Reflections of a Techie

I Hate ROBOLAB

That's a pretty strong statement but it sums up my 7 years not so pleasant experience with the software. 

Picture this...we're working on our bots and my kids have been working hard to figure out gear ratios.  OK, they're 6th graders and ratios are still a bit foreign to them.  We've spent the whole week talking about ratios and what they mean.  And they've got their bot built and are ready to start the trials...we were to change into different gear configurations and see what the effect was on speed.

I only needed Robolab to allow the kids to create the simplest of programs...just a short 4 second turn on of both motors.  Not so much to ask.  But Robolab IR interface is a continuing problem in our school environment. 

First of all, we don't have the proper network permissions for the kids to be able to plug in the USB Infrared Tower...so I have to log onto the computers.  So much for network security.

Then it won't "see" the IR tower because we have too much light.  We try putting the tower in a box, under a desk in a box and so forth.  Still our program won't download into the RCX brick.  I find out that we haven't installed the patch.  Whatever the darn patch is..........

It's enough to discourage teachers and students.  It's why I hate technology.  When it's so complicated that you just want to throw in the towel ....well, all the cool learning is gone.  The kids were so disappointed that we could run their tests...

Not to worry.  I called a friend who has a stand alone computer not invovled in the network.  She brought it over to my room and we just wrote one program that everyone used.  The IR towers worked great and the bricks got the instruction set. 

Monday we'll run our trials.  I wish I could permanently borrow my friend's computer.  That's so not practical.  I simply lack the resources or know-how to get this to work on what I have in my room.  And by the way, let me tell you that our NXT software, LabView, works like a charm.  If I only had enough NXT bots, I'd be just fine.

Getting going again on robotics

It's that time of year again and we're starting our Force & Motion unit.  I've worked to incorporate Lego Robotics into this unit and we're about to start working on the lessons that involve gears.

Initially they will build a basic robot...one of wheels because they're sixth graders.  If it didn't move, they'd be so sad.  So the lessons I worked up depend on moving!!!!

First up is how do the gears effect the speed of the robot?  They'll get a chance to switch around the gears to see how that changes how fast the robot goes.  Pretty simple isn't it.  You'd think.  But 6th graders may not have had much experience thinking about this kind of concern.  I'm going to allow them to use 3 trial runs...and see if they can get it to go faster with each trial.

This lesson should be a great user of ratios.  again that's a topic that is extremely challenging for my 6th graders.  Hopefully with more exposure and different kinds of needs (other than to get the answer to the math problem), they'll begin to settle in with understanding ratios.

If they get done and we still have computer time left, I want them to hold time constant and then see if they can change how far the robot goes by changing the gears.  It's a similar application to the first one but with just a bit of a tweeaak!!!!

The silence in my room was amazing.  I haven't been able to get them this quiet since Spring Break.  But give 30 sixth graders a box of 828 Lego parts to inventory so they can start building....well it gets dead quiet as they concentrate, sort and organize.  Next week should be when that volume level comes back up!!!!

Hard earned knowledge from First Lego League tournament

Well, our first Lego Robotics season comes to a close.  Yesterday was the first robotics tournament that has ever been held in Kansas City and I think it was pretty darn fine.  The organizers did a great job for their first effort and I'm looking forward to going back next year.  I can't believe I actually said that.

Our team did very well for its first season.  Our kids had fun, learn a few things along the way and I think they had a set of peers within the school.  I believe they will have a much better idea about what they need to do next year having now seen and participated.  Being a rookie team with rookies coaches in a rookie tournament......well, that was a big mountain to climb over.  It isn't that you aren't provided with the information from the get-go.  It's that the volume of things you have to "get" so you can competently coach the kids through is too, too much. I guess that's why they call it a rookie season.

In order what I'd do differently next year.....

1. Figure out how to tap into some programming assistance.  I've asked our PTO for a grant to purchase the software training license.  That will be a huge help as I don't know much about this new language.  Ask me about the old Robolab and I can help.  But I haven't gotten into the new LabView so I'm not very helpful.
2. Start earlier.  October was too late.
3. Meet more.  Whether that means more often or for longer, I don't know.  But clearly if you're going to compete in this tournament, your team needs to meet more than 3 hours a week.
4. Divide and conquer.  We took all comers...so we ended up with a very active group of unfocused kids at the end of the day.  It felt a lot like herding cats.  Use different spaces and be much more teachery.  I talked to other teams and they were much more selective in picking their teams.  I just don't know that I can do that, but I need to organize them to overcome their challenges.
5. Have parent meetings a couple of times.  I'm convinced you can't do this alone and really need parents to step in to help when appropriate.  By that I mean, they could help provide the snacks or some kind of expertise or ______________________ .  I'd also keep my webpage updated more frequently so they'd know what was going on as well as creating a group email distribution list.  Sometimes I felt more like a babysitter than a robotics coach.
6. Find a place that can house a practice table, build it and meet there everytime.  We were constantly switching from one room to another....and that switching absorbed huge amounts of time.  Over the summer, we need to get a table built and then figure out how to secure it so we have a  more permanent meeting place.
7. Run something over the summer so that we can begin our challenge project early, early, early.  That would give the kids the time to figure out the topic, do their research (maybe even go on field trips around the area) and start their presentation.  That way once the Legos are released for the specific event, we can concentrate on programming and becoming consistent performers.
8. Other teams had expert assistance.  Some were assisted by university professors, some by parents who were programmers....outside of one visit by a nanotechnology expert we didn't have any help.  I think that made a huge difference.  The team that won had a MIT PhD dad as helper and the other team that pulled in most of the awards had a science store sponsor who also lended their science expertise.  That programming help is huge as is the scientific expertise in nanotechnology.  Face it.....as a 6th grade teacher I don't know much about nanotechnology, so I wasn't the same help as the university professors who met with some teams every other week.
9. Find another FLL coach who would be willing to help me...maybe a virtual partner.  Someone who could lend their experience and wisdom.  I could have sure used that this year.  I'll bet it's why the Kansas City tournament went from expecting more than 40 teams to 24.  People thought they were going to be better prepared and the time came for the tournament and they were lost.  Hey, I know the feeling.  I am proud we at least went and tried.

The biggest thing to decide is if you want to be competitive.  I think I approached this season as one that was going to be run by the kids.  And for that objective, we were successful.  But clearly the kids were disappointed in their work as they saw that what they'd done with hugely inferior.  Other teams had sent their kids to camp to work on these topics.  I'm not sure I'm ready to jump into that pressure arena.  Quite frankly, NCLB drains me of enough energy as I try to make sure ALL students are excellent math and science students.  It's something I need to get clear in my mind before the start of next season.  Maybe we should use the Lego resources, topics and so on and not go to the competition where you get blown away?????  Or maybe we should try and find similar philosophical teams and invite them to a duel competition?????  I just need to give this lots of reflection.

I think yesterday was truely the Jim McKay...thrill of victory when things worked and the agony of defeat when our robot got trounced in the round robin.  It was terribly difficult for the kids to sit through the awards ceremony, after they thought they did great, and not win anything.  Hopefully they will come to value the process of getting ready and participating.  I was very proud of them...how they hung together and worked together to do their best work ever.  It was a great day.