I plan on having the students to first either draw a robot or define what a robot is; we will then watch videos on robots and how they affect society. Some students may program a finch robot or a computer simulated robot.
Since I am also the FIRST Robotics lead mentor, I plan to incorporate the Robotics Unit within the work for the FIRST Challenge.
In particular, I like the evaluation piece from days 2-3. The students have had difficulty in the past coming up with an effective design that does not require multiple tweaks during competition. Going into next year’s competition, I plan to have the students work in several small groups the first two - three days to come up with multiple designs and attempt to evaluate them to see which one (or a composite of multiple designs) would be the most efficient and likely to accomplish the goals of the game.
I plan to extend this into building scale functional models using VEX parts. Hopefully, the design, evaluation piece will go a long way to designing a winning robot.
Phillip
I like the way you are reflecting on this year’s class and how you might do things a little different next year. Planning in time to apply the problem solving process to come up with multiple designs and evaluate the most efficient design and then reflect on those designs is awesome.
I will be doing days 2-3!
I am going to present a lesson for Days 2-3 that students will be able to complete without actual robots because my school does not have resources for this.