Report from the classroom: soldering S2 Robot badges with 7th and 8th graders
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,401
Hey there,
I think many of you know that I've been working at my son's school this semester. In between all of the Parallax responsibilities and travel this Spring, I'm at their school every Tuesday through Friday for Robotics. The school made robotics an elective and we're working to connect the program through the adjacent high school, where students in workshop will build and program their own robots from raw materials and Parallax hardware. We have 34 excited students, a very supportive science teacher who manages the logistics and myself to run the program. In middle school, we program the S2s to learn loops, subroutines, if-then, conditional logic and program structure.
Every Friday is Robo-Friday, where we do special robotic projects like fly a quadcopter, take an S2 robot apart, learn to solder or experiment with motors.
Today was a big day - it was the end of our first three-week session on the S2. Yesterday we learned to solder and today the students soldered their own S2 badge. Like many days, they stayed into the lunch break and didn't leave until they were totally finished with the project. All of them walked out of class with a shiny LED S2 Badge around their neck.
We had a few failures - inserting LEDs backwards and oxidized solder points, but all part of the learning process. Surprisingly they followed all safety precautions very well and we had no accidents. The kids were really excited about the project and look forward to coming back as soon as possible after Spring break! When they return we move into sensor interfacing and control. Then we'll start programming, but we'll revisit this soldering effort until our skills are improving.
Going to school has been great break from my role at Parallax, but it still involves my favorite subject (Parallax)! Go figure.
Ken Gracey
Businessman in blue shirt, helping students solder
See the S2 robots on the shelf, in the background?
These two work together like robots
They switched from the vise to table after a while for more precise control over the work
5,000 more of these will be assembled this Spring
I think many of you know that I've been working at my son's school this semester. In between all of the Parallax responsibilities and travel this Spring, I'm at their school every Tuesday through Friday for Robotics. The school made robotics an elective and we're working to connect the program through the adjacent high school, where students in workshop will build and program their own robots from raw materials and Parallax hardware. We have 34 excited students, a very supportive science teacher who manages the logistics and myself to run the program. In middle school, we program the S2s to learn loops, subroutines, if-then, conditional logic and program structure.
Every Friday is Robo-Friday, where we do special robotic projects like fly a quadcopter, take an S2 robot apart, learn to solder or experiment with motors.
Today was a big day - it was the end of our first three-week session on the S2. Yesterday we learned to solder and today the students soldered their own S2 badge. Like many days, they stayed into the lunch break and didn't leave until they were totally finished with the project. All of them walked out of class with a shiny LED S2 Badge around their neck.
We had a few failures - inserting LEDs backwards and oxidized solder points, but all part of the learning process. Surprisingly they followed all safety precautions very well and we had no accidents. The kids were really excited about the project and look forward to coming back as soon as possible after Spring break! When they return we move into sensor interfacing and control. Then we'll start programming, but we'll revisit this soldering effort until our skills are improving.
Going to school has been great break from my role at Parallax, but it still involves my favorite subject (Parallax)! Go figure.
Ken Gracey
Businessman in blue shirt, helping students solder
See the S2 robots on the shelf, in the background?
These two work together like robots
They switched from the vise to table after a while for more precise control over the work
5,000 more of these will be assembled this Spring
844 x 1125 - 113K
844 x 1125 - 117K
844 x 1125 - 112K
844 x 1125 - 89K
800 x 533 - 119K
Comments
This is great Ken! It sounds like you have a great bunch of interested kids and they have a GREAT mentor!! Kudos to you and Parallax once more!!
I agree. They have a such a great mentor to learn from. Continue the great work that you are doing Ken.
Jeff T.
At least that's what my students told me!
Great job Ken, I hope all Expo attendees get a mini S2, not just the kids.
Um... I really need to learn how to solder, so save me one!
That's great that you are involved in your kids school! I think that really helps schools, teachers and most importantly the students.
-Tim Ballas