Webinar 20190219 What is the role of robotics in CS classrooms in 2019

Webinar 20190219 What is the role of robotics in CS classrooms in 2019

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Hey, all. Right hi everyone, my name is Joey Dixon, I am a principal. Investigator. For cs4. All teachers the, virtual community that supports, computer science teachers across the country I'm, excited, to have, one of our community ambassadors, needle Plotnik who. Is hosting this along, with our, guest experts, who will introduce themselves in a little bit. Just, a few housekeeping issues. For. This we've got this really incredible webinar, about robotics, in the computer science class today, these. Wonderful, guest, expert and we. Want. You to be engaged in this and so we want you to if you have questions, we've, got this chat box that's right here this is a great way throughout the presentation. To ask, questions, to, put. Comments in to share resources that, you have and. If you do, want to speak directly to, any, of the panelists, you can just type in your question and then I can unmute, you at that point so I'll be the person sort of on the back end managing. All of that. And. The. One thing I just want to mention because it's webinar, blood for Teresa students, were, an NSF, a National Science Foundation, funded research. Project, we, don't evaluate or, endorse any of the products, but we're excited to have everyone that's here I'm. At, the panel and with, that I want Pathak, over to Neil to, get. Going, and I. Will turn off my webcam, as. Much, bandwidth. For you all oh good. Evening everybody who's dialed. In we'll be looking at this later I'm really happy to get. Started, with this project. The. Question. Came up with. Robotics. In the classroom, it's one of my more, exciting, I think areas, of computer science education right. Now and there's a real, wealth. Of different, types of products that are available different, types of programming languages that are supported and of. Course grade levels there are people doing exciting things with robots from kindergarten, up to grade, 12 and then beyond and I'm. Very, happy that we have. Of Representatives some of the leading companies in this area right now, we. Have from. The. People. In. We. Have people from Bambi brew who's from the, birdbrain. Technologies, and from Dexter we have John Cole who's a founder of Dexter and Lisa. Road who, is a dex, court who's been using the robots, in some very interesting ways in the. Elementary. School grades so I'd like to continue, with underdose, everybody, who's here tonight again I Neil colonic I teach it every high school which is a school just. Located north of Boston, about 2,000, students six different languages, and I've taught ECS. CSP. And this is my first year teaching robotics the high school level I. Guess. Next slide Joey. Okay. Looks like I'm supposed to introduce myself now. So. I'm from birdbrain robotics, for a small company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and. We. Are about, 10. 10. 12 people and. We. Grew out a. Send-off from Carnegie Mellon University so, the products, that we have were developed. Through. NSF, funding at the University, and the goal of that original product. Was. To expand the representation. Of women in computer science by, luring a broader. Range of robotics. Options. So. We've, been a company since about 2011. So, a little while and growing steadily I've been with the company since. 2015. First. Full time employee, besides, our farm our CEOs, and. I'm. Going to move, to next slide I know I can't I went to this I went. To the preview where they taught me how to use all the button. So. We make. The. First product, that we, came out with the fence robot, and, it is there on the.

