Content for teachers and students about robotics in our world. Is robotics the Perfect Platform for 21st Century Learning? Read on!.. Would you like your student robotics activities presented here? Leave a comment or Facebook Messenger me...
"Your next large pepperoni pizza with a side of mozzarella sticks and waffle fries could be delivered judgement-free.
Doordash, a food delivery app, has launched a pilot program in Redwood City, Calif. that’s using robots to deliver your grub.
Starship Technologies’ “local delivery robot”
is a 35-pound cooler with six wheels and a bright orange flag. It’s
outfitted with nine cameras and a bunch of ultrasonic sensors to keep it
from rolling into traffic.
The sensors can also detect pedestrians, and recognize crosswalk
signals and traffic lights. These bots can travel as fast as 10 mph, but
keep it to a cool four mph – for safety.
And only you can unlock the robot’s locked container, so you don’t
have to worry about hungry neighbors stealing your food. The robot will
send out an alert if it’s tampered with.
Starships Technologies was founded by Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla,
two of the co-founders of Skype. The Estonia-based start-up has already
been testing in Europe, and began testing in San Francisco in September. Postmates already uses the robots throughout Washington DC..."
Here's a video that showed up in my In Box in a communication from birdbraintechnologies.com, a robotics resource provider that I feel promotes an exemplary approach for kids - expressive, creative robotics projects with the robotics supporting more than just STEM Learning (as if that weren't enough on its own) and giving kids, what I feel, is special insight into how to apply robotics in the world they care about!
"Math scores should improve with C-STEM robot class"
"You don’t have to be a math genius to see that a new math intervention program in the Northwest district is paying off.
The
year’s not over, but middle school students in sixth, seventh and
eighth grades in 18 classes in Northwest Local School District in a new
applied math class that uses robots to teach and reinforce math concepts
are showing higher math achievement scores after just one semester of
the new applied mathematics curriculum.
The Northwest Local School
District got one of 23 Straight A Fund grants from the state of Ohio,
and started an innovative intervention that uses C-STEM, a combination
of computing science technology, engineering and mathematics.
The
district worked with Harry Cheng, a professor in the Department of
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California,
Davis, and director of the UC Davis Center for Integrated Computing and
STEM Education. Teachers spent the summer training and students have
spent the school year putting math concepts to work as they learn to
program small robots to perform specific tasks.”
As one
seventh-grader watched his on-screen robot execute the required circle,
he shot his arms up in the air and celebrated. “I am a genius!” he said.
Maybe not, but he’s doing better in math than he was last year. And he likes it.
The
grant put 28 ThinkPads, 28 Linkbots, which are small modular robots,
and a white board into the applied math classrooms. The hands-on,
math-in-movement program is getting the attention of students.
Scott
Fortkamp, who teaches applied mathematics at White Oak Middle School,
says his students are not only seeing practical applications for ratios,
geometry, fractions and negative numbers, but like the process. “They
are learning to problem solve,” he said. “They are learning to
collaborate and to persevere and figure things out.”
Leslie
Silbernagel, curriculum supervisor for the Northwest Local School
District, said students are also learning they can be good at math.
“Kids are excited about the robots, and they want to learn coding and
math to make the robots complete the challenges,” she said.
“They
are moving past being afraid that they are not good at math and finding
out that they might actually enjoy it. We’ve done surveys and we are
seeing a shift in attitudes from students who said ‘math isn’t for me.’
“We are tracking that change in attitudes as well...”
Getting Started with LEGO Robotics. Anyone who
works with kids can do LEGO Robotics, a rich and highly motivating
platform for important STEM Learning! (surprisingly affordable, too)
This books explains it all!
Teams of students from across the borough put their heads together
and crafted problem-solving robots out of thousands of legos, motors,
and senors for the First Lego League semifinal at Xaverian High School
on March 4. Hundreds gathered at the Bay Ridge school to test their
robotics skills, but the event went beyond stoking students’ interest in
science and technology, and helped them develop crucial life skills,
said one educator.
“I feel like it’s building the kids’ character,” said sixth-grade
Marine Park science teacher Bruce Gamsey, who coached the Marine Park
Storm Troppers and Marine Park Blockets. “They start with a couple
thousand Lego pieces and their imaginations have to run wild. It builds
creative thinkers, independent workers, and teaches them how to
collaborate with others.”
