Subject:
|
One easy to do suggestion
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.dear-lego
|
Date:
|
Fri, 9 Feb 2001 06:20:14 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
1514 times
|
| |
|
|
Recap/intro....I'm a SAHD (stay at home Dad) with an engineering degree, two
sons - pre-school and 4th grade and a house with a huge amount of Legos
everywhere. I teach lunchtime enrichment courses at my son's elemntary
school - one on machines - using DACTA class packs and one on Robotics using
a range of Mindstorms products.
In teaching my robotics course, I use toolboxes of parts - made up based on
my experience to allow the construction of a wide range of vehicles. A wide
selection of hub/tire combinations is included - important in teaching about
gearing up/down and torque vs. speed. Each "kit" holds the same assortment
of gears, axles, wheels, motors, beams and plates - with one important
difference. AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE - and this turned out to be far more
difficult than I thought - these kits are color coded. This is important
when working with a bunch of kids in short time periods. The WHITE team
isn't getting confused and using the YELLOW team's parts. Color coding also
limits long term "borrowing" from another team.
Well, despite much searching and purchasing of older TECHNICS kits, I was
surprised to find out that it was pretty much impossible to fully equip a
"kit" in one color. Even white or black. I came closest with yellow. Wheel
hubs - small are yellow, white, grey or -rare- black. 20x30 size - white,
grey, turquoise or magenta (yellow on some older ones?) Even beams and
plates rarely seem to have a complete size range available in a given color.
Which invariably leads to the great color question: Why is green so rare?
Does the feedstock use some platinum derived dye?
I suggest that TLC consider issuing some of their kits in a variety of
colors. Instead of tooling up new molds for decorative "add-ons" try
molding wheel hubs and basic components in a variety of colors - not just
the same few. (And for the record, those "wing things" used as panels on
cars and with the Throw-bots and such are the least "re-used" pieces in my
son's building efforts.) I think this would be especially appropriate in
the context of the Cyberslam kits or something like the 8279 4WD X-Track
(though most of these kits have gotten too far away from the basic Technic
component format IMO). I can't see that this would be a huge cost - you're
simply changing the feedstock going into molding machines and then loading
the packaging machines by color. You could even stay with a "generic" box
using a sticker to denote color. This appeals to the "my BLUE car" is
faster than "your GREEN car" competitive nature of kids AND feeds the
compulsive "collector" gene some kids possess (needing to have every variety
of something). The biggest cost is an informational one - and possibly a
storage one (though I doubt much of one) and if TLC is using an MRPII system
or something similar, such planning should be easy to manage.
If nothing else, I have to wonder how difficult it would be - and how costly
it would be - to package "generic" Technic sets by color. Black, white,
grey, blue, red, yellow, green. E.g. a wide assortment of hubs/tires, a
full technic beam and plate assortment and even gears and pulleys (it's
being done with throwbots). This provides a GREAT base for ALL SORTS of
classroom activities. And given the increasing number of after school
programs and other places where such kits could be used, I suspect that such
easy to put-away kits would be HIGHLY desirable.
The DACTA classroom trays are fine for the small endeavors like the LEVERS,
PULLEYS and such, but you really need some easy mode of differentiating
"kits" when a large amount of parts are involved. I know that the middle
school tech teachers are not happy about keeping track of the larger kits
used in class. I'm sure that they would LOVE color coded robotics kits but
there is no way that they could spend the time to compile such sets. Even
if they could spend the time I have, the current purchasing system does not
allow them to buy supplies outside of the "official" purchasing channels.
I hesitate to venture a guess on how much effort I've put into accumulating
my current parts collection for Robotics, but honestly, it shouldn't be THIS
difficult - or costly. (I figure if I teach my courses for 5 years, I may
just recoup my costs, but then again, I'm not exactly doing it for the money.)
|
|
1 Message in This Thread:
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