Right. Finch. There, is some room for interpretation there. Computer, science from. K to 12. So. You can drive she's, like. It. Has obstacle sensors and light sensors. And. As. Well as an accelerometer. So. She's primarily, got people who are teaching. Computer. Science, and. We. Also make the hummingbird robotic tips which, is different, in that it does not come as a pre constructed, robot that comes as a box of hearts and you, add press pods to make the robot that you want so. Technical, I have a little, page, here, would, sell, this. One hooked up I have my robot flower here, so I can make. It change. The sorry. Change. The toner. With. The motor. And. You build. Whatever. Your. Thank. You Thank, You Bambi and I guess we're moving on to, John. And we cut. Um. Great, I'm John Cole I founded, Dexter, industries a, little. About about, ten years ago, we're. A really fun team that we engineer, our robots that we support our robots if, you watch, any of our videos I'm probably the voice on the video. I'm. An engineer I, love, to talk to teachers and, students. I tried, to get into the classroom as much as I can. We. Built fun robots that are used in education, and also used in by professional, engineers sort. Of go everywhere from elementary, school all the way up to to Google so. Lisa. Is one of our experts, she's joining us and she's an amazing teacher that, was, taking the go p-- I go three in the giggle bot to the classroom let, her introduce. Herself. I. Can't. We can't hear you. Okay I think Lisa is going to try to recall, back in and. We'll. Have her introduce, herself when. She does that, sorry, about that these are the downsides, to webinars. Sometimes. And. John. Where you based your. They. Look like a lot of representation. From your plate from your state, yeah. We're we're, based out of I'm, calling, you from Arlington, Virginia but we're a remote distributed, team so a couple, of us working in Reston Virginia and. We. Have engineers, all over so our CTO is in Montreal, and got. An employee in China, and one in Michigan and, one in Europe, so. We. All come together via video conferences. And. Bambie. Where are you based. Where. Do you say you made. Hi. Lisa, are you back. No. I, apologize, for that. So. I grade. Teachers in Fairfax, Virginia and, I started, out with just the Raspberry Pi and what we really need to bring that in my classroom but then making it move I found. Me go robot. I. Can. Use this. So. Just. Giving you an idea of some of our robots here we've got the our flagship. Robot, is the go PI go it's the 2 wheeled robot, over, on your left side and. It's. Brain, is a Raspberry, Pi which, is a $35. Mini computer. That. Gives us sort of the opportunity, to do some really amazing high-end, stuff and some really simple stuff so. With the go PI go, kids kids sort, of start, with block based, robotics. Drag-and-drop programming. And. Then. You. Can read an sup to more advanced programming in Python, the. Gulp I go has different. Ports you can add sensors you can add a camera. You, can also add, servos. And 3d printed devices, onto it so that you can expand, the robot and work. Within curriculum, that either go step by step or, that you can take in sort of, customize. We. Have two rich curriculums, for the go p-- i go the go box that Ares is coding and we have one that's based around mars rover, and so, students. Are allowed to do a mission to mars where they collect data we. Built this with McGraw Hill and has. Some sort of a rich. Rich. Tapestry. Of additional. Materials. And sort of learning around space. We. Also have a ton of free projects, for the robot as well that you can just hop onto our website at any time to take a look at. You. Can have kids do sumo BOTS or jousting, with pop, balloons or do everything if, you want to use the camera, to identify, faces or to take pictures sort, of a widely. Configurable. Robot. Sort. Of hard to recommend age groups because a lot of the kids come into classrooms, with different, backgrounds. But. That's one of the really big advantages, that go pi go3 is that you can use it for kids that sort of come with no knowledge and.

And. They. Could start programming start. Learning robotics, you could still challenge students that have some background or some previous, knowledge on robotics, encoding gives. You a sort of a wide wide. Range tool to sort of use with your students our. Curriculum starts out with a focus for fourth, and fifth graders and it. Goes all the way up into the university, so sort. Of. Confused. By it wide, range of students the. Robot in the middle is called the giggle bot that's our latest addition, to the lineup this, is based on the, brain, of it is the, micro, bit which is a really simple and inexpensive, microcontroller. And. This. Is sort of provides our five minutes, to while experience. You pop, the robot out of the box you put the micro bit into it you get, to programming. With drag and drop in inmate. Code and, in five minutes, get some LEDs going use your line follower and. You can sort of hear your, your students are off to the races really quickly and then we through. Our curriculum, and projects, you come back to add. Different. Bodies to it or to. Give. It and add, servos, and give it an animatronic feel. So. Um. Fun. Thing about the giggle bot the. Robot is designed, to be built on we, see teachers sort of incorporating, the art and social sciences. On top of it they'll, add they, said bod phases the pipe cleaners, you can add a temperature. And humidity sensor or, a whole bunch of other sensors but anything, in between that, brings them are. Some science to the bottom. There's. A curriculum for this as well it's. Geared for ages sort of six to fourteen although again it's kind of hard to just give it a number but. Really depends on your students strengths, and their backgrounds. Either. One of these two robots require any installation so. Both. Of them are programmed in the browser and connected, to by whatever device, you're using so I have, to call the IT department, to install anything you. Connect, over Wi-Fi and you're you're off to the races with it. And. Finally our, third robot, is, is. The Britt PI and this. Is very close to our hearts because we sort of started our company building, Lego Mindstorms. Sensors, and robots and. This. Also works with the Lego, Mindstorm, system which I think a lot of teachers have experience, with it requires, a little bit more building, and a, little more free-flowing for, the classrooms, that either have Lego or maybe, don't require the same structure, but. It's. Geared towards folks that have the Mindstorms, and want. To do something a little bit with a with, a more advanced brain so this uses the Raspberry Pi as a brain so you can use, a camera to do machine, vision or to. To. Do data science with it. We. Have a project wood that we did with Google where you turn the pages of the book with some Legos and then you take a picture of it read the text and it speaks of the.