Each First Lego League competition asks pupils to research a problem,
such as recycling, energy, or sustainable agriculture. This time, the
semifinals theme was “animal allies,” and asked students to focus on how
animals and humans interact, according to Gamsey. And the theme carried
throughout the tourney..."
Getting Started with LEGO Robotics. Anyone who
works with kids can do LEGO Robotics, a rich and highly motivating
platform for important STEM Learning! (surprisingly affordable, too)
This books explains it all!
Integrating student competitions into the classroom.
Student competitions provide
hands-on learning opportunities to children. In engineering student
competitions, elementary and middle school kids are challenged to design
and build a robot that will play against other teams from around the
world. The competitions mix fun with education and, in the end, kids
soak up skills that prepare them better for the future.
Robotics student competitions “prepare students for the real world,
where they will be working with a team on a project with a schedule and
budget,” said Gary Garber, a physics instructor at Boston University
Academy who has been involved with student competitions for nearly 20
years.
Knowing the value of student competitions isn’t new; the challenge
is developing curriculum that integrates the long-term benefits of
student competitions into the day-to-day classroom.
These competitions teach kids both the technical skills and “softer”
skills like collaboration and communication, Garber said. “Teaching
collaboration and communication is much harder than teaching programming
and mechanics. It’s more than the robot. It’s entrepreneurship. It’s
getting kids to work alongside their peers to create something they are
proud to share with others.”
Taking It a Step Further
Knowing the value of student competitions isn’t new; the challenge is
developing curriculum that integrates the long-term benefits of student
competitions into the day-to-day classroom.
Here Garber teamed up with Sandeep Hiremath, an education technology
evangelist and student competition team mentor at MathWorks, maker of
mathematical computing software MATLAB and Simulink.
Garber and Hiremath connected through VEX Robotics, a competition
where they lead and support student teams. VEX is a worldwide
competition for middle and high school students who design and build
robots to compete in game-based engineering challenges. The challenges
test both the tele-operated and autonomous behavior of the robots on the
game field.
“We look at the job market, particularly in biomedical engineering,
and there’s a huge need for kids to be able to code. Robotics is an easy
way for kids to get excited about coding,” Garber said.
To support this need, they developed a robotics curriculum that
incorporates Simulink, which, Garber said, is a very visual programming
language, opening up programming to kids of all ages and backgrounds,
including those with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. “Thinking
graphically is easier.”
For the teachers, Hiremath said the team is working with the Robotics, Education & Competition Foundation
(REC), the organization that hosts the VEX Robotics student
competitions. REC will help in reaching the teachers already involved in
the student competitions, enabling the teachers to integrate their
learnings from student competitions as well as the software and
resources via the curriculum into their classroom on a regular basis.
For the curriculum, the focus is more on autonomous robots, Garber
said. In student competitions, students program the autonomous tasks of
the robots but they are primarily working in the joystick mode. The
curriculum expands on the knowledge they’ve obtained in the student
competition and focuses on autonomous robots and sensor feedback, he
said.
The curriculum challenges kids to determine how to track sensor data
and design a controller that responds to that sensor data, Hiremath
said.“Having the perspective of a teacher (like Garber) was very important
to the development of the curriculum,” Hiremath said. Garber could
provide the insight on what makes sense to teach in a classroom and
what’s appropriate for each learning level, he said.
— Lauren Tabolinksky is Student Competitions Manager at MathWorks. Getting Started with MATLAB and Simulink for VEX Robotics Courseware is available for free.
The video below announces and explains the 2016 FIRST Lego League 'Challenge', with which countless middle school (and upper elementary and some high school) student robotics teams will struggle and learn from!!!
In the ANIMAL ALLIES Challenge, teams will explore the interactions
between humans and animals and how to make them better. Download
Challenge:
"New Canaan Student Wins Robotics Competition"
"Eighth grader Arjun Dayal has won top honors at two Westchester First LEGO League (FLL) Competitions.
From New Canaan Country School:
New Canaan Country School eighth grader Arjun Dayal has won top honors
at two Westchester First LEGO League (FLL) Competitions. His team,
Robochaps, took first place in four categories—robot performance, robot
design, project idea and team core values—at the Hudson Valley
qualifying tournament held in Tarrytown, NY on Jan. 28. This qualified
the Robochaps to advance to the national FLL semi-finals. There, they
won first place in two of the four categories, just shy of what was need
to qualify for the finals.
