Robots - Great for Autistic Students...

Good article, below, from District Administration...
"How robots excel at access for students with autism

Why students on the autism spectrum find comfort in working with robots on coding, social-emotional skills and other subjects

The key to the effectiveness of any ed tech tool, including robots for children with autism, lies in whether students transfer the skills they’ve learned from schoolwork into their daily lives.
Educators at Stone Lakes Elementary School in Orlando, part of Orange County Public Schools, say this transfer is definitely occurring when students on the autism spectrum use a robot to develop social-emotional skills, such as calming themselves and greeting others appropriately.

“The students show a higher level of communication,” Principal Andronidus Rollins says. “We see relationships growing stronger in their interactions in the classroom, and especially when they interact with nondisabled peers in specials periods and at lunchtime.”

A range of autism robots—some lifelike, some cartoonlike spheres—also help special needs students learn core subjects and coding. The devices are highly effective because they provide students a safe space to experiment and near-instant feedback, educators and developers say.

“One advantage of coding and robots is that, especially with kids on the spectrum, it gives them the freedom to express what they’ve learned in a different way,” says Katie Caster, a K-5 STEM teacher at Oliver Hazard Perry School in Boston Public Schools. “That kind of authentic assessment is much more useful to me as a teacher.”

How robots for autism mimic emotions

At Stone Lakes Elementary, special education teacher Christy Dove convinced Principa.
At Stone Lakes Elementary, special education teacher Christy Dove convinced Principal Rollins to buy the Milo robot for autism after learning about it from a parent and deciding it could be a game changer in her classroom..."

(click to) Read the full article at its source

A Performing Classroom Robot that Can Help Put the A (Arts) In STEAM Learning

This newer robot illustrates the very encouraging direction that resource providers are moving in their development efforts... This one can speak, dance, and more... It seems to me that students could easily program it to (among many other things) perform expressively and artistically. Wow!

JD ROBOT - Intelligent Humanoid - Sings, Dances, Learns, More! FULL REVIEW!

3 Ways Robots Can Help Students Tell Stories

Nice piece in my in-box today from KindLab Robotics (KIBO Robots)...

3 Ways Robots Can Help Students Tell Stories

In this article, Amanda Puerto Thorne from the KID Museum in Bethesda, MD discusses her use of robots as storytellers. She has hands-on lessons with KIBO robots to teach students the power of storytelling and the power of coding - at the same time. Introducing programming concepts using storylines and characters flips the mindset around robotics and technology from consuming to creating. Storytelling with robots helps create accessible entry points for all types of learners. Read More

LEGO robotics competition builds student problem-solving skills

Nice story from Community Radio KRBD - Kethikan, Alaska...  https://www.krbd.org/2019/11/21/lego-robotics-competition-puts-students-problem-solving-skills-to-the-test/ 

"LEGO robotics competition puts students’ problem-solving skills to the test

Posted by Eric Stone | Nov 21, 2019

LEGOs are some of the most popular toys in the world. For most, they’re a fun way to build models and let the imagination run wild. But in Ketchikan, some students are using the Danish toy to learn about robotics, teamwork and sportsmanship.

Ariona Dowhitt, left, and Fawn Reese, right, look on as their team’s robot goes about its various tasks. (Eric Stone/KRBD)




It’s a little after midday on a gloomy Sunday at the Plaza mall in Ketchikan. People are milling about doing some Christmas shopping.
But in one corner of the mall, there’s a table set up with LEGOs. Four teams of elementary and middle schoolers from Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island are putting the finishing touches on miniature LEGO robots.


Their goal? Improving the city. Well, a miniature city.
“You have to make a project on how to make the world better,” said Ketchikan student Satcha Breese. He’s with DJ Mama, one of two teams from the mixed-grade charter school.


The theme for this year’s FIRST Lego League competition is “City Shaper,” and it challenges kids to think about how to improve their built environment. Part of that is an original model, and teams get bonus points for outfitting their building with things like toy solar panels or rooftop gardens.


Here’s how it works: the teams build and program their robots to complete certain jobs — moving their original creation and some other colored blocks to circles on the printed rubber mat, freeing up a stuck swing, even clearing a traffic jam.
“Each obstacle has a different set of points,” said Jacob Alguire, a math and science teacher at Ketchikan Charter School. He coaches the school’s two teams, DJ Mama and the Dragon Knights.


