After six weeks, today was the last outreach event with the second grade class from Pacheco Elementary School. I can't believe how fast the six weeks flew by, but I am very happy with all that we accomplished. The kids not only got to be introduced to robots, but also got to see the stages of creating one.
We were able to get some pictures of our new scribbler robot lesson I mentioned in an earlier post. In this lesson, the kids were able to program the robot to make paths, shapes and even letters.
Andrew took on the role of the teacher for this lesson and introduced the scribbler robots and how we were going to program them.
Vanessa planning out a path with her group of students. They had a choice of six different directions. For example, in the picture we can see forward, small right turn, and small left turn.
Erik showing his group how to program their robot. Each of the six directions were programmed prior to the lesson plan, and the students had to decide the order of these directions to draw different shapes.
Ian and Jane testing their group's robot. The scribblers have a slot in the middle for a marker to be placed to be able to draw the path or shape that was programmed.
I am very excited to say that thanks to the Dr. Smith and Computer Engineering Dept. we will be able to bring the scribbler robots with us abroad. We saw the success of these robots here in SLO and we hope to be just as successful abroad. When in Malta and Sicily we will be dealing with kids ranging from 4th to 7th grade and in order to accommodate this, we are in the process of modifying our lesson plan that originally focuses on second graders.
Along with the new robot, Ian and I have teamed up to develop an online enrichment portion for this lesson. The online enrichment will consist of a simulation that will basically do what the robot does when we program a certain direction, except that no robot is actually needed. The purpose of this simulation is to allow the kids to continue with the learning and programming outside of class and really grasps the concepts that were presented.
By the end of the trip, I hope to get feedback from the teachers about our event. Evaluating the success of an outreach event like ours can be difficult but crucial. One of the goals of getting these evaluations will be to compare and contrast our learning goals to what the teachers think the students have learned. This can show how successful we have been and what needs improvement.
The projects within ICEX just seem to grow due to all the awesome ideas our group has, and therefore the workload is growing too. But when working with people who are equally excited as I am, and doing things I enjoy, I don't mind it one bit. Instead I am just more excited for the actual trip and all that we will accomplish.
More updates soon!!
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