“It may sound strange, but I really like the chaos of robotics and
problem solving,” said Arjun when asked what he enjoys most about
robotics competitions. “You have to push through until you get past a
hurdle.”
As part of the competition, the team’s robot was required to perform
several challenges of increasing difficulty. The team worked two hours a
day for nearly three months to get their robots ready.
They also had to come up with a solution to a problem in the local
community based on this year’s FLL theme “Animal Allies.” Arjun and his
teammates created the prototype of an app that would alert people of
coyote sightings called “Coexisting Safely with Coyotes in the Urban
Areas.”
“We chose coyotes as our project because they are local and affect our residents,” said Arjun.
Since the competition, Arjun has taken the lead on building the
Coyote sighting app using Xcode and Objective C, computer languages that
he has taught himself. The team recently met with the School
Superintendent in Chappaqua, NY to discuss the app and how to promote it
within their community; a rural area frequented by coyotes..."
Unfamiliar with FIRST Lego League? - OR - Want to understand better how it can be part of your STEM program?
Click on book cover for information
Getting Started with LEGO Robotics. Anyone who
works with kids can do LEGO Robotics, a rich and highly motivating
platform for important STEM Learning! (surprisingly affordable, too)
This books explains it all!
Robotics gives great kids a perfect opportunity to shine even brighter!
"Jennifer Bonn: Mount Paran Christian student is a trailblazer in Robotics, STEAM"
"Jasmine Chrisp is a member of Mount
Paran’s Robotic team 7373 that just won the Think Award. Jasmine and her
team will be moving on to Semi-Regionals in March.
Jasmine is
comfortable hanging with the boys. She is the only high school girl in
Robotics and Engineering, but she is busting open doors for the young
women who are following in her footsteps. It is one of her passions to
spread the word about STEAM and FIRST among young female students. She
wishes to inspire, and encourage other girls to explore the
opportunities that Robotics and Engineering can open up to females. She
has participated in Women in Technology events, and Girls First. She has
volunteered her time to mentor fifth- grade girls in a Girls Using
Engineering and Science Skills club.
Jasmine is also a girl scout.
Her Gold Award proposal of creating a free curriculum to inspire and
encourage girls to learn STEAM skills, investigate STEAM careers, and
participate in STEAM projects and competitions was approved. The Gold
Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts, earned by
Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts. Only 5.4 percent of eligible Girl
Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award. The Mount Paran Christian
Robotics team will be helping Jasmine to fulfill her project.
There
is a great deal of evidence of Jasmine reaching out to help show
students the importance of a STEAM program. She mentored a kindergartner
during an “Hour of Code” event and made the lead page of “Cobb in
Focus” magazine’s article on the use of 3-D printers in Cobb County
schools.
Jasmine shows initiative and dependability. She is in her
third year on the team and her teammates have chosen her to be the
Business Manager. Jasmine has created a business plan for the team which
includes an introduction to the team, an explanation of the team
endeavor, budget histories and projections for the upcoming season, and
an invitation to join the team in its quest. Jasmine manages a $28,000
budget and every penny is accounted for.
Jasmine’s list of
accomplishments is impressive. She has a 4.42 GPA. She has an ACT
composite of 29. She has taken Honors and AP classes, and won awards for
Engineering and Math.
Jasmine passed the three hour Certified
SolidWorks Associate exam. Passing this exam in 3D CAD Solid Modeling
Software provides her with an industry-level certification.
Last
summer, Jasmine completed a six-week intensive internship through the
Technology Association of Georgia as an Input Sensor Circuit Card Lead
with the Georgia Tech Research Institutes’ Rapid Prototype Program in
the Engineering Design Process. Jasmine and 15 other high school
students were trained in a mentor-based program designed to inspire and
inform student career choices in STEAM as well as encourage, equip and
reinforce skills in innovation, problem solving, leadership,
decision-making and teamwork. By completing this program, Jasmine
received GTRI certified training in a variety of areas. She was also a
finalist for “Tell Your Story,” a video production, and was named a
finalist for the Horizon Pinnacle Award."
Getting Started with LEGO Robotics. Anyone who works with kids can do LEGO Robotics, a rich and highly motivating platform for important STEM Learning! (surprisingly affordable, too) This books explains it all!