“Like the traffic jam right there with the gray base and the blue levers. You get 10 points by lifting that up and effectively clearing the traffic jam.”
Referees add up the score at the end of the round. But they deduct points if team members touch their robots while they go about their tasks.


“The robot is supposed to autonomously solve all of these missions,” Alguire said.
It’s a three-round competition, so if something doesn’t go right the first time, the kids can go back and tweak their robot and its program.


The Dragon Knights made some changes before the second round, says team member Chandler Reeve.


“We dragged our blocks way too far, so then we went back to our program and we change it to go, like, not really that far from now we’re going to see how that goes this time,” Reeve said.


Of course, not everything always goes according to plan.


Coach Alguire says the Dragon Knights missed one crucial step before round two.
“So they forgot to upload the program that they want,” he explained. “And right now they’re scrambling in the very last second, like you would in any type of sports show — they’re trying to fix everything at the last minute and see if they can get it working before they go up on the table.”


Over on DJ Mama’s side of the table, team member Fawn Breese says the program is a great way for kids to learn sportsmanship and team problem-solving.
“It teaches teamwork and how to not be mean to the other teams and that we’re all people and we have to work together,” Breese said.
DJ Mama’s teamwork paid off — they ended up outscoring their competitors by 70 points.


Lori Ortiz helped organize today’s tournament. She wants to see the program expand to other Ketchikan-area schools and communities throughout Southeast.
“We actually have some of these resources ready to go,” Ortiz said. “We have some computers, we have the LEGO programming, and we have the robot brains and the LEGO pieces. We just really want to build up more teams.”
The only thing organizers say they need? More adults to volunteer as coaches so they can expand the competition in the years to come.

Teaching tomorrow’s edtech leaders about robotics, today!

As published in EdTech Digest https://edtechdigest.com/2019/11/22/when-a-special-guest-arrives-some-great-questions/


When A Special Guest Arrives, Some Great Questions

November 22, 2019

Teaching tomorrow’s edtech leaders about robotics, today!

(Column) LIGHTING A FIRE | by Mark Gura

I teach a master’s level course for a popular New York City-based university titled, “Technology Integration for School Leaders.” Having a student robotics materials producer join the class as an online guest seemed like a sexy idea. I was fortunate and Robo Wunderkind, a provider of some excellent STEM instruction materials accepted my invitation.


My class and I were joined by Mark Resnick who engaged us in a ripping good conversation about Student Robotics and about the way his company, Robo Wunderkind, has put together its body of offerings for school use.

Robots on My Mind

Student Robotics has been much on my mind lately, having contributed to the recently published ‘State of Student Robotics 2019: An Educator’s Guide’, a free 90-page eBook (scroll down for link). Student Robotics is a hyper-rapidly growing area of STEM education and along with a deep overview of how it can be integrated in to schools’ instructional programs, particularly across the core curriculum, the guide includes a great many varieties of robotics resources, Robo Wunderkind being one of a large and expanding body of offerings.


‘…those who spearhead and support the technology program of each school should be aware of the ascendency of Student Robotics and given a good idea of how they can bring this exemplary facet of instruction into their schools.’


With such a large and highly competitive pack to keep up with, a newer company like Robo Wunderkind needs to make wise choices to appeal to schools, many of which are now actively looking to jump into this pool of practice head first. Mark enthusiastically regaled us with explanations of the sharp thinking, cutting-edge design, and full envelope of support items they’ve come up with.

The Perfect Group

My students were the perfect group to engage in this conversation. All of them are enrolled in a master’s program to qualify as school and district level technology specialists and they all had some familiarity with student robotics, having seen or read about it, although none had actually ever used the materials, let alone taught with them. This makes them typical of a great many of their colleagues who can benefit greatly from being brought up to speed quickly on an ever more present, popular, and successful area of instruction. They were ready to gain some real insights about which robotics resources and practices offer strong instructional value and classroom practicality. Our conversation was a perfect opener to this field for them.
Of the many points covered, here are a few that resonated particularly:

• Form factor: Are the materials easy for students to manipulate and explore with? Does the way they work model STEM concepts?

