My students need Lego Mindstorm robots to continue and expand their interest in robotics and beginning programming in our after school Raptor Robotics Club.
My students love any hands-on lessons in science, and we do our best to increase their opportunities to learn in small groups doing activities and projects. Right now, we're working on exploring the organ systems of the human body, such as the cardiovascular, nervous and digestive systems.
Our middle school is undergoing metamorphosis to prepare our students to participate in the 21st century global economy.
Our community strives to achieve opportunity for our highly diverse student body by emphasizing critical thinking skills, learner profile characteristics, and greater exposure to emerging technologies. Many of our students' parents work through the afternoon or later. After school is over for the day, many of these students go to a home with no adult supervision.
My Project
Our after school Robotics Club will give students a place to be supervised by adults, yet be both physically and intellectually active. Our students will stand at counters to build robots and swap sensors; sit at desktops in groups to find and develop programs; lay on the floor watching the robots run through their programmed movements. Students will measure out courses for robots to traverse, to run races, to move materials, and to wrestle on a student-built sumo wrestling pit. Because most students have gone home for the day, we can use space that is normally not available, such as the media center and the hallways outside. This year, students who were not yet here or were unable to join may be able to assemble and start programming as our returning students accomplish more demanding programming tasks using 2 new robot kits with better sensors and abilities. Other students will document their activities while learning to use ancillary technologies such as blogs and Instagram.
Students are showing a great deal of excitement and demand to join (or return to) Robotics Club.
These two new robot kits will allow returning students to improve their programming skills, and will allow new students to join the Robotics Club and use the existing robots. Students learned how to better follow written instructions, to read and make and carry out plans. They learned how to solve problems, and to program in a way that gives them confidence to explore more difficult programming later
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