Robotic Educational Program (Age 7 to 12)

MacTuxLin

Hi,

Recently, I've been approached by an old friend of mine who is a long-time teacher at a primary sap school He encouraged me to conduct a 10-week training program on robotics for kids in primary schools (junior high?) over here. I don't have any formal training (as in teaching to such young age) so I was hoping if anyone or Parallax could direct me to some teaching materials that focus in this area and age.

I'm planning to use the prop platform to teach with syllabus like simply electronics (running LEDs), controlling motors, IR etc, simple SPIN & finish off with a project: line following 4-wheel robot. I'm still not sure if starting from a prop would be too advance but I think it all depends on the teaching guide? In Singapore, the schools (high school to tertiary) are pretty involved in robotics competitions. I was given the impression that if my training guide were steered towards getting to the win some games, I'll probably in high demand but after re-thinking again, I think the main objective would be it has to be FUN to the students. So, I'll plan in that direction instead.


Thank you!

Kenichi


PS: No intention to use other platform.

prof_braino

I'm doing similar, I've been working towards this for years years with varying degrees of success.

This bot is intended to eventually demo the prop's large data stream and pre - filtering capabilities, but for now its just the cheapest possible build that moves.

Our software will have drivers and application in propforth (easiest for me to use and possibly eaiser for non-tech parents to mentor kids) but you can use any processor+language with the bots hardware. Of course, I will only be abot to support the forth stuff, but if you can do something in another lagnguage whtat would be great to have more options (in case we find a parent that has a tech background).

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

MacTuxLin

Thanks for the info Prof_Braino. You're right, the parts should be easily accessible by anyone, especially for the kids, with minimal effort & cost. This will be added to my objective while I continue to research & discuss with teachers to work out a training programmes that will add value to the students & parents.

prof_braino

There is at least one school here that is interested in using the Little Robot + propforth in a program. They have initially agreed to save their lectures, curriculum, notes, as contribution to the project.

There are also several non school organizations (boy scouts, etc) that expressed interest but have not figured how to get the ball rolling yet.

If you wish to collaborate we might get better inertia.

MacTuxLin

Yes, an international collaboration might bring some weight to the project. Let me run through all the documents. I have very little knowledge on FORTH so maybe I'll work from another language. But, who knows, they kids might find FORTH interesting?

Nevertheless, I'll use the current syllabus as my main focal point in generating the programmes. I'll sure to keep you informed.

prof_braino

One would only use forth if the requirements had some need for:
material structured according to the hardware being use (from the data sheet versus "hacking")
language simplicity
minimal additional equipement (terminal or low end net book instead of high end work station)
little or no other tech prerequisite (don't need to know C tool chain on PC)

If you already have a fancy PC and C tool chain establish, you may as well use it. OR any other favored language option.

In any case, the robot hardware should be the same.

Yesterday I got another interested party here in Chicago. They will be using C on Arduino, hope there will be an array of options soon!