• Is the resource set designed for a full STEM experience, not just coding, but Engineering, as well? While there are valid reasons for both, this is a crucial consideration for educators considering making robotics part of what they offer students.

• An eye toward starting students with robotics very young and launching them on a continuum of continuing, robotics-supported, increasingly sophisticated learning activities – an ongoing thread through the learning experience that kids engage in as they progress through the grades.

• Curriculum: Does the resource provider provide it? Of high quality? Robo Wunderkind’s seems to be a rather extensive one that includes the element of story to contextualize STEM activities in a way that is age appropriate and engaging for young students. My students were impressed with the fact that it is available without purchase to all through Robo Wunderkind’s website.

• Further, the amount of teacher guide materials that can encourage to non-tech specialist teachers to be self-starters is generous, eye opening, and inspiring. Any variety of instructional materials that is likely to entice teachers to use them joyfully and creatively is very much on the right track.

• One of the deepest themes I explore with my grad students is the way today’s technology resources enhance traditional best practices, making for greater relevance and deeper learning; and how they establish new, previously unimagined instructional practice, as well. Robo Wunderkind is one well-designed variety of materials that, in the hands of insightful and dedicated teachers, can support this. 

One of the out-of-the-box facets I found in perusing the Robo Wunderkind resources is the balance of discovery learning through free play for the students and needed structure for the teachers. The system encourages learning through play while at the same time provides worksheets and other formal materials which have students reflect on what they are doing and learning and report on it as they would on other learning. To me it’s the best of both worlds neatly interwoven and above all supported by the developer.


Taking this approach full circle, teachers are provided guides and journals with which to assess learning as revealed in the worksheets, return them to students with constructive feedback. Lest any colleagues blanch at this, it seems to me that one is always free to take advantage of as much of the generous range of materials and suggestions as suits one’s instructional sensibilities or use the materials in a free and unstructured manner as suits one, or create one’s own structures. Within the teachers’ guide there is a template for teachers to create their own lessons, by the way. The materials themselves are robust and will support any direction taken.

Understandings and Skills

Robotics embraces so many of the important understandings and skills that we hope today’s students will learn and learn well before they move on from school. It’s becoming increasingly clear that it behooves every school to offer it; not just as an extra, but integrated into the core of the instructional program. It follows that those who spearhead and support the technology program of each school should be aware of the ascendency of Student Robotics and given a good idea of how they can bring this exemplary facet of instruction into their schools.


I feel very good about making this part of my graduate courses, courses I design to prepare tomorrow’s school tech leaders. And I appreciate Robo Wunderkind’s enthusiastic dialog with my students.


To get your free copy of The State of Student Robotics 2019: An Educator’s Guide, click here.


Mark Gura is Editor-at-Large for EdTech Digest and author of ‘Getting Started With LEGO Robotics’ (ISTE). He is a co-author of State of EdTech: The Minds Behind What’s Now and What’s Next. He taught at New York City public schools in East Harlem for two decades. He spent five years as a curriculum developer for the central office and was eventually tapped to be the New York City Department of Education’s director of the Office of Instructional Technology, assisting over 1,700 schools serving 1.1 million students in America’s largest school system.

—

Girls and Student Robotics... NOW!

Click on photo to go to video!

Girls Can Love STEM Too: Robotics Becoming Popular Sport for Girls

By Taylor Neuman Triad
PUBLISHED 3:19 PM ET Nov. 09, 2019

Girls Can Love STEM Too: Robotics Becoming Popular Sport for Girls

By Taylor Neuman Triad
PUBLISHED 3:19 PM ET Nov. 09, 2019

Girls Can Love STEM Too: Robotics Becoming Popular Sport for Girls

By Taylor Neuman Triad
PUBLISHED 3:19 PM ET Nov. 09, 2019

I like this example of Authentic, Project-Based, Student Robotics Learning: from makeblock

For those who, like me, find wonderful opportunities for Project Based/Authentic Learning with Robotics, here's an interesting program from MakeBlook (appeared in my email In Box this morning)...


"We would like to announce that the final round for mTiny Coding Camp has begun!

Previously, we’ve selected 10 schools to create videos on students playing with mTiny. Start from today untill 28^th Nov, you can share the school videos with your communities and others, invite them to vote for you. Don’t forget, the 3 schools with the most votes will receive 5 mTiny units for each school..."