Speaks. Of the book out loud to you so sort of an automated book right here so, you can do all sorts of fun stuff with it those. Are 0-3. Robots. So. People. Who. Were dialing and looking, at this later I guess the question is for people. Who are doing first time robotics, programs. What. Do you consider be appropriate, prerequisites. I, know, that John. Bambi images of some about grade level considerations, and also. For, that. In his curriculum into, the classrooms. Typically. How long do you see this being used as a year long project or as. A sample, project so to speak in an exploratory, fashion, I'll let my panelists, chime, in please. Really. Many any prerequisites. To get started with some of the drag-and-drop programming. The. Youngest I've ever used to fence with was, a group of four-year-olds at. A local preschool using, basically drag-and-drop, arrows, to, tell their bench where they wanted it to go. For. The hummingbird. The. Great level consideration, is more tool use most people use, glue guns and exacto knives to construct their robots and we don't really feel comfortable recommending that you hand out exacto, knives to anyone under nine so. Most of the people building. Their own robots, from from, cardboard, are, doing, that with, great. For and up roughly. But. I think. That you, can get started with make, code or snap. Or. Scratch quite easily so, you can do a small project. Just, to try it out maybe you can get started using only an hour and then, if you, have. More time I think you can take it as deep as you want there's so many different. Things you can learn in programming, and so many different things you can build in different directions. You. Can take it that we have people get started in really small chunks, but I also see people using. The robots throughout the year for multiple projects. And. I definitely agree that there, isn't necessarily prerequisite. Particularly with the block programming. Because, you can start at any level, and. If you're like in the oil interest school where. You have different content, areas and you have the students all day long you can kind of pick and choose which areas to start. Students out with so you can do a small project or, you can do a more unit long project, where you're building on something over several times because like the Mars rover project that, John mentioned earlier. So. In the elementary, grades do you see students, using, this, as a.

Two. Month three month type of unit. Or is it standalone. Cuz if they could high school person like myself we see robots being used as a full. Year or half of your course so I want to make sure I pay attention to what those folks, who are not in not in my venue, I. Guess. In terms of how. We've been using them we kind of see them just as any other tool in our classroom, like. Paper scissors, crayons, markers, whatever, else so instead of maybe making a poster or building, something, we're. Making. Some of their robot server we're. Coding something and so, it really could be it's not just the robotics, it's learning. About space. Using. Robotics, or learning. About western expansion through. Robotics as. A tool, for that, so. I guess it depends, on how how, its incorporated, it could be a standalone, or it could be within. Something else as a short piece. Yeah. I would agree I've seen people. Who have them in their classrooms, full-time let. Their students use them a lot we, have a number of people too and rural schools or, schools with fewer resources who are using things through, a lending library so, maybe they get their robots for a month, and. They use. Them for shorter term projects, during that time and then they pass them on to the next classroom, or. The next school so. We have some people who do more intensive units so that they only need the robots for a shorter, period of time. So. This. Is my next question that I put out there is spite of multiple, grades, I. Think. The teachers like my science, director was a little worried about its buying something that was going to be good for a year and then. Not have use. After. That so. How. Do you see these products. Being used so, to speak as a you, know as you progress it meant both both of you had mentioned before that the use a scratch or, make. Code, drop. It I can drop and then they move on to the text. Based languages, would be great if you can speak a bit more about that. Yeah. This is my microphone on okay. So. Let's. See, you. Know I think we, bit. About the the programming, tools that are out there. The. As. Far as coming, in at an introductory level you really just need to be able to to. Read and you get start to use those drag-and-drop. The. Drag-and-drop, programming. I think. That makes it really accessible, on. All, of our robots you can program you can start there and you can hop along to - to Python your first like line line based. Coding. To Java and to C. So. You're starting at the very basic level you can roll into Python and, then keep on going into, more advanced topics. Like vision processing, or, machine vision or data science, where you're, doing almost, like real computer science projects with it so. That's. Kind of keys there's expandability, when you look at some of the curriculum - I, think. It. Takes this approach as well you're. Sort of you've got a balance there between something, that a teacher can use that they need, direction, but.

There's. There. Are places to go with it that allows you to bring creativity. Into. Sort. Of either use it as a full-on roadmap or use it as sort, of a compass, to take, you where you want to go is that is that fair baby you guys sort of have that - I think right. Yeah, I think I, think, that makes a lot of sense. We. Also, have. A number of people who are getting started with, the. Block based programming, languages, scratch them, make code and. You can also use the same robots as, you can for yours and Python, and Java so. For students who are either, starting, in high. School and maybe an introductory pipe on course or, who, have already done some text based programming, and are ready for something to. Take that a little further in a text base I. Always. Recommend for teachers that if you're thinking I mean robots are a big investment, for most schools. You. Definitely want something that you're gonna be using more than once so it's, really I think important. To support people as they make. More complex, programs or, build more complex, robots. So. That they can really grow. Their skills, I. Would. When, I look to see when. I see what schools are doing I love, to see schools, rather. Than using like one. Robot like, a different robot each year, to, see students, really growing, their skills with, a single set so, that you know they're not covering. The. Same topics all the time that they're advancing, in kind of the concepts, but their understanding and what they're what, they're doing with it. Definitely. Being able to use my. Employees. I think it's, very important, like you were saying where. They're they're able to apply it over different spans or maybe solving. The same problem, in a different way so maybe, you did block based programming one year and then you're getting into. Tech. Space or. Approaching. It with a different methodology. Is. Really important we're, using different types of robots for different things so. They gave a lot you, know for us works. Better for certain types of activities or certain grade levels versus. To go up I go where, there's assembly required, and. They both have strengths which is it's, fun I. Noticed. That both of you was all of you were speaking before about how this, is sort of a modular approach to, the hardware as well that. You can add, and add things to manipulate the environment and to respond, to different, stimuli so. I, think. The the. The at the end is how, big your imagination, is versus the hardware itself you can you can add on, to all these products it seems to give you the versatility. To do that kind of stuff as well. Yeah. I think that's right I also think you know it also depends, on what classroom, you're bringing it into so.

