object (cm)
90	75	15
90	42	48
60	46	14
30	16
70	25	45
50	7	43
90	47	43
90	24	76
45	12	38
15	4	12
15	26	41
30	11	41
37	11	48
17	4	12

This data did not turn out as I had hoped. The third column should have contained end distances FROM the object closer to 11 cm. Some 11 cm were recorded in the second column which could have been placed in the wrong column by students. 

Still, with a couple of demonstrations with the students looking on, they came to the conclusion that the "compare" mode causes the robot to move a certain distance FROM an object. 

All in all, this was a fun exercise to introduce the students to the idea of collecting a set of data, drawing conclusions, and discussing possible sources of error. 

For me, I learned that I need to provide students with more explicit directions on how to record data. 

Thank you for reading. 

Get Out of the Way of the Students

A new semester means fourteen new robotics students in my Robotics Innovation Design elective. This time, five girls and nine boys. Last semester, we started with LEGO Simple Machines kits and then moved on to the Mindstorms EV3s. This semester, we dove right into the EV3s.

It did not take long for 'Past Teacher' to rear his controlling head, but the enthusiasm of the kids caused 'Present Teacher' to fight back and allow the kids do what they wanted to do. (See earlier post for clarification "Classroom Conflict: Old Teacher vs. New Teacher.")

After the students learned the basics of programing their EV3 driving base robots to move forward, reverse, turn and spin, I presented them with the In N' Out House challenge. It seems simple enough, go in one side, spin 90 degrees and come out another side, but it takes a bit of perfecting.

Once the above challenge was completed and before moving on to the next skill, students were given the opportunity to design a challenge for themselves and the other students, using tape, cardboard, small whiteboards or whatever else we could get our hands on. Their challenges are often more difficult than what I produce. Pictured below is a challenge designed by two students.



The students titled it 'From China to America,' as the directions required kids to program their robots to go up the ramp, capture the cuboid, which has a Chinese
flag underneath it, and deliver it to the U.S. Flag on the left. The students were having all sorts of difficulty keeping the robots going straight as they transitioned from the different surfaces on the challenge.

Past Teacher wanted to tell them to get rid of the ramps and just do it on a flat surface. Present Teacher shut him up quickly and let the kids do what they wanted to do. Kids like making things go up and down ramps. The ramps were initially much steeper, but they figured out that that didn't work very well so they lowered the center portion. Isn't that what this is all about: trying something, experimenting and revising. Eventually, I just let them be and the kids were lining up to complete the challenge. The creators of the challenge produced a point system for different levels of accuracy of delivering the cuboid. Check out the excitement below.

Once again, I keep learning that one of the best teaching strategies is simply to get out of the way of the students.

Thank you for reading.

Final Project: Robot Dance Off

Two songs: All the Single Ladies and Campfire Song Song. Two groups of students each with three robots. Four judges for 1. choreography, 2. costume and set design 3. technical skill 4. overall appeal. The results? See below.

 

"Could we have a dance-off?" Absolutely! Great idea. This was the students' final project for the course. Six EV3 robots meant 6 pairs of students coming up with their respective dance proposals. Before the students were allowed to begin choreographing their dances, Mrs. Nora Francis, the Brentwood School Middle School dance instructor, taught the students about some elementary dance moves. Some required elements included:
1. chaine- 360 degree turn
2. canon- one robot
In addition, the routines needed to include a sensor interacting with something on the dance floor. Eventually, two songs were chosen and the students programmed the robots to dance to those two songs.

The judges:

The final contest was done at the last middle school assembly before winter break. The kids loved it.