 

After registering (FREE) I was taken by link to a page of videos apparently sent in by schools... the videos show kids working with the robots. I think schools documenting and sharing their learning activities this way is a first step toward Education's next level future... Also, great to see groups of kids collaboratively working with robots and doing real things with them confidently at such an early age. I find this initiative inspiring...

Mark

Great Advice on STEAM Instruction from LEGO Education

Nice piece from LEGO Education
https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/11/06/5-ways-to-celebrate-national-steam-day/?all

"5 ways to celebrate National STEAM Day"

"Most children entering kindergarten will have jobs that don’t currently exist, and studies also show that most of these jobs will require STEAM skills.


This evolving landscape means STEAM learning is important every day of the year, but on November 8, we get to celebrate National STEAM Day and the critical role it plays in preparing children for the future workforce with the 21st century skills they need.
Related content: How our school transitioned from STEM to STEAM
LEGO Education put together a few ideas to help you plan your celebration. Here are some ways you can help get your kids excited about STEAM:


1. Get hands-on: A recent survey shows that parents and teachers agree hands-on learning is the No. 1 way to build confidence in STEAM subjects. Trade in the worksheets for hands-on activities. There are hundreds of free lesson plans to choose from – or create your own.

2. Try, fail, and try again: When kids face a roadblock, it’s natural to want to jump in and find a solution. Instead, make it a point to let your students try it for themselves first, which helps them develop real-world skills like problem solving and resilience. This will help ready your students for a future career in STEAM.


3. Find what sparks their interest: Ask questions and see what your students get excited to talk about. Switch roles for the day and empower them to be your teacher. Not only will it help reinforce the subject matter, but also boost their confidence by being an expert in something that interests them.
4. Make it into a project: Ask the age-old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Use National STEAM Day as an opportunity to explore STEAM careers – it might not be what they (or you) expect! Have your students research a STEAM career and share what they learn with the class. They can look up job descriptions or find examples of companies in that field. Here are a few careers to explore: app developer, forensic psychologist, graphic designer, architect, astrophysicist, medical illustrator, civil engineer, archaeologist, product designer, sports announcer and many more.


5. Host a STEAM career day: Reach out to people in your community who are in STEAM careers
to participate in a career day at your school. Or set up a video chat with professionals in your area to share their experiences with your class. Meeting people in these careers helps kids see the connection between what they’re learning in school and the real world.
Share your own ideas and plans using #NationalSTEAMDay #LEGOconfidence.,,"

Read the full article at its source: https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/11/06/5-ways-to-celebrate-national-steam-day/2/

TED-Ed Lessons to introduce students to robotics

A worthwhile idea from eSchool News.... https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/10/14/5-ted-ed-lessons-to-introduce-students-to-robotics/?ps=markgura%40verizon.net-0010c00002Afygh-0030c00002sNJwe&esmc=195464 

"5 TED-Ed Lessons to introduce students to robotics..."

"... TED-Ed Lessons offer a video library and the chance to build and customize robotics lessons for students

Robotics is gaining popularity in classrooms across the country, moving from an old sci-fi concept to a way to engage students in STEM learning by solving real-world problems.
One of the hurdles, though, is in finding the right resources to introduce robotics. Sometimes, it all starts with a video and a simple lesson. You can find a variety of robotics-related videos on TED-Ed Lessons.


The TED-Ed platform is especially cool because educators can build lessons around any TED-Ed Original, TED Talk, or YouTube video. Once you find the video you want to use, you can use the TED-Ed Lessons editor to add questions, discussion prompts, and additional resources.


