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
Today went well at SM@RT. We discussed how situations half way around the world in Hong Kong have delayed the shipping of our robots, which are stuck in Hong Kong right now. We also used this as a chance to show that your actions can affect other people even half way around the world. This can be for good or bad, but that is for each of us to choose. We finished going through ARC for all of the non-robot-function parts of the software. We also discussed the difference between a tethered robot and an untethered robot and how EZ-Robot is tethered which gives you a lot of advantages over untethered robots. We discussed Wifi and how Wifi is the method of tethering that EZ-Robot uses and how Wifi is everywhere now. We will discuss AP mode vs Client mode in an upcoming class.
The students asked a lot of questions, some of them kind of silly, but their imaginations are starting to work on what they want their robot to do. I mentioned that you could make a robot to do your homework, but that would mean that you would have to know how to do your homework, and then be able to program your robot to do your homework which would be more difficult than just doing your homework, and much less fun than programming your robot to do other cool things instead of homework.
Next week we should be able to start building JD, Six, a 3D printed Six, Wall-E and Gizmo (a class built robot from the previous post). Everyone is excited for this and looks forward to being able to start making robots do something. If this had been a daily class, we would be into the second week of it and already building robots. How cool would that be?
How cool would that be?
j
I think it's really cool how you tie in the global perspective in regards to Hong Kong, and I had a good laugh at the bit about homework. Keep up the good work David!
Guess who can't wait for class on Monday!
six jd and wallie.
j
We got the robots and presented them to the class today. Each week we have been giving points to teams who answered questions correctly. These points were then cashed in today for the choice of which robot each team wanted to work on first. Six and JD went first, with our 3D printed six being third followed by Wall-E and then our prototype robot that we made in class a couple of weeks ago. We have one more robot that we should get by the time we switch up robots.
We covered the different WIFI modes and what each is used for. We also connected each tablet to each robot and added the EZB-V4 Info module which shows the temp of the processor in the robot and the current battery level. We also added the camera module and showed what the camera on each robot was seeing. I asked the teams to tell Tate (my helper) what they knew about the robots they have to work with. It is interesting to see their first impressions. Its hard to hear what they are saying, but this will be compared to a video that will be recorded after they have spent about 4 hours with this robot.
The plan is to rotate the robots between the groups. We have 2 robots that were bought and designed by someone else, 1 that uses someone else's design but is 3D printed, 1 that is a modification of an exiting design and one that was designed by the class. Two of these are 6 legged robots, 1 is a biped, 1 is wheeled, and one is tracked. This is a pretty good spread of robots and will help the students to be exposed to many different types of robots.
That was great!
J
Great robotic exposure and opportunity for kids. They are fortunate to have a great teacher. Steve S