APS Robotics Club
Building & programming robots at Audubon Park School
First Week of the APS Robotics Club
Our first week of the APS robotics Club has been busy. We have gotten to know each other a little bit. We have established our procedures. I have introduced my Robotix equipment to the students. I have been very happy with the respect they have shown the equipment so far (like me, my Robotix collection is getting old). Students have worked in teams to accomplish some basic missions with their Robotix creations. On Friday we played some robot soccer. Next week on to more missions and soccer.
Thank You for the Batteries!
We use a lot of batteries in the robotics club and I was disappointed on Tuesday, our first meeting, to discover I couldn't find the bag I thought I had. Thank you to everyone that donated some AA and C batteries. It made the rest of the week much more productive.
Now For the Bad News
The week has been more frustrating for the middle school members and I. We quickly discovered that the LEGO Mindstorms software we need to program the Mindstorms robots has been blocked by OCPS. The software is free and I was hoping that everyone would be able to download and use it. I am trying to see if there is anything we can do about that. At the very least I will see if we can get it put on the 3 laptops I have in my class for student use. I was impressed to see John G. programming his Mindstorms robot to move around today. He had to use my presentation computer to do the programming but he did it. I can't wait to see what he can do when he has the program readily available.
CS-STEM Network by Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy
I would like to see the middle school members of the club be more independent so that I can work with them and the younger members at the same time. I have a group on the CS-STEM Network. This network has been set up by the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy for educators. There is a new program for LEGO Mindstorms EV3 certification and I am being given a chance to be one of the first educators to use it. Students that sign up (an e-mail will be sent to parents for permission before they can sign in) then join the group will have access to instructional videos and be given missions or challenges to accomplish. As they progress through the program, they earn badges. Some of these are done automatically by the program. Others I award as students run their missions with my robots on the mission table. They also have the option to download and use a virtual robot. All badges are automatically awarded by the program when virtual robots are used.
The link is below and the group code is b52f9142
What is a mission?
Students are given missions to accomplish whether they are working with Robotix or LEGO Mindstorms. These are challenges that mock real life robots in use today. They must design and/or build robots to accomplish various criterion. The LEGO Mindstorms robots are programmed. The missions are tried out on our mission table until successful in design, operation and programming before moving on to another.
Calling All LEGO's
We will take any unwanted LEGO's. They don't have to be from any particular set. One of the reasons I like the LEGO Mindstorms Robotics is that they can design and build anything they can imagine. All LEGO's are interchangeable so who knows what robot that old box of LEGO's might end up in.