Related content: Off-the-wall TED-Ed Lessons for your classroom
Here are 5 robotics videos and lessons to get you started in your classroom:
5 cool TED-Ed Lessons on robotics and STE

Years Later, CEO Reunites With His High School Robotics Team

This great piece appeared in https://www.thisisthebronx.info/seventeen-years-later-ceo-reunites-with-2train-robotics/

Seventeen Years Later, CEO Reunites With 2Train Robotics

Carlos Martinez talking to current 2Train members about his past experience. (Photo by ThisistheBronX).  by Alonso Espinoza November 5, 2019

As they launched their 21st season, the 2Train Robotics Team that originated at Morris HS and has blossomed into a full-fledged educational institution, welcomed back a former student who has gone on to an important career as a CEO who impacts the lives or others. Last Monday, former member Carlos Martinez returned to Columbia University to join a team meeting for the first time since 2002. He spoke in front of current members of the team, sharing his experiences and the incredible impact 2Train had on his life.  “2Train was a big influence on me with teamwork and awareness,” said Martinez who grew up in Hunts Point. “It’s great to come together for one objective and the program allows you to experience things outside of your small bubble in the Bronx.” In 2002, he was a part of the first team that was honored on Yankee Stadium field for their success (they’ve been honored numerous times since), he met Secretary of State Colin Powell who was also a Morris HS student, and participated in the first 2Train out of state competition in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center.

Carlos Martinez (far right) meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2002. (Photo courtesy of Gary Israel).

Over the 17 years Martinez drifted away from pursuing engineering as a career, but he is making significant impact as the CEO of Rockland County’s Independent Living Center’s (BRIDGES). BRIDGES is a non-profit agency dedicated to advocating and providing support services to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. He says the lessons he learned during his experiences with 2Train still resonate with his work at BRIDGES. “The teamwork and awareness combined with the experience and skills i learned at 2Train, have enabled be to be where I am today,” he said. “These have impacted my ability to do my job directly.”  Martinez is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with more than a decade of experience and he joined BRIDGES in 2010 where he served as an assistant director of Personal Assistance Self-directed Employer of Rockland (PASER) program. When Martinez joined this year’s team meeting, the founder of 2Train, Gary Israel couldn’t help but reminisce about the legendary 2002 team. He says that connecting with former students and listening to how the team has impacted their lives is priceless. “I could not be more proud of Carlos and what he has achieved,” Israel said. The icing on the cake was when Carlos spoke to the current members on the team. How inspiring for them to hear his story of success,” Israel said.

Currently in their 21st season, 2Train has continued to grow as a program. Despite that fact that the program runs through Morris High School, Columbia Secondary School, and Inwood Early College, 2Train is one of the only robotics teams in the Bronx that allows kids to join even if they don’t attend those schools. Israel calls it his “open-door” policy, that accepts any youngster who wants to learn. It was established last winter.

Last spring they launched their 20th season with an exciting victory. Despite losing seven seniors from that group, Israel is excited to continue with the younger group that he has now. 2Train is set to take the competitive stage on Saturday, Nov. 9th in New Jersey where they will showcase their “Starship” robot.

Artie 3000™ Coding and Drawing Robot... a bit of a review...

I came across this one on Facebook... and as an educator who specializes in Student Robotics, Student Creativty, and Art Education this naturally caught my attention...


ART-BOTS have been around a long time. I included some stuff on them in my book for ISTE (International Socieity for Technology in Education) "Getting Started with LEGO Robotics: An Educators Guide"... those were drawing robots that kids created and constructed with the LEGO Robotics Kits... and that's quite a project. But this is something related but different. This one appears to be a pre-built robot whose function is to draw... kids (or adults) create works of art by programming the robot to draw it as it travels around. Again, not a new idea, there were LOGO (programming language) Turtle Robots drawing for kids who programmed them years and years ago.

BUT the ARTIE 3000 Coding and Drawing Robot seems to me to be a low cost, robust student robot that does all of this well and that should give kids in classrooms (or elsewhere) very good STEAM learning experiences with much of the prep and problems taken out of it... In other words IF you want kids to get down to coding a robot and making art with it (and there is a rich, rich vein of learning to be mined through this approach), this seems to be a good approach!

As for the Visual Art aspect of this... Well, kids won't develop the motor skills involved painstakingly learning to draw with a simple implement like a pencil (I taught middle school drawing for many years, by the way)... BUT, that TOO could be the point because Artie 3000 promises to draw shapes (and patterns, etc) that appear visually perfect, thus taking the frustration factor (a high one) out of the art activity.

What sort of artistic image  might a kid make with this? Well, the kid has to learn how to program the robot to draw what he or she wants (trust me, the coding/programing approaches that would be used ARE simple and will lead to a good understanding how programming works... and by extension, how humans get their intelligent machines to do their work for them).

