Starting a new robotics club

MsN

I have been asked to start an after school robotics club at my middle school. I am the tech ed teacher with a little bit of experience with electronics and robotics, but not a ton.

I am looking for recommendations of what to buy. I don't have a huge budget, but am hoping once I figure out what I want I will be able to talk our parent group into spending some money. Also, I am pretty much starting from scratch so I need to figure out all the pieces that I need.

I would really like something that is sort of easy to learn, but that can grow with us for a bit. So that we can build on what they did each year, and hopefully not have to drop a ton of money each year.
Durability/re-usability is also important, it is a middle school.

Can you help me out at all?

MikeDYur

Check out this link on the forum.


Need A Propeller Dip and PropPlug for $25?

MattMatz

Good evening,

Yes, we can help you out - email us at education@parallax.com with a good way for us to contact you, and we'll try to figure out how to get you started and make sure you get what you need to grow a new robotics program.

Thanks,
Matt

Duane Degn

I've posted some thought about making inexpensive robots in this thread.

The Propeller Project Board is currently my favorite Propeller board (sold by Parallax) for robots.

Make sure and check some of the posts at the end of the thread for a list of inexpensive parts.

prof_braino

I have a project that I used with 3rd through 6th graders. I uses the popular Quickstart and $2 stepper motors like many of the other options. The difference is mine uses the FORTH programming language, which is possible easier for kids due to its minimalist nature. The BOM is cheapest kit of parts we could source on the Internet.

Bear in mind that folks that are trained only in one "standard" language find forth different, and can have rather strong options against. Compare to folks that use several tools, who tend to use forth for bit-banging (sensors and actuators, i.e. robotics). This project is called LittleRobot (because its lexically complete and we are not so clever with names)

https://code.google.com/p/propforth/wiki/LittleRobot

If you are interested I can talk you through it.

John Kauffman

MsN:

I've been teaching robotics for over ten years for ages MS to adults. I have a half dozen 7-8th graders this semester. I'm glad to personally backstop you until you have built up more confidence. If you have any questions or uncertainty during the year just give me a shout. Your best bet is to post here but feel free to PM as well.

I still have 2 BoeBots from 2004 that have been abused every way possible and they keep chugging along. So if you will be keeping the equipment (not student-owned) I advise buying the kind of heavy-duty robot you get from Parallax rather than a low cost alternative. I also like using a tried-and-true design rather than spend time tinkering with adjustments and cobbled-together parts. I think you are better off getting a few good quality robots each year rather than getting a large set of cheaper bots in year one.

You can go BOE- or Activity- but for MS I vote BOE for 2 reasons.
1 - I think that as of Nov 2015 the BoeBot has a more complete tutorial as a PDF text. I'm pretty sure ActivityBot will be the same by end of 2016, but currently its an on-line tutorial that is more cumbersome.
2 - I find for MS there are less programming syntax mistakes with PBASIC (BoeBot) than C (ActivityBot). C requires getting a few more characters correct on each line and that is what trips them up. And to exacerbate, it is the first command in C that they learn - print() - that is tricky.

Some general advice:

If you are getting BoeBots or ActivityBots then get a couple of the parts refresher kits. It is cheaper than having to retire one 'bot to use as a source of spares.
https://www.parallax.com/product/572-28132

If you are comfortable with basic soldering then get a few of the overlay boards so you can have the more complex circuits ready to just snap in rather than build from scratch. That is a huge time saver and also makes it quick to test if a problem is on the hardware or software side.
https://www.parallax.com/product/32999

Get some plastic divided boxes that close securely to hold all the bits. If a piece is missing check the bottoms of their sneakers.

I like to make the kids supply their own batteries. It is not a matter of cost but a way to try to get them to take responsibility for some of the materials. I know, that is impossible with most MS kids, but I try.

I require them to keep copies of all code they write in the entire course, both on a USB and on the school server. They will tend to write, erase, delete, re-write until their files are a mess. Speaking of files, check with Matt to get the educator's zip of all the files.

This is the time of year parents ask me for gift suggestions. You can let families know you can provide advice and you may end up with a few kids getting their own 'bot for the holidays.

Practice taking a well-lit photo of the circuit board from several angles so that if you really get stuck we can have a look at the hardware.

And, above all, don't be shy about asking questions on this forum. You will get a lot of expert advice, all in a very positive tone.