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I have started an after-school robotics club at my kids' elementary school.
I will be
spending one hour a week each with groups of K-2nd grade and 3rd-5th grade,
6 kids in each group, working with the RIS set. The school is a gifted
magnet school (high potential kids, there by choice) and kids tend to be
brighter and better focused than average. There is a wide variety of LEGO
experience among the kids, one or two may be maniacs, but without TECHNICS
experience; Most are LEGO-limited. There is also a 50-50 mix of boys and
girls.
I would like to benefit form the experience of those who have done this
before. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
1) For the time being, I'm committed to the two 1 hr/wk sessions, but I
wonder
if this is an appropriate time period for the task. Is 1 hr enough to let a
kid work through a problem? http://www.lugnet.com/robotics/?n=7768
indicates that a longer time period is needed. Do others agree? What has
your experience been?
2) Any suggestions for a sequence of activities? I am thinking "Get a robot
that functions ASAP" , so build one from the Constructopedia (or other
step-by-step illustrated instructions) and make it operate (program in RCX),
then go back and invent our own. Is that a good approach, or do I need to
be more "contructionist" ? Should I offer a "goal", (like Lets design a
robot that will do this) or just let them follow their won interests?
Anyone have a better robot design to offer? ( I have ldraw, mlcad)
3) I currently have one RIS and one Search Sub to provide supplies plus an
additional motor, touch sensor and rotation sensor. Is that enough
materials to keep the six 3-5 grade kids going? If not, what additions are
best advised, given that the budget is currently $0 (all additional $ need
to be raised from ?, and I'd rather expend energy and time with kids than
raising money)
4) What is the best way to get in to RCXCode programming? Do I sit kids
down at the computer (one at a time?, in 2-person teams? as a group of 6
with me?) and run through the Mindstorms CD introduction?
Any advice, opinions, experiences are greatly appreciated. Hopefully, many
others will be interested in putting this information to work with kids.
And Todd, thanks for adding the .edu groups. I hope they become some of the
most active on LUGNET.
Rick Kirkwood
Jacksonville FL
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Teaching robotics
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| (...) That's my posting so let me just qualify that your ambition will decide this question. If you make "guided tours" through the Mindstorms Universe - then you can of course do it in 1-hour steps. However, I think Mindstorms is at it's best when (...) (25 years ago, 10-Nov-99, to lugnet.edu, lugnet.robotics, lugnet.robotics.edu)
| | | Re: Teaching robotics
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| (...) I don't think it is long enough by far. My non-robotics Technic session runs 2 hours and it's not long enough: I have them fighting to get in the door early and trying to pry them off the Lego and clear up at the end is... difficult. Most of (...) (25 years ago, 11-Nov-99, to lugnet.edu, lugnet.robotics, lugnet.robotics.edu)
| | | Re: Teaching robotics
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| (...) I've been thinking about doing exactly the same thing at my daughter's school (she is in 3rd grade). I was planning to follow some of the curriculum guides from Pitsco Lego-Dacta ((2 URLs) and follow the Robolab links to get to the curriculum (...) (25 years ago, 21-Nov-99, to lugnet.edu, lugnet.robotics, lugnet.robotics.edu)
| | | Team Challenge Set
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| Hi. Unfortunately, the LEGO parts in the Team Challenge Set correspond to the LEGO parts in RIS 1.0 and not RIS 1.5. Now I need to buy eight upgrade kits. Unfortunately, I can not find the web page for ordering them at the moment. Barbara Nostrand (...) (25 years ago, 28-Dec-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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