Could kids make great art with Artie? Why not? And by the way, the robot isn't making the "Art", simply making the marks on the paper... the ideas, explorations, art works... are the kids... And as is the case with any other 'Art Tool' Artie is a means and not an end... and thus, kids will still benefit from learning discipline and perseverance (grit) and in learning what is Art and the elements of design that go into it, etc... The kinds of things that a good art teacher would teach.

Caution, while I do think that this would make a great addition for any classroom (could be a single unit placed as a learning station somewhere in the classroom). This will not take the place of a full Technology/Student Robotics program and will not take the place of an Art Program (although this would make a nice addtiion to one and, as a bonus, make for a great way to understand STEAM, the intersection of STEM with the Arts)... You go, Artie 3000!
 

As it appeared this morning in Amazon...

Educational Insights Artie 3000 The Coding Robot: STEM Toy, Coding Robot for Kids 7+

by Educational Insights

4.4 out of 5 stars 57 ratings

| 7 answered questions

Amazon's Choice for "mensa for kids"

---

List Price:	$69.99
Price:	$62.99 FREE One-Day & FREE Returns

Robotics and Hands-on Learning Improve Middle-School Confidence

Good article from smartbrief.com
"How hands-on learning improves middle-school confidence"

Aaron Maurer
"...the endangered species at the core of this workshop is the engaged student."

Phi Hung Nguyen/Unsplash

“Saving the Endangered Species.” That’s the name of a full-day workshop I’ve been leading with educators.


I’m not a biologist, however. I’m an educator. And the endangered species at the core of this workshop is the engaged student. How do we find, rescue and cultivate engaged students today, especially at the middle school and high school levels where so many kids check out?


As students come up through the school system and start to approach middle school, we tend to frontload their classroom experience with pressure. Take these notes. Read this chapter. Take this test.


There is pressure coming at them from other angles too. These are the years when students are going through a lot of change — changes in schedule, changes in their bodies, changes in their friends and social groups.


It’s a time when their vulnerability is high, and the effects of a perceived failure in an activity can take on magnified meaning. I often hear kids say, “I’m not good at music.” Or math. Or basketball. They start to self-select out of subjects and programs. Their confidence at this age can be fragile.
This is especially true with subjects that have a reputation for being “hard,” including math and engineering. A recent survey from Harris Interactive in partnership with LEGO Education found that just one in five kids said they feel “very confident” when it comes to STEAM subjects.


Raising confidence in STEAM can be especially difficult because if a student fails a math test, they tend to conclude they are just innately bad at math. Their confidence wavers, and if they experience disapproval of that failure from peers or parents, they may try to avoid the subject entirely, fearing the risk of repeating those experiences. The same survey revealed that 47% of students say they avoid subjects where they have failed before.


There’s another big change that happens in education once we hit middle school, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Schools start to slide away from hands-on learning right around third grade, when standardized testing begins to take hold in the mindset of educators and schools. Most critically, you see this shift at that sensitive middle school level. With so much going on at this stage of learning, we must find a way to keep that physical, tactile, experiential learning space and culture going at the secondary level.


Hands-on learning — learning through building, through trial and error, through collaboration — has the power to engage kids in a way that lectures and worksheets simply don’t. Getting hands-on with a challenge or a task allows them to explore and realize there isn’t just one answer. It allows them to experience failure in a healthy way and realize that failing at a task is a natural part of the learning process and does not mean a subject is out of their reach.


Then there’s that all-important sense of accomplishment. It’s a rush when you build a robot and it moves for the first time. When something doesn’t work and kids have the opportunity to troubleshoot and make it work, you can see their confidence light up.


In my teaching days, I gravitated toward solutions that allowed my middle school students the freedom to build and create on their own, and that’s the direction I point administrators and teachers today. Although there are many out-of-the-box projects available, I advise teachers who themselves are often building confidence in STEAM subjects to find ones that let students come up with their own ideas.


How to go about bringing hands-on learning into the classroom is a question every district and school has to decide for themselves. It all starts with your learning space and the culture you’ve created. The same research found that 95% of teachers believe that hands-on builds confidence, yet 4 in 10 say it’s not typical at their schools.