And. What. Tools you have in that classroom as well so you. Know. We. Have for example a digital making, curriculum where, you can walk. Through do, 3d. Design and in, Tinkercad, and then if you have a 3d, printer you. Can add on, gears. And mechanical, devices and, have, students sort of interact with that 3d software and use, the 3d printer just add add, things on to the robot take, us take a servo and you can add say, turn it into a dump truck or you can turn it into. Different. Working robots that have different manipulators. On them so I. Think, that. Yeah. They're different they're different ways that you can get more mileage out of a, robot. Than what you, just see coming right out of them I. Think. That's a great point and I love the point you're making about, robots. Robotics. Can incorporate making. As well I find it really interesting. When. I work with kids or see their project, you, have some where. The, physical robot may be pretty simple, and they put so much effort into taking their programming, deeper, and you, have some who, spent, so much time on the mechanics, and. Building. Their, vision. Or built something that mechanically. Very each and maybe their programming, maybe, they don't. Need that much programming maybe all they need to do is turn their motor on for all their gears to do whatever. It was that they make, their elephants, or their Rover or whatever it was that they wanted to do so. I find it really fascinating that, students, can develop deep, skills and different ways. Either. Playing to their strengths. Or sometimes, exploring, things that they haven't had as much, experience with. And. That also plays interested, to the soft skills of you know working with a team and having to compromise. And. Problem solving you know what what will work with the materials, I have one of the capabilities of the robot I have the kid I have, and. I think that's been a huge thing as well is being. Able to work through those different. Difficulties. Come. Up with a solution that, works for them I. Would. Agree and the the troubleshooting, in a team is different with a robot like do, you have a hardware problem do, you have a building problem. There's. A lot of different, layers to think through when students, are debugging. So. The. Question is that this route revolves, run as more of the, platform-specific. Stuff, so. I know that people, in schools. Around the country around the world are gonna have lots of different kinds of hardware. People. In so we, can get some similar run it is about platform. Support I know that John, and Bambi spoke a little bit about this before terms. Like what kind of hardware you do you have any, kind of limitations, you should be worried about, essentially. Some fa, Q's. So. We try to support, and. From, what I was hearing John say earlier I'm sure the same is true, for Dexter, the. School. Already has. And. Windows. And Mac and, Linux, computers, so. We. We. Need there needs to be a range of things because most. Classrooms, don't have any control over what devices, they have to work with, so. We need to make sure sure. That they have options in, the last couple of years we've seen more classrooms, that have mainly. Tablets, and Chromebooks, so, that's been an area in which we've been developing. Some more options because. We. Felt like those they. Didn't have enough, tools to work with there. For. Programming, languages support as I said we we offer. Swap. Based ones as well as Python and Java. We. Still have come to you some some Finch users out there in processing. And processing, and, C and some other variants, as well. But. The hardware requirements, are really quite. Low I think we have some people out there using their finishes in Windows 7 as far as I know they still work fine. Part. So you know that sort my fancy, honor to get started. Yeah. I think, baby, said it also, you. Know it works on just about everything so. We've. Seen the explosion, of Chromebooks in, the classroom, over the last few years so definitely. Have to work with that. Windows. Apple if you've got a tablet you, can use a robot. Or use a go play go three on a phone if you want to but that screens a little bit smaller really to. Do much with. So. On on. Our robots all the workers in the browser, it's. It's over Wi-Fi so there's nothing to install on the computers, which we think is is kind of important, because the last thing you want to do is have to wrangle with an IT guy or get through your school. Specific. IT. Restrictions. You just need a device with with browser and a Wi-Fi. As. Far as programming, languages go uh the. Graphical, stuff I I, would. Defer to Bambi and Lisa on this one but I think a lot of the graphical stuff sort, of hands, out to be the same like scratch, looks, a lot like mate code it probably looks a lot like blockly.

