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.