It truly is amazing what can happen if you just give kids a challenge or a good prompt and allow them to take their own ideas and put them into practice. The struggle can be just as valuable as the success. By getting hands-on in middle school and beyond, we can start to move away from some of the pressure that’s causing confidence and engagement to decline today, and infuse learning with a state of wonder, trial and error, and challenge and solution..."

Read the full article at its source: https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2019/10/how-hands-learning-improves-middle-school-confidence?utm_source=brief&utm_medium=FeaturedContent&utm_campaign=EducationOriginals

4 benefits of working with robots

from eSchool News https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/10/31/robotics-isnt-scary-4-benefits-of-working-with-robots/2/ 

"Robotics isn’t scary! 4 benefits of working with robots"

"... A campus technology coordinator identifies four major benefits her district's students get from exploring robotics

Robotics is attracting more student interest, and there’s a reason–when students can make real-world connections between what they learn in the classroom and exciting careers, their engagement and achievement often improve.

Educators across the country are working to establish robotics clubs after school, they’re creating robotics units in STEM classes, and they’re doing their best to ensure all students have the opportunity to learn just how essential robotics is to our daily lives.

As the director of blended learning in the Lancaster Independent School District (TX), Kimberly Lane Clark works with district campuses to help them implement successful blended learning practices. In that role, she frequently incorporates personalized learning and differentiated instruction.
Between innovation labs, STEM schools, and focuses on entrepreneurship and software design, the district’s schools are varied and students have countless opportunities to participate in activities aligned with their interests.

Clark also has extensive experience using LEGO Mindstorms, a LEGO software platform that supports programmable robots with a computer, modular sensors and motors, and LEGO parts.
Clark has seen some clearly-established benefits arise from robotics instruction in her district–here are a few of those benefits:
1. Confidence: “It definitely builds confidence,” Clark says. “Nine times out of 10, they’re not going to get it right immediately. It builds their confidence in collaborating with each other. Often, younger kids have a hard time delegating roles and switching roles–this gives them confidence in that. If they have a PBL, they know they’re working toward an end product–they need to have confidence in collaborating with each other. This builds confidence in kids to know they CAN do it. It gives them adrenaline to keep moving forward–you want them to do that in this tech-driven world.”
2. Student-centered: “All the activities are student-centered,” she says. “Students are learning from each other. The teacher is a facilitator and is there to guide students and ask thought-provoking questions to make students think differently in their groups.” Some teachers are more reluctant to give students the freedom they need to guide their learning, but it’s exactly this model that helps build teacher confidence, Clark adds. “This is a good way to explore with the students, and it gives students choice and voice.”
3. Reaching all students: “Often, kids in certain areas don’t get to experience robotics at home. The students get the ability to compete and create, and that’s what’s important,” Clark says. “That’s a huge benefit we want for the kids–to be able to have the ability to pick and choose, to have a robotics club, to have an innovation lab, to be able to tinker. This is what we want our kids to see and do. A lot of times, kids don’t have those opportunities. That’s the benefit of having LEGO Mindstorms.”
4. Representation: “We bring in speakers and connect with virtual experts through Google Hangouts, so our kids can speak to engineers,” Clark says. Last year, students went to an Amazon facility to see robotics in action–a trip that helped the students make real-world connections between the robotics classroom and potential career paths. “We use robots at school, and students come up with different ideas around what they might want to build..."

Read the full article at its source: https://www.eschoolnews.com/2019/10/31/robotics-isnt-scary-4-benefits-of-working-with-robots/2/ 

FREE 90 page book: Student Robotics 2019: An Educator’s Guide

Student Robotics 2019: An Educator’s Guide

October 29, 2019

In our inaugural Educator’s Guide, 90 pages of rich and riveting robotics, coding, and real-world relevant learning—featuring exclusive interviews with leaders in the field. 
THE STATE OF | by Mark Gura