And Some of the other stuff. We. Support mate code and luckily, on. On. Our robots, so. You can do the graphical, some of our robots, also. Do scratch so, we'll. Have scratch in place for the giggle bot soon but everything else runs scratch as well, and. You can move up the ladder to Python or to see. Nodejs. Or java depending, on how advanced you want to go. I'm. Not sure so I think that. Maybe. At least you guys know this better than I do but I think it APCs is based. Off of Java's, pcs. With. Java. I'm. Sorry go, ahead, no I, we. Have if, you're gonna do a pcs, a it's going to be a Java based course. Since. You're the equivalent, to a first-year computer, science programming, language would be at a college university so. It is Java and. CSP, it's, does. Not require, to use any, kind of thing he's mobile CSP he's. App Inventor any. Python, any, other language, if you're using Arduino, is you can use a letter, see language so it really does. Not force. You to it I think that's one of the things that my students, have seen. Is that when you take computer science it's, not a language, course, as much as it is a discipline. That requires you to learn different languages for different things if I'm doing web design or from, doing databases. Or from doing, doing. Engineering, I'm gonna use a different language that's appropriate, for the job I also, teach my kids Linux so they know the operating systems they do hope. It'll be teaching some courses in cyber, so, there's a is a really. The. Best thing about computer, science so there's no limit and no there's, no there's, no just you not blocks into anything there's a lot of different things you can do and having. The opportunity. To do different languages and different opt different. Operating systems is part of what, we have to learn. So. Neil if you if you're teaching a class. As. A freshman. And sophomore. In high school that are going to be funneled up to that CSA, program the next year, you'd, feel comfortable teaching, them Python. At. Least. Are. The kids with scratch or. Snap other. Kind. Of block. Based code I have I've been using make code when I got my first BBC, marker but a couple years at the CSD a conference, and I think that's a great platform, because as. We. Said before you can get five minutes to get something working and you know if they're worried about the syntax issues, when. I started using I was actually using the Finch robust but I first started teaching my kids Python, because the scratch interface, they said the other I guess high school kids a little tired of it and one there's something a bit more advanced so Python, would be my first. Personal. Preference be the first text-based language, I would teach my students, and then, they go to Java. With the object oriented stuff. So that's pretty much a high school level. What. My. Director. Science is saying we. Do engineering, robotics program. Were they using the. Bebop of parallax, which is more of a wiring. Of breadboard, kind of stuff and, she. Said that's great for kids who want to do engineering but we'd like to do more of a program.

Korso, Class were the robots, become, the, tool to learn programming, versus a tool to learn electronics. So I think it's great that robotics, is a platform, that supports both those needs I'm. In a code talk class where I'm working with a guy with a professional, engineering degree and on. The computer science person so he has he. Knows how to read the resistors, and. Rheostats. And all the other electronics. And I know how to read the code so. It's sort of a very nice to have that kind of blended. Approach, to what's going on. So. Lisa what are you using for text-based. Languages, at the elementary. Levels. It. Really depends on the students, we. We've, gotten into you Python a, little, bit and then now with the microbe it's going. Between mate code and JavaScript, just, started out with that, it's. Really again based on the students, understandings. Previously, and building. Off of that in an intent or interest. Even. Trying to get them outside. Of Robotics getting into Python using, minecraft and then kind of bringing them back into it using the robot. But. That's, been something that a lot, of my students are itching floors they've kind of gotten a, lot, of exposure to the block based coding through, things like hour of code and. They've seen it before and they're they're looking, for something different and, that's, really been the knife in the flexibility, in different languages like you're, saying they're all kind of similar once, you get the hang of it, lochley. And scratch and make code they have a lot of similarities. And. So once they see those, they're. More flexible in their thinking I. Do. Find, it really interesting because. You see students, with such a range of experience, like Lisa students, because they've had a lot of experience, with block based protein, are, ready. To try text-based and sixth grade, whereas. I taught, a high school CS. Class where, the girl came in had never had any coding so like neo I started, into the block base she wants people to have that early success, so, that they can understand, those concepts, before they get bogged down in like I didn't, capitalize this, and suddenly everything, when all the heck. So. It's, but I think. You're an interesting juncture where you have some high schoolers, who, have been coding for years and some, who've never done anything. At all you really have to to. Know your students to figure, out what they're ready for. Absolutely. And it's also been helpful I teach an inclusion classroom, so students with decoding. Difficulties, or encoding, difficulties, taking. Away, some. Of the some. Of the struggles they have where it you know you know the color of the block reading you can read the headings, you, can kind of get to the right area that you need you don't remember the spelling you don't remember exactly, everything. Perfectly. The first time you can get your robot movie you can get things happening, on before, you're worried about those syntax, errors, and. Really. Picking through something. Great. I'm happy, to go to our our next slide one. Of the things that I remember and I will call, up both Bambi, and Lisa when I first met Bambi she was sharing her robots with videos of the kids doing Romeo and Juliet, and, I. Said this is not what, I think. About of coding it was like oh here's robots being used to teach in English language arts and I. Believe that last year's CSTA, conference, in, Omaha. I went. To Lisa section, when she was talking about how I'm using robots, with kids to learn about westward. Expansion she, showed videos, of maps so. I got. Really excited I said oh good they're both going to be here and they can both talk about how we can use robots, that are not in a.

