More Students, More Kits!

Everyone returned to class today.  As a matter of fact, we had the boys and the girls at the same time.  The day was filled with conversation and concentration as everyone worked to construct their lego kits.  The boys started their kits today along with some of the girls, while the 6th grade girls finished their kits from last week.

Full Class – Boys & Girls

One proud team!

Finished!

Check out the photostream from the day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roboticsindc/sets/72157623319145606/

Please remember, we still need your Lego Mindstorm Kit donations.

6th Grade Girls Only – Rocked the Legos!

Finished Products for the day!

Today was the first day back to class after the holiday break.  It seems everyone had a great Christmas and New Year celebration.

We began class by reflecting on what what learned and completed so far (from last semester).  Most of the kids in Saturday School had gone on a trip were had some special class, so the 6th grade girls dominated both class sessions today.  The first session was filled with girls who usually participate in the Lego robotics class, but others were there for the first time.  Some never even worked with legos before.  But, as you can see from the pictures, they did fine – you can’t even tell the first timers.

See more in the photostream from the entire day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roboticsindc/sets/72157623318910706/

Stay tuned next week as we finish these and perhaps begin more….

Please remember, we still need your Lego Mindstorm Kit donations.

Your donations Needed: 10 Lego Mindstorm NXTs for ~20 students

Lego Mindstorm

Greetings Everyone!

Due to budget constraints, we are in need of your donations to Robotics In DC. Please look around our website to see how hard the students have been preparing to build and how much fun they’ve had. 

Visit the bottom of this post for regular donation updates.

Special thanks to Software Theoretic for being the first to respond with a donation of 2 kits and the willingness to match donations from others for up to 4 additional kits!

You may either elect to:

1. Donate money here through the sponsoring 501c3 nonprofit organization, Uplift, Inc. (all donations are tax deductible).

OR

2. Send robotics kits directly to the instructor. Click here to order and ship – (~$300 total value):

Uplift, Inc.
c/o Robotics In DC
PO Box 2773
Washington, DC 20013

Please spread the word!

Thanks!

Questions? Please email roboticsindc@gmail.com

——

We will update this page every 3 hours to let everyone know how many kits and how much money have been received. Please see below.

===== DONATION UPDATES =====

1:30 PM / January 19, 2010: Software Theoretic (http://www.softwaretheoretic.com) has just donated 2 Lego mindstorm kits and promises to match donations by others.  They will match the donations of others, up to 4 additional kits.  Please donate as soon as you can.

A special thanks to Rashad for deciding to donate and being the first to respond!

===========================

Computer Time – Learning about Simple Machines

Learning about simple machines

Today, both classes viewed the Simple Machines portion of http://www.edheads.org to learn about how simple machines work.  They worked in pairs and gave presentations about 1 or 2 of their favorite simple machines.

Clips of those presentations will be posted soon.  But in the meantime, check out the photostream from the day:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roboticsindc/sets/72157623120359489/

Future Engineers! Ready for our Mindstorm Kits in January…

As we get ready for our Lego Mindstorm Kits (coming in January), both class reviewed the process engineers go through when creating and/or designing technology or another other product.  (Problem Identification, Brainstorm, Build/Creation, Test, Finalize).  We discussed various examples of products that have most likely followed these stages.

Both classes also reviewed images and clips featured here (this site).  I think everyone enjoyed going back in time! 

In preparation for our robot build, we created teams and performed a test run of the above steps.  The problem was related to my research project at school.  Every team received a device prototype and brainstormed ideas for apps.  Their descriptions were all recorded in their journals.  There were some interesting ideas.

We will most likely continue this next Saturday as we wait for our robot kits.  The students seemed to enjoy the process, although we really didn’t have enough time to dig deep into everyone’s creativity.  I hope next Saturday gives everyone another chance to be extremely creative.

In the boys class, we had an interesting discussion about global warming, the ecosystem and the year 2012.  They wanted to know if the world would really end?  Hmmmm

We’ll see where the conversation goes next week.

Stay tuned…

Bricks, Plates, and Beams

Unlike the previous class where everyone was immersed in Legos whether they knew about them or not, this past week we focused on the official names of the pieces, their parts, and how to actually connect them to build objects.  After the lesson, students were allowed to build whatever they wanted, in teams.  They were extremely engaged and enjoyed the outcomes.

They were also warned that they could never call the pieces by the wrong name for the rest of the year.   We’ll see how that goes!

Check out the photostream from this day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roboticsindc/sets/72157623119671221/

Lego Wall Building & ‘Pluck’ Test

Yesterday’s classes were awesome!

To get everyone used to the process of designing and constructing objects with Legos, teams of 2 or 3 students worked to build a wall in hopes of withstanding the pluck test (hoping their walls don’t fall). There was at least one winner in both classes. However, everyone’s wall in the 1st class didn’t get tested because they ‘claim’ their walls fell beforehand. (Yeah, OK)

Nonetheless, the ‘pluck’ tests continued around the room. Below are some clips of the result. Check out the Flickr photos of the construction process on the right. —->>>

What will happen next class!? Please stay tuned!

Lego Mindstorm …interesting designs!

So, hopefully, we’ll get to the point of programming a Lego Mindstorm by the end of the year.

These videos are posted simply to share the ‘end goal’….

Robots Dancing? Yup, from the Spelbots!

Can robots really dance?

Robot DJs?

I also want to provide some ‘cool’ examples of what robots do…