Through our workshops we become acquainted with educators around the country who run robotic workshops in every possible way: after school, as an elective, as an engineering pathway, or Career Technology Education (CTE) requirement. Kurt Twining’s “before-school breakfast coding club” brings middle school students in at 6:45 am — with returning students. Mr. Twining captured some great photos and asked a question about controlling cyber:bots in his classroom competition, which I will answer in the comments to this post below.
Thank you, Kurt! You are being the classroom they remember!
Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.
I run a before-school breakfast coding club. At 6:45 in the morning, students from 6-8 graders gather for 45 minutes of coding and food. Last year when I tried to figure out what type of robotics kits I could acquire for the club, I instantly went to the cyber:bot. Of all of the robots I’ve seen/used in my teaching career cyber:bot is the best “bang for your buck.” I got two “classroom kits” of 12 robots each. Included with the robots is the amazing step-by-step tutorials with examples of code for the students to follow in constructing the robots and programming them. Last year the students eagerly built the robots and programmed them to complete an obstacle course.
This year I had several students who are “graduates” from the club last year so naturally, I wanted a different challenge for them. I decided to have them build the robots and we would play robot soccer. I also wanted them to learn how to synchronize the movement of several robots at once. Without any tutorials or instruction from me, three 8th graders got several of the extra robots not being used and built them all. They are now figuring out how to program them using a micro:bit instead of the infrared TV remote. Exact synchronization hasn’t happened yet, but they are determined! The cyber:bot allows for flexibility in activities and learning. Students can go above and beyond the tutorials, or just follow them step by step to come up with something they can be proud of.
Kurt Twining
Evergreen Junior High
CTE – Technology & Engineering
PS – Ken – as I indicated, I want to use the cyber:bots to play robot soccer. However, we found out that when we use the TV remote to control the cyber:bot, any remote can control any cyber:bot. That will make the game a little difficult. I have some ideas on how to solve the problem, but I was wondering if you had any that you had found. How can I program a remote to be specific to one certain cyber:bot? I was also considering having them control it with a micro:bit instead of the remote. That way micro:bit 1 would control cyber:bot 1, and micro:bit 2 would control cyber:bot 2. Because right now with the TV remote I can control any cyber:bot with a single remote. If that makes any sense.