Quote. Unquote a stem, discipline, but in Liberal Arts and other types of things I like to have them really, expand, and how they're seeing robots being used in those kind of environments and if. They have any personal, anecdotes I mean they said wow that's really cool and everyone thought about that and it's share it with our listeners. Maybe. Can't hear you. Sorry. Yeah. We're watching fear is one of my all-time favorites. Along, with its companion robot, poetry, we've had a number of I've. Seen a number to do that as well, so. The idea is that students. Really focus, on a single scene or a single poem, they. Have to read. It repeatedly, and figure out how, to construct, a robotic, diorama, based. Around those, ideas. And. This. Is an important part they then have to present their. Their. Robots and show it off and argue, for their. Design decision, in the context, of a symbolism, in the scene or the poem that they chose. And. What. I love about it is that the teacher a, woman, named Sue Mellon who worked, in a school outside, Pittsburgh. Pacific. Lee chose robotics, for those topics, poetry, and Shakespeare, because. They are the ones where students have to read the same thing over and over to, really understand, it so these are eighth graders and Shakespeare's their first. Experience. With with Shakespeare, or that type of language and. She uses some robotics, to make sure they stay engaged with, one passage, long enough but, they've read it enough times that they actually understand. It so. I loved her pedagogical. Reason for why she chose robotics. For. That particular thing and I also love that isn't here I never have thought of it I, just. Love that it's so, so. Different and. Another. One that I really love, in a very different, field. Is one he was a PE teacher but, he was teaching teaching, health, who. Did. Robotics. Models of the elbow and what. I love about it is it's treated from novel abs put the motor right under the elbow and make it move back and forth they. Had to use two, motors, to model how the muscles, actually worked. So. How your biceps and your triceps work, is that as you, bend your arm you're trying to have to let go while. Your biceps, gets shorter, so they have to model that motion, rather than just creating, something that moved so again I really liked how, that.

Teacher Used, the robotic. Part to bring out the part in their heels. That they were trying to teach. And. We we've. Used our robots or not in a similar fashion we're trying to get the students to really dive in on something, and. It's neon pointing out we we do one of the things we use them for is Maps quite. Often. One. Of my favorite lessons of the there's one about West or expansion, and, students really like the Oregon Trail games that I played. For a while in this they. Still enjoy that. However. We made a huge map on the floor and their. Robots were them dragons, that they had to load, up with materials, and we, stranded a whole game around it and we're just reinforcing, that map scale over and over and over again where they just learned about the different territories and. Traveling, and obstacles, so pulling, all those standards, that we had to get hit on. And then even incorporating. Reading. And writing my students didn't like my. My, directions, or my game rules and. So I offered, them the opportunity to rewrite them and. They created a whole new avenue. Onto. This game again. Still incorporating the programming, and the robotics, into. It but then getting into different types of writing I'm, working on functional text and. How to convey, your point clearly, and. It really. Excited. Them about learning, we've. Also done in other summit areas where they collect. American Indians but. Just changing the map on the floor for that. Another. One that we really enjoyed. Is similar, to the Romeo, and Juliet one but. Students have to create a story, from. By. Coding it so. Looking at plot structure and breaking down plot, structure and. What would it look like if your your robot is now the character. The. Internet have these intense, stories, where we had students, battling out and so their stories overlaps, we had Harry. Potter scenes with. Wands. And everything, going, but. They were able to break down that plot structure and so okay rising, action things are getting more tense what's going to be happening with your robots. That. Climax. That small most intense moment, how do you show that visually. And then how do you show that in your story. That's. Really kind of cool stuff so. This, is where I'd like to have, you. Develop. Some of these things I know we have a an. Addendum. Curriculum. Professional. Development. Sure. On, Dexter. Industries you, everybody, is welcome to come look at the curriculum, that we have and the different, different. Projects, there. Are all up on our website and, if you look, at the top bar while you're there there's a free, teacher trial so if you haven't used these in your classroom and you want to give. Them a shot we'll send you a robot. For free for 45, days and you test it out and see if it fits into what you're you're working on no probably. The best, way to figure out I. Feel. About it just give it a shot like like. The. Hummingbird we kind of divided into two parts, they're like the how to do the basics, you. Can imagine for the hummingbird you before you build something cool everybody needs to know how their servo works they're having turn on the LED, so. They kind of have basic lessons for getting started and then we have examples, of projects, that. Teachers have done that, we, documented. In their classrooms, such as robot Shakespeare and a number of the others so we've kind of have them divided into projects. That you can do once you have some basics and materials. To help you get started. We. Do offer. Professional, development we, have several, several. Trainers so if you're at a conference a lot of times they'll do workshops, based. Around the conference or occasionally, we'll travel at the school district just requested, training, and, we will also loan, you. Test. Products, you can test out the hummingbird or the Finch for. The Cinch we also have a loan, program so if you're looking to run a summer program or something this summer, I know, Neal was one of our loan program recipients, in, the past you can borrow a flock, of about, 20. Robots for free if, you're planning to. To. Use them with kids we, so there's I added. Application, information for that to. The document, as well, I. Was. Very cool was a great. Way after. I had him for my trial period actually drove into another school of K. Through 8 school about, a few miles away and they, were able to have some fun so. Again I think it's really important, that we, hear from other teachers that that. People been using these and have your your. Samples, of curricula, you can just sort of pick up and go with which i think is really nice that you have those available on your website and also in the, addendum.

