Summer Robotics 2 Day 3

This afternoon the Robotics 2 camp finished up with a dance a party.  We reviewed computational thinking and how we will be more successful if we work out one piece of code at a time. Then we jumped into our challenge of using all 4 drive directions to make Edison dance.  I was impressed with how many different varieties of turns, twists, speed, and length of time were used.  The kids thought it was fantastic that they could pick a favorite song, I could play it over the speaker system, and they could have their Edison "dance" to the music.

 Our dance code was a fun adventure in creative coding. I could see the "choreography" happening in some student's minds as they thought about how they would like Edison to move to a Greatest Showman song or how would Edison do the Floss dance?

 After our break we learned how to make Edison turn on and off his lights.  We played around with the code to make Edison dance and turn on and off the lights. Our main coding focus today was on the Loop block, which makes the code repeat either a set number of times or forever.  The kids discovered the Look block on Wednesday so it was fairly easy for them to incorporate it into their dancing code. We even learned that you can put a Loop block around a few blocks, add more blocks, and put a loop block around all of it.

We had an amazing time learning together.  It was a ton of fun to watch the kids become confident in loading code onto Edison and playing around with writing the code.  It is awesome that Edison is open ended so all these kids can go home and continue creating new code challenges for their Edison.  Here are some example challenges to get your kids to do (or come up with your own!): 

• Drive around and obstacle, such as a cup or pencil case
• Drive around the border of a desk without driving off the edge
• Create a maze on a large piece of paper
• Create a maze using building blocks

Share with me what amazing challenge you can make your Edison do!  Share a video, pictures, or even just text on Facebook.com/InitiateLearning  I can't wait to see what you can accomplish! 

Summer Robotics 2 Day 2

The kids in Robotics 2 brought some amazing passion and energy to camp today!  I am incredibly impressed with what we were able to accomplish.  They were able to recall the parts of a robot with the correct vocabulary and they were able to transition into a more independent situation where students didn't need me to remind them step-by-step how to program the Edison Robots.  This led to a fantastic situation for any classroom - Individualized Learning.  The kids who where working on mastering the decimal form of a percentage of a second were coached through that.  Students who mastered the math quickly were able to move on and challenge themselves by adding more complicated code.

 When we were ready to put Edison through a maze we spent time talking about computational thinking.  Computational thinking is the process of doing one step at a time.  First we want Edison to go forward, then turn left, then go forward, then turn right, then go forward.  Just being able to list the steps in order is a skill to master.  As we worked on the code I stressed that THE ONLY WAY anyone can be successful at writing code in the beginning is to write one step of code at a time, test it, adjust it, and make it absolutely correct before adding the next step of code.

 Then we learned how Edison can interact with drawn lines.  Edison has a line tracking sensor and can follow a black line or respond to a black line.  We learned a few more coding blocks such as "Speed" and "Turn OFF the Motors" all while playing with following our own drawn trails - a simple black marker and large sheet of paper does the trick! These are all activities that can me built upon at home after camp ends.  We spent some time today talking about how coding robots is a fairly complicated task and we will hardly ever get the math right on the first try.  

After each task we sat as a group on the sofa and reflected on what went well and not so well and why we thought that.  We also brainstormed different ideas to troubleshoot problems such as accidentally poking holes in the paper that then cause Edison to get stuck!  I am continually impressed with the enthusiasm and perseverance that is shown by kids in robotics camps - something about robots helps us be a little more brave to try, fail, and try again.  Keep up the great work!

Summer Robotics 2 - Introduction to Coding

Summer Robotics 2 kicked off today with a bang!  Robotics 2 is an introduction to coding and is REALLY content heavy on day one.  Pat your kids on the back because they made it through a lesson on coding and a lesson on decimals BEFORE they got to play with their actual robots.  We reviewed the parts of a machine that make it a robot (computer, actuator, sensor) and shared our own robot brainstorms.  Then we headed into physical coding.  I introduce coding like baking a cake - you follow the recipe in order to make something yummy. 

Using our large floor mats kids split into two teams and made a pathway for their friends to follow.  They worked together to "write the code" with the code cards to help their friends get safely to the end.

Then we were able to practice the process of downloading code to Edison.  Once the code is written:

1. Make sure Edison is turned on

2. Plug Edison into the computer

3. Click the circle button on Edison ONE time

4. Click "Program Edison" on the computer

5. Click the pop up "Program Edison"

6. Listen for the correct sound that says it's uploaded

7. Unplug Edison

8. Set Edison down and press Play

Though we only played with programming Edison to drive forward for a variety of time and turn for differing lengths of time we surely had fun doing it.  The kids got a kick out of making Edison turn "forever" and "accidentally" driving him off the edge.  Our next two sessions will be chalk full of different code arrangements to teach Edison to do a variety of tricks.  I look forward to your children's creativity in the next couple of sessions!

Robotics 2 - Day 3 - Spring Break 2018 Camp

This afternoon the Robotics 2 camp finished up with a dance a party. Literally. 

Ha!  That makes me laugh because my 9 year old uses "literally" ALL. THE. TIME. and incorrectly, of course.  Anyway, we jumped right into our challenge of using all 4 maneuvers we've already learned within one map: drive forward, turn, follow a line, and stop at a black line.  I shared one map from Wednesday that was the closest I've seen yet for this assignment and with a little bit of talking through why it wouldn't work quite right we had all three teams successfully complete the challenge.  They were the first teams ever to complete this challenge (since I've been teaching it) and they all got there!  I LOVE how everyone worked together to help troubleshoot maps and programs.  It was also interesting how they all coded the program different even though their maps were very similar. 

