11.21.07

In Your Classroom: Geek Dad

 

I can really relate to this GeekDad! I have two sons who have been doing robotics since the sixth grade.They have gone through Lego League and the FIRST robotics competition.Our garage is littered with resistors, capacitors, and assorted other electronic knick knacks from failed experiments.So it is a delight that I can write about some of the wonderful sites and videos out there to actively engage your students in robotics just like the Maru family does in this episode.

The largest and most exciting competition in robotics in the United States is sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).I currently coach team 1087 here in Salem Oregon.Last year our team managed to win the Pacific Northwest Regional and went on to compete at the National event in Atlanta.This is a remarkable competition that encourages youth from the ages of 6 and up.Students can compete in the Junior Lego League, the FIRST Lego League, the Tech Challenge, and the largest of them all, the FIRST contest.The younger students use the Lego Mindstorms to maneuver through challenging table top courses where they score points for every task they complete.Students learn programming skills at a young age and work with durable Lego sensors.I highly recommend this to teachers starting a robotics program because of the ease of storage and limited trouble shooting.The next level up in complexity is the Vex robotics system.These are larger hand held robots that are programmed to do many tasks, they have the ability to push larger objects and require a skilled high school or middle school student.I like them because of the price point and small size. With these, each student can learn all aspects of building a robot.Another smaller robot is the BoeBot, made by Parallax.This hand held robot has limited functions because of memory and chip constraints.It requires very careful handling and does not weather students very well.It is very easy to reverse power or blow a chip out.The advantage to the BoeBot is the ease in which things can be customized by experienced students and the dual use of the programmable chip to teach electronics.Finally, the biggest of all the robots is the one that we build as an after school project.Here competitors pay $6,000 for two boxes of parts that are shipped to you at the start of the competition.Teams from across the nation are given essentially six weeks to build a robot from scratch that must complete a series of tasks on an arena size playing field while graciously working with five other robots on the field.Last year the task was to stack life preservers in a tic tac toe format at the center of the arena and then get back to your home base and lift your fellow bots several inches off the ground.Click here to view an animation video of Rack and Roll.

As a teacher I would certainly encourage you to start a robotics club as a way to engage your students in learning about robotics.The cross over of engineering skills to mathematics and cooperative learning are well worth the effort spent.I list several resources as a way to get going on robotics:

Videos:
Some inspirational videos from Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST and a sensational Engineer, can be viewed on the FIRST website.The front page contains a great segment of Dean discussing the future of robotics and the purpose of getting kids involved.The site is not well organized so search a bit for places to click on a video.Also point out to students that over nine million dollars of scholarships are available at this site.

A great You Tube video shows kids working late in the robotics lab trying to meet deadlines like real engineers, this is a very good video to remind kids about how much time engineers really take to build things.

An exciting display at the Wired NextFest convention in LA featured modular or polymorphic robots built by engineers at USC.A video of this (these) robots in action can be viewed on You Tube.

I really enjoyed PBS's The Great Robot Race where they chronicle DARPA's unmanned vehicle contest through the Mojave Desert.The accompanying teacher resource page has a sample lesson plan using Lego Robotics.PBS provides the video online for viewing in your classroom.

Magazines:

Nuts and Volts magazine is a wealth of information and their editor can answer your technical questions.They also have a section devoted to applications of Parallax's Basic Stamp.You can also sign up for an Educators course.

A magazine devoted to robotics is Robot.You can read an interesting article on Vex Robots.

Parts:

No GeekDad would be complete without a way to find the parts.The Maru family used accelerometers and optical sensors to allow the robot to sense its surroundings.There are many places to find these and the above magazines are a great place to start.I would recommend the following three for teachers:

Innovation First, a great source for almost everything from controllers to sensors, largely used as a supplier for the FIRST competition.

Pitsco, this is an excellent source for all your Lego needs, you can buy whole kits and replacement parts.

Solarbotics, a source of interesting parts for robots that are very simple to build.

Photo of Salem's FIRST Team 1087:

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