To, This presentation. We're. Going to encourage everybody who's a member. But. I would love to have anybody, have any questions, from the audience. Feel free to type them into the chat, and. We can voice. Them over so everyone can hear them and. Yeah. And, I'm going to encourage everybody to join the cs4 all teachers I. Write. A blog on various. Teachers. Question. Is for Megan for John you said you enjoy coming into classrooms. Would. You matter your products and what would you do when you go into a classroom oh. That's. A great, question so uh I, think, when I started Dexter, industries I hadn't been in a classroom. Where I had been in a high. School or middle school for, fifteen. Years or so so. Most. Of it is actually to talk, to teachers and to see how they're using it what's, working for them and what's not and just, to, have an idea of what's going on in the classroom so, sometimes especially in the Virginia area I'll, go out and. Help. Somebody get set, up for the opportunity just to sort of observe like classroom, observe what they're doing and what's working for them and what's not and sort. Of brainstorm, about ideas so. When I said I go into the classroom I definitely. Don't go into teach, but. I I'm. Not a science. Person by training I was sort of self-taught and I was licensed. In special, ed so. It's kind of cool for me to get into computer. Science, teaching. Using robots, so. What. Can I ask Lisa how did you get involved with using robots I. Kind. Of fell into it I randomly. Came, across the Raspberry Pi and. Is. Really cool about. One of my classroom, my kids got excited, we, tried to build our own robot and and failed several times and. I found like if I go kid and I I brought it in my classroom and spent lunches with my students. Building. It and programming, it and it. Just kind of turned into something. Really as an integral part of my classroom, so, I'm completely, learning. As I go. Along. There's the whole way. And. Supporting okay question. Yeah. It's in the learning curve but, it's I'm definitely not trained, in it at all, I just, went to school to be a teacher for, elementary middle school. Abbey, does your. Company have people. Who become soda certified, as teachers in your technology. Have. Been trained. To be trainers. If. A district, has for. Instance like a district, you've made a large investments, and of course we want them to have people on the ground who can do trainings, on a continual, basis. So. We've trained some people like that and there, are a few people who've, been trained to our different parts of the country. Several. Several, trainers who can travel to a lot of places we can't get to otherwise. But. We also have people, who've, been through there's, kind of like a regular learn, to use your robots training, and. Then if you're gonna train other people there's kind, of some more in-depth.