 Then we got to the business of dancing - well, making Edison dance.  This is where Robotics 2 takes a turn for the more creative side of coding.  Instead of following a preset code students were encouraged to create their own code to dance Edison around the floor.  One group of students even made a production of three Edison bots on a stage (previously made in Makerspace).  All set to the song "Everything is Awesome" from the LEGO movie.

This class was amazing to work with this week.  I learned a bunch of new things from them and I know they learned a bunch this week as well!  Have a fantastic time playing with your Edison robots and hopefully I'll see you again this summer!

Looking for summer robotics?  Below are your options and registration can be found here: Initiate Learning Summer Camp Registration

Robotics 2 - Spring Break Camp - Day 2

The kids in Robotics 2 brought some amazing passion and energy to camp today!  I am incredibly impressed with what we were able to accomplish.  They were able to recall the parts of a robot with the correct vocabulary and they were able to transition into a more independent situation where students didn't need me to remind them step-by-step how to program the Edison Robots.  This led to a fantastic situation for any classroom - Individualized Learning.  The kids who where working on mastering the decimal form of a percentage of a second were coached through that.  Students who mastered the math quickly were able to move on and challenge themselves by adding more complicated code and programming their robots to interact with each other.

 Let me back up just a tad.  We started off the day reviewing computational thinking - the process of doing one step at a time.  We created our first basic maze in life-size fashion on the floor, wrote the code for it, then took turns calling out the code to the person pretending to be the robot.  Even the baby got in on it before going down for a nap - boy did the kids think that was a riot!  Then students worked on coding Edison to follow the same, though much smaller, maze.  Once they mastered the given maze they were instructed to draw their own and code Edison to complete it - not many completed this challenge so keep it in mind for a rainy day at home!

Then we learned how Edison can interact with drawn lines.  Edison has a line tracking sensor and can follow a black line or respond to a black line.  We learned a few more coding blocks such as "Speed" and "Turn OFF the Motors" all while playing with following our own drawn trails - a simple black marker and large sheet of paper does the trick! These are all activities that can me built upon at home after camp ends.  We spent some time today talking about how coding robots is a fairly complicated task and we will hardly ever get the math right on the first try.  After each task we sat as a group on the sofa and reflected on what went well and not so well and why we thought that.  We also brainstormed different ideas to troubleshoot problems such as accidentally poking holes in the paper that then cause Edison to get stuck!  I am continually impressed with the enthusiasm and perseverance that is shown by kids in robotics camps - something about robots helps us be a little more brave to try, fail, and try again.  Keep up the great work!

Robotics 2 - Day 1 - Spring Break 2018

A fantastic group of kids showed up for Robotics 2 Spring Break camp this afternoon.  They brought so much knowledge and excitement about robots that at the end of our time today they weren't ready to go home!  Everyone drew a robot on the front of their workbook today and we took turns sharing what we drew.  We talked about the three parts of a robot (computer, sensors, actuators) and how there are many machines out there that aren't robots because they're missing one of the three main parts.

 This class was assigned to find all the parts of their Edison Robot before we went over them as a class.  This turned out to be a super fun exploration stage as some kids found the on/off switch and others weren't certain if they were allowed to turn it on and when they found out it was ok they were amazed at all the things Edison did right away.

 We spent a big chunk of time talking about what decimals (to the hundredth place) meant.  We first talked in terms of $1.00.  If I took away a dime or $0.10 how much would I have left?  Repeat until you get to zero.  Then we started over with $1.00 and talked about what if I only took away a penny or $0.01? Repeat until you get to zero.  We then tried to bridge the gap between money and time.  We wanted 1.00 to be one second and any smaller decimal to represent a part of a second.  This is a really important concept to understand as we start programming our robots.  With the Edison bot we have to tell it how long to move in terms of seconds and since seconds are so long we have to use parts of seconds quite often.

 Computational Thinking is the ability to think in a series of tasks, or a list, that is completed in order.  We used the example of washing our hands: Close your eyes and imagine that you are going to wash your hands.  You walk into the bathroom and turn off the water.  You then dry your hands.  Next you turn on the water and scrub your hands.  Lastly, you scrub soap all over your hands and dry them on a towel.  In the end, did you end up with clean hands and the faucet turned off?  Doing things in the wrong order can really mess you up.  The same is true for a robot.  They have to do one step at a time.  When we bake a cake we follow a recipe or cookbook.  It's a list of instructions that we follow to be successful.  We did our first coding challenge of drawing in the code for a series of instructions in the right order. 

 Once we had covered our basics it was time to tackle coding Edison with our computers and tablets.  Edison is wonderful because we can use a web based coding software that doesn't require any downloads and loads the code to Edison through the headphone jack.  Our first computer assignment was to load a code onto Edison.  The code was pre-written so that we could just follow the process of how to load a code onto Edison. 

There was an amount of troubleshooting the robots and connections and everyone was so fascinated with the code where Edison would follow a light source that we got carried away playing!

We spent just a little time at the very end of the class working on writing our own code to move Edison forward and to make him turn.  Calling it quits for the day was extremely difficult since we were on such a roll!  I can't wait for our next time together where we can really get into activities where we write out own code. 

A peek inside our camp classroom:

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Robotics 2 is a first physical item coding class for students 7-10 years old.  Students learn the parts of a robot and use a drag and drop programming language called EdBlocks to program their robot to complete different tasks. Interested in joining us for Robotics 2 Summer Camp?