In 1994 (wow—that’s a quarter of a century ago!), I was a young, fresh faced, new district-wide instructional leader charged with bringing innovative, tech-based approaches into schools throughout New York City. By far, the most interesting and successful was the student robotics program I brought into middle schools. The very first time I saw kids working on robotics, I realized that something truly special was in progress.
Since then, the field of student robotics has gotten richer and recently, far more popular. Robotics, I believe, is something that every school should offer all students at some point in their educational experience.
Beyond school, the robotics industry continues to grow as well—but preparing kids for an increasingly robotics-saturated workplace is just one reason and frankly, not even the most important one, for educators to make robotics part of the instructional program. Robotics is simply the best way to teach the full spectrum of the STEAM Curriculum, which is why I’m so proud to have worked on this report and guide.
Some of what’s inside includes:
– An up-to-date, “State of” report on Student Robotics: What’s going on? How is robotics being integrated into the learning experience and where is it happening?
– A guide for Educators on where in the instructional program does robotics makes a good fit.
– An overview of the types of materials and resources available – including info from leading providers about what’s special about the materials they offer.
– Stories about how student robotics strongly enriches the lives of students and teachers.

Those are just a few of the things you’ll find in this free publication. I hope you enjoy it,

For a link to download this FREE report and guide please follow this link (and scroll down a bit!)
https://edtechdigest.com/2019/10/29/student-robotics-2019-an-educators-guide/?fbclid=IwAR21yffXfyAgw2aYXqBJCPsguD8sQjMZAF35BHghzo7Z_d9Qo-5xioCK4g0 
—

Mark Gura
Senior Editor / EdTech Digest
(Former Director of Instructional Technology, NYC Schools)

NY Times Obituary for Woodie Flowers, a Student Robotics Hero...

... and general STEM Education Giant... RIP, Woodie! And Thanks!

"Woodie Flowers, Who Made Science a Competitive Sport, Dies at 75

His hands-on methods of teaching mechanical engineering at M.I.T. made him a star on campus (and on PBS) and led to student contests on a global scale.Woodie Flowers, an innovative and flamboyant mechanical engineering professor at M.I.T. (he liked to roller-blade and ride unicycles through its august halls) who championed a hands-on learning philosophy that reshaped engineering and design education and turned him into something of a celebrity, died on Oct. 11 in Boston. He was 75.

His death, at Massachusetts General Hospital, was caused by a sudden acute illness following aorta surgery, his wife, Margaret Flowers, said.

The original source of Professor Flowers’s renown was an undergraduate course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the unprepossessing name 2.70 Introduction to Design, which he started teaching in the 1970s.

He would begin the course by handing students what he called “creativity kits” — a grab bag of random parts like paper clips, screws, bolts and wire. He would then have them form teams and instruct them to spend the semester, with him as their guide, designing robotic devices that, if successful, would be able to complete a specific task of Professor Flowers’s choosing, like placing square pegs in a round hole.."

Read the full article at its source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/science/woodie-flowers-dead.html 

SEE previous post on the passing of Dr. Flowers: https://classroomrobotics.blogspot.com/2019/10/rip-woodie-flowers.html

Robotical's 'Marty' Student Robot STEAM Resource - Improved and Poised to Inspire Young Engineers and Cretors

"Marty the Robot Gets Makeover

Robotical, an Edinburgh, UK robotics company that introduced "Marty" in 2016 as a STEM learning tool, has announced a second-generation version that comes with new resources for the classrooms. "Marty 2.0," like the original one, is described as a walking robot that can be built and programmed by students. The new version is scheduled to ship in early 2020.
Marty includes WiFi connectivity, nine controllable motors and several sensors. Students can program the robot with Scratch, Python, JavaScript and ROS (an open source operating system for robots). The new edition will offer:

• Sound and speech capabilities;
  
• Improved sensors for proximity detection;
  
• "Smart servos" that allow Marty to be "poseable," enabling users to teach Marty movements by moving him around;
  
• A modular expansion interface;
  
• A learning platform
  
  Marty 1.0 was WiFi-compliant; Marty 2 will include WiFi as well as Bluetooth and USB compatibility. While the current version was charged with a nine-volt cable, the new one can be charged with USB C fast-charging.
  
  
  While the original Marty was expected to take three to four hours to build and was recommended for students 14 and older, the newer edition will take about an hour to put together and is suggested for students 10 and older. (With simplified build variants, it's also suitable for those 7 and older, according to the company.)
  
  Teachers will gain access to lesson plans, teacher training and extra support, all workable with laptop, tablet and iPad."
  
  Read the full article at its source: https://thejournal.com/articles/2019/10/22/marty-the-robot-gets-makeover.aspx?oly_enc_id=5213H0657990E3Z