EV3 --> Hummingbird --> micro:bit

Thanks to a recent inquiry, by a 5th grader named Leo, about robotics in grades 6-8 at Brentwood School, I have decided to update the goings on in my course over the past several years. While I still have EV3 kits available, I have moved on to Hummingbird Robotics, and during this virtual time, the micro:bit. Below are a sampling of videos of student projects from the years past.

.    

   

   

           

   

    

   

Teaching Girls to be Brave, not Perfect

The scene:

Frozen, she stared at her RobotC program on the screen. 

Her lifeless partner, the robot, yearning for an algorithm, stood in front of her.

USB cable unplugged. No connection between them. 

While looking at the two of them, suddenly, it occurred to me--she might be afraid that her program won't work. I thought of Reshma Saujani and her TED Talk: Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection. I had watched her stare at the screen for days, trying to encourage her, but it wasn't until a colleague sent me Saujani's Ted Talk that I realized what might be happening here. Girls are often refrain trying things and takings risks due to fear of not getting it perfect.

I sat down next to them.
"Have you tested your program?" I asked.
"No," she nodded.
"Well, let's do it and see what happens. Then we'll have some information about how it works."
A sheepish and concerned "Okay," was barely audible.

She plugged in her USB cord. The familiar download sound occurred.

Run.

The robot came to life, engaging in unpredicted antics, as the arm pushed down forcefully lifting the front part of the robot off the counter and turned wildly to the left and back etc... Not, what she wanted to happen. (I could have predicted this.) Excitedly, I started asking her questions.

She smiled and we began debugging together.

As often happens, class was over just when it started to get interesting. (A topic for another post.)

EV3s Ready for 2nd Semester

Second semester base robots have been built by the students and are poised for another term of abuse. The greater my organization, the minimal harm to the robots and the greater the learning. From one semester to the next, my organization seems to steadily improve, but mostly by small increments. This semester however was different. A major reorganization of my classroom including: tearing out some wall-mounted table tops; installation of  a white-board wall; and the reorienting of the projector to face away from the door, produced an major organizational leap forward. I am excited about the time that will be saved. Here are some photos and bullet points describing my course.

• I color code everything! As you can see from the photos. 
• I use Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy EV3 Curriculum.  
• Kids use 2 computers. One with curriculum open and one with LEGO Mindstorms open.
• They watch curriculum videos using color coded earbuds.
• Earbuds are kept in color coded baggies, stored behind robot in parking spaces. 
• Color coded USB cables are stored in parking spaces. 
• Classes are 40-45 minutes long. Kids come in a get right work. 
• Kids that move through curricular challenges faster, completes others that I create or they create their own challenges. 
• They pseudocode only the final challenges for each module. 
• There are entrance procedures and exit procedures. 

 
Color coded robot parking spaces.

Color coded LEGO element toolkits.

       Whiteboard "wall-paper."

 

"How Close to the Edge?"- challenge.

One last thing. Every semester students evaluate their courses using an electronic "Student Feedback Intsrument." One question asks students whether or not the "Teacher integrates and uses technology in the course." As a reminder of the spectrum of perception on which middle school students can be, I give you these three responses:

• We use tech all the time.
• Not really.
• It's a robotics class. 

This made me smile. 

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day. 

LEGO EV3 Robotics Soccer Shootout

To inspire my 5 girls and 5 boys in my Robotics Innovation Design from day 1 this year, I decided to do something a little different. Classes on our first day of school were 20 minutes long. I didn't want to spend the time talking about policies and goals etc... Instead, I wanted to do something that I could refer back to constantly throughout the semester. Thus, I introduced the final group project to get them thinking about ideas from day one. I showed them all the videos of the final projects from the past 4 semesters and left them with a question mark. "What will you all produce?"

I have posted final project videos all but last Spring's in previous blog posts. Below is the Soccer Shootout from my 2015 Spring RID class. I hope you enjoy it. It certainly inspired my present students.

Final Semester Project: Olympic Torch / Robot Parade

Or "Capturing Footage of a Wild Animal"

The first semester for our school has come to end. During the last several weeks, the students worked on their final project which was to be performed at the last middle school assembly of the semester, literally just minutes before being dismissed for winter break.

The students and I met in the theater in the morning to do several last run throughs. It worked fairly well, but probably would not work perfectly. Robots sometimes have minds of their owns, it seems. The robot starting positions were marked and the blue, green, red and white tape was laid out on the stage. The robots were supposed to move forward in formation to the green line and stop and wave their flags in sequence. Then the center robot would move out of the way for the torch robot to move forward across the stage, stop at the red line and do a ninety degree turn to face the audience. Once the center robot moved back into position, all the robots with their flags up would move forward to the blue line, stop, back up and turn to face the audience. They would then follow the white line staying a set distance behind the robot in front using their ultrasonic sensor. Once the lead robot stopped at the barrier, all the robots were supposed to stop and wave their flags once or until the barrier was removed. 

The following video is of the assembly and shows robots not cooperating.

Post assembly, the students bolted for winter break leaving me unsatisfied with the performance. Therefore, I came into school one morning during break to debug the robots and record what should have happened.

With my heart pounding, I coordinated the camera, the music and the robots singlehandedly and managed to get the following on the first take. It wasn't perfect as you will see. "That'll do," I said to myself. When I turned off the camera, I literally felt like I had captured footage of a wild animal never to be seen again. Enjoy.

As always, thank you for reading and viewing.
Happy New Year everyone. 

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.