Information. More, information on troubleshooting or the types of things that might might, happen that we go into. So. How does one become a dex firt job. Um. Reach out to us so if you're if you are interested. In using our products or if you have a fun. Application. We. Want to talk to you and then well, we're. Really, open, to how we collaborate with, both, teachers and engineers so. We. Don't. Have a. There's. No defined, ritual. For becoming AD expert yet. It's. A it's a exclusive. Priesthood that there's over john is from, bob bob you should not see the giver but on a website from, dexter so. Ready. So. We have a separate, a separate website for the giggle bot it. Is giggle, bot, I owe and. If you go there you'll see the, Google bot there's a link, to it but it's probably not well positioned on our website, yeah. A. Few. More people typing, in the in the chat box and so I want to give them the moment. Finish. Putting your question. We're. Closed. Well. We're closed only because it's presidents week here in Massachusetts, so all. My friends are going, to Paris or the going to South Florida or they're going somewhere other than Massachusetts, or, they going skiing I don't ski so I'm staying put. So. We, have a question from Teresa somebody, wants to answer, that it's about the coke I go with the engineers or the Raspberry, Pi. And. Brian, has a question are there notice notable, problem, areas, in robotics, that teachers and students are finding difficult, to overcome. That. Is a great question I think the. Biggest, problem, for a lot of teachers is, just. That it particularly. For K to 8 teachers view like Neil don't, have any experience, in robotics, before, it seems. Like, it's going to be really hard and possibly scary, or. Maybe you'll get electrocuted or, something horrible, will will, happen I. Think. Really the. First barrier is just giving, it a try a lot of people, wouldn't. They try it. Sometimes. People who experience, programming, maybe 30, years ago before any drag-and-drop program, you don't realize that it can be a lot easier to get started now. Lisa. Sure. I think teachers, I'm not thinking that there's time for it and, if you think about the robotics that's just another tool a different, tool maybe. Some that you're not completely, comfortable. With but it's something new and. You're. Again you're learning alone from your students then there is time for it you, have time for other bigger projects, that you do this is no, different and, also just not maybe not having all the answers. Teachers. Here are comfortable with other service areas maybe not knowing all the answers for something like let's go let's go resource that on your own it's ok but. When it comes to robotics. And programming, if they, don't feel solid, in. It and they don't have that background it's, a lot scarier let's, stand up in front of class and. Say you know what I'm not sure, but. Having, that. The. Confidence, that you can learn alongside your students, with. It I. Think. One of the things I've had with my students. All. The kids are having, they, don't wake up with robust, underneath their Christmas tree. Creativity, so. For them to actually. Try. Something, mechanical, and have something that they programmed versus something that just manipulate on a stream, moving pixels, around it's a very different experience. Just. Getting the the, motors. Calibrated. So it will go straight could. Be a programming. Can be a very actually. Initially, very frustrating, experience so you get used to saying you have to do things. To. Get you to get good at it and it's not something that they found, you. Know doesn't just turn it on and click click click with the remote control it's a very different type of experience. We. Have another question from Theresa, question. About buy-in from corporate aerobics, and how she feels so alone. So. We've had a number of people use, the, loan program, for. That. Just. Typically it's certainly, not why, we do it, but. We if. People have are able to borrow some through a lending library or. Through the loan program, and give. It a try, and, then show. Their administration. Or sometimes their school board depending on who makes these decisions, I've, seen people who don't have their kids give the presentations, a lot of times if they see the engagement, or they see the, what. They're getting out of it. It. Becomes an easier, decision. Because. I respect that the school boards and every administration, there's, a lot of things they, need to spend money on and.

They Should consider, all of those, decisions. Carefully. But. Sometimes being able to show what. You're hoping the students will get out of it. As. Well as how you plan to use it in your classroom or connect it to others regular, areas and be, helpful I. Definitely. Agree and that's I mean getting, this the, lone kid are getting one or two to try out in your classroom and then inviting administration. Down to see the engagement, to see the connection and. Then being. Able to use the kids at our local years they're not disposable, you can use them again you. Can use in multiple subject, areas and then you can add on so, maybe this year you're just using the regular kid then, you're adding on different sensors, and servos and you're. Making it you know you're, making more with it. And. Definitely you can share them between we. Have a lot of schools who essentially, run an internal, lending, library so English. Eighth grade, English has them in September and, some. Grade social studies has, them in October, so. Recognizing. That you, can use the same pit, in multiple, classrooms you don't necessarily, have to invest, wow I'm sure everybody would love to have robots, in their classroom, you, can certainly have a successful, program without. That level of investment. And. I just want to show people the last slide I have everybody's. Twitter handle, it's. Worth following these people because there was some really cool stuff also. There their. Main website of course myself on CS for all teachers as well as our, hosts. In the back end of everything, Joey Wilson. And. I, just want to thank everyone for for. Joining the. Webinar I did, put a link to a survey in the in. The chat box and we. Really just if you could take just two minutes and fill that out before, you close. Your computer's for the day that. Would be wonderful, we really appreciate, you taking the time out of your day especially, at the end of the school day to come in and to. Learn, we. Know that you have a lot of different. Restraints. And sort, of commitments that you have to go to and we appreciate, you spending your, evening with us thank you so much to our panelists. Lisa John and Bambi we really appreciate, you taking the time, to. Do this and Neil. Thank you so much for hosting this, in. Addition to, just. This webinar we are recording, it and. It will be available, on the website I believe starting, tomorrow in addition to Neil have created, this addendum with resources, that. That. You will have access to using, the same link that, you use to get yours it'll. Have everything just sort of stored right there and. We, will, put. That up so, with that you know please let us know if you have additional questions you've, got a way to get in touch with me you've, got a way to get in touch with everyone else that's on here these slides will be available on, the presentation, and these other resources. And. I hope you all have a wonderful evening. Take, care everyone.

2019-04-04 19:03

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