Subject:
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Re: suggestions on a mixture of 2nd to 5th graders
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics.edu
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Date:
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Wed, 9 Mar 2005 22:14:21 GMT
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Viewed:
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5342 times
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Liz,
I don't envy you. It'll be hard to keep the attention of such a diverse age
group. From my experience, the 2nd and 3rd graders will be the easy ones. The
4th and 5th graders, well, I don't envy you.
I am always impressed when I go to my daughter's hockey practices. Her team is
composed of girls from 2nd to 4th grade. The coaches keep them in a constant
state of motion. They are always involved in something, and they stay focused.
These girls actually like doing drills because the coaches make them fun.
That may be difficult in a classroom. Constant motion is probably not something
you want going on. But constant interaction and involvement may be achievable.
I do training for FLL, mostly building with LEGO. Originally the classes were
aimed at coaches and mentors. All adults. A group probably less experienced
with LEGO than your second graders. But there was a strong interest in allowing
kids to participate, so we let them in last year. I thought, Oh Great! How can
I make a class that will work with kids and adults. But it ended up not being a
problem. The magic formula ended up being:
1. Discuss a little theory.
2. Build something.
3. Repeat
Occasionally I would replace Build something with Show something. Want to
introduce the light sensor? Give a line following demonstration. Talking about
gears? Lift something heavy with a puny little motor. We also had a little
competition where the "teams" get to play around with gearing and wheel sizes in
an attempt to make their drag racer car (one of the build projects use to
demonstrate cross bracing) be the fastest at driving up an inclined dragstrip.
It was a lot more fun than adults only.
The real reward came when I judged the state FLL competition. I got to see how
the kids used their new knowlege to make some very fine robots. They didn't
copy the ideas I presented, but instead came up with their own interpretation.
To see a 4th grader who understands gears and the tradoff between torque and
speed! I nearly cried.
Dean Hystad
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | suggestions on a mixture of 2nd to 5th graders
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| Hi, I am going to hold an afterschool enrichment class designed for 3rd to 5th graders. The organizer made a mistake of taking in a lot of 2nd graders as well. Now, the class has 8 2nd graders, 10 3rd graders, 10 4th & 5th graders. Yes, I do have (...) (20 years ago, 9-Mar-05, to lugnet.robotics.edu)
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