My first class on Robotics was last Monday. This class is currently for 4th and 5th grade students and is using EZ-Robot products. The class is strictly voluntary and is taught after school. 50% of the students that are in the 4th and 5th grade have chosen to stay at school an extra hour to learn about robotics through this program. We have called the program SM@RT which stands for Science and Math through Robotic Technology. There are other programs currently running that other students had previously committed to participating in that are held at the same time. Some of these programs are over in December and I expect that participation percentage to be closer to 60% by that time. Here is what some of the parents had to say about the program after only the first day...
Stacie Smith Cobbs Sounds fun! Grace really wanted to take the class and she was so disappointed to find out it was during allegro. Which also is on Mondays.
School board member Stacy O'Toole Webb They are SO excited! Thank you from all Stacy O'Toole Webb And, now we are doing chores to earn a robot. Whatever it takes.
Parent Melissa French Luke F. loved it! Thank you for giving of your time and knowledge!
Headmaster who saw some of the first lesson Steve Lessman Incredible! Thank you for using your knowledge & insight to help students at SWCS.
Parent Rick Megan Still Ethan loved it, he wouldn't stop talking about it all the way home! Thank you!
Parent Christi Jones-Martin Great! Grayson will be joining you in January when Allegro ends!
Parent Mykl Spaeny You blew my boys away! They talked my leg off tonight. Jake has put a robot on his Christmas list. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you EZ-Robot for making it easy to teach a subject that is so complex. I cant wait until they make the robot move for the first time.
We covered a lot in the firs class including Analog data Digital data Default wire colors and what they represent Sonar sensors - how they work and what they are used for IR distance sensors - How they work and what they are used for Light sensors - How they work and what they are used for Cameras - When they work great and when you would want to use other sensors instead Microphones - when you would use them and why Servo motors - how they work and when you would want to use them Stepper motors - How they work and when you would want to use them Analog ports on the EZ-B V4 Digital ports on the EZ-B V4 Camera port on the EZ-B V4
They soaked the information in like a sponge. I quizzed them at the end of the class some and they did great. Tomorrow I am going to go meet these students for lunch. I look forward to it.
The next lesson is going to be on Electricity. That is a huge subject but we will cover Electrons, Protons, and neutrons Volts Amps How batteries work How electricity flows through their robots. How to limit this electricity for devices that require less voltage
I have some fun ways of teaching about electricity that help the kids remember principles of electricity that many people dont understand.
Feel free to follow the students progress at HTTP://cochranrobotics.com/SMART
This is really exciting to see, and I wish something like this had been available when I was their age. I did take an after-school robotics class in high school, but at the time, we were mostly really just making big oddly shaped R/C cars, and the educational aspect was more focused on the physical construction than the capabilities (this was in the day when a Tandy TRS-80 was considered a high powered personal computer. before the first IBM PC).
I had found plans for an arm and gripper that my team wanted to build, but the skills and materials required didn't fit the time available for the class (only 12 sessions of about 90 minutes each).
Good luck on the additional sessions. It looks like you are off to a great start.
Alan
This is the start of building an extended program. It will start with these students and extend through High School, but one or two grades at a time. It will take time for such a new amazing product to have everything ready to replace other platforms, but its coming.
Next year, there will have to be a program for these 5th graders to move into, and so on and so forth. The cool thing is that these 4th graders will get the entire experience through 12tth grade. That excites me. I am sure that once we have the gap filled to the high school level, we will start moving from 3rd grade back to K
There is one high school in Oklahoma that has a computer science program. I want to be the school in Oklahoma that has a robotics program and it is second nature for these students to use robotics like it is for them to use a smartphone or a computer.
d.cohran.great job.
The second day went off pretty well. We covered some pretty advanced topics related to electricity and batteries. These students have now been introduced to Atoms, Electrons, Protons, Neutrons, Ions, Lithium and how all of that relates to batteries. They were introduced to what volts and Amps are and how to read a battery to know how many volts and mah the battery can hold. They were introduced to the fact that electricity flows from negative to positive and not the other way around. They understand why this is the case and how adding electrons through chemical processes makes the atoms move and creates electricity. We covered how to limit the flow of this electricity in both resistance and in digital switching and when, why and how you would use these. They learned what the side effects of using these different voltage regulation methods are. They also learned how to connect batteries in series or in parallel and what the affect of doing this would be. The last thing we covered was how to charge a LiPo Battery correctly. It seems that many of the students have plans to buy or build robots on their own so this topic will be covered almost every class period until I know that every student understands how to charge a LiPo battery safely.
The main purpose of covering this information is so that when things come up later when building robots, we can pause and discuss these. I don't expect everything to be adding up in their minds just yet. By introducing these topics first and early, we will be able to cover them more in depth later, with the student not feeling lost or overwhelmed at that time.
They learned a ton and really want to start programming robots. What they don't know is that yesterday I spent time setting up 6 ASUS tablets with keyboards to run ARC in prep for them to start learning the ARC interface next week. We will break up into 6 groups next week and start learning what all the ARC application can do. This will run for about 4 weeks. Once we are done with this, we will move to 4 or 5 groups and will start programming robots to do cool things. We will have about 30 hours worth of programming robots in class. I also want to have a few saturday programming sessions for anyone who wants to attend. These would be 4-8 hour sessions where I can help these students with their projects once they understand what is going on with ARC. Many of the students have already downloaded ARC at home. I am sure that once they see how it is used, they will take off and run hard on their own.
I wanted to record these first two sessions but things didn't work out like I wanted them to. I will do what I can to record going forward, but I haven't figured out how to record myself and effectively teach. I like to move around a lot.
That is so great! Make sure you upgrade the asus tablets to the latest ARC - there's enhancements to the 3d building interface and projects which will help the children.
I really like that you have been documented the experience. I hope we can find something to do with the written documentation to help other educators learn from your experience.
DJ, I have expressed this to Jake a lot, but also want to tell you and anyone else on your team, I will do whatever it takes to work with you guys to come up with something for teachers. I know it takes time and you guys are working on this, but if I can help in any way, please let me know.
Here is a thought for recording. Use an EZ-B camera on a pan/tilt mount and use face tracking in ARC so that it follows you
(or maybe for better reliability do color tracking and where bright, easily trackable shirts).
I think you have come up with a tremendous curriculum. I'll say again that I wish I could attend, so I do hooe you get the recording sorted.
Alan
Thanks for the idea Alan. I had thought about that, but the ez-b that I still have in my possession is in a Wall-E. The school has seen Wall-E one time and every time anyone sees me at the school, they ask where Wall-E is, or call me Mr Robot Guy. This comes from preschool to 5th grade students. Its cool and all but I really think that he would be more of a distraction than a help. The other kit I had I sent home with the 9th grader that is helping. He is learning EZ-Robot and robotics right now. His classes let out about 15 minutes after we start, so it isn't possible for him to start recording when the class starts.
Its all just some logistics that need to be worked out. As long as these 25 students are learning, that is my first priority. I think that I might make something covering the topics covered on these first two lessons and post it to my website. I have other information out there already but it requires people to be willing to read instead of watch a video. I just have to prioritize some things but to me there is no better work than to educate at any level. I am trying to clear out some other things so that I can focus more on this goal. More to come on that over the next year.