Handout 250117

Handout for upper grades on 250117

I’ve created a website with information on the Brighton School robotics classes. You can access it at https://brightonschooltech.org

Today we are doing a lesson I wrote called “Cooperation for Four Dashes”. We will be working on the first few challenges and will probably come back to it in later weeks.

This is a game for up to four Dash robots (per rug) requiring cooperation and team work. Each student in a group is writing a program in Blockly to control their robot as they see fit. This is distinctly NOT like using remote control robots. This is what is called “autonomous” programming. The paths that a robot follows often crosses the path of what another robot needs to do. The program for each of the robots is started at the same time, so students might use delays and devious paths to try to complete the exercise in the shortest time. This is as much about cooperation and working in a group as it is about programming. There is much more about this at the school site mentioned above.

Other weeks we use other types of robots, physical and virtual, as described at the site above, getting the advantage of both.

Physical Classroom Robots

Advantages

• Physical robots are tangible and memorable and usually have individual names.
• It is easy to see what they are doing without worrying about such things as viewing angles in a virtual environment.
• The physical robots that I use are generally available from Amazon, Target and other sources. They are reasonably priced and reasonably durable.

Disadvantages

• Physical robots require more setup time for students, which is a burden in 30-minute classes.
• Most of the academic material for them requires more carpeted space than we have available for the class.
• It is hard to maintain one robot of each type for the number of students in a group, so time is spent with students thinking the robot is not working correctly, though usually it is.
• Distances and angles are not entirely accurate with these robots and they have nothing like the GPS that production robots have when required. So, if they are programmed to move in a square, they won’t come back to exactly the same point or be able to go another round without at least a little deviation. This is due to factors such as wheel slippage, so any two robots will run similarly but not precisely to each other. That can be complicating and sometimes a bit frustrating to students.
• There are often unexpected software update requirements and. over time, they can become incompatible with the current software level.
• Accessories are limited.

Virtual Classroom Robots

Advantages

• Can be programmed to build structures, react to sensors, and perform tasks in a large virtual environment.
• Setup for virtual robots is fast, typically using prebuilt worlds set up by a teacher.
• They work reliably and produce precise, repeatable results.
• It is easier to save the work a student did and continue it later.
• Rather than just working within the classroom location, they can be at virtual historic sites or on a distant planet. They are not limited by physical space.
• In many cases, the student can log on to their account at home and modify or work further.

Disadvantages

• Not as tangible and personable
• The “virtual” aspect adds a level of redirection to the experience.

We use a mix of physical and virtual robots in class.

Access from home

Minecraft Education Edition can be easily loaded onto PC’s, Mac’s, iPads and Android tablets. In most cases the account is based on the student’s first name, with the exception of ‘gabrielp’ and ‘hannahl’.

account: [email protected] (substitute your name for ‘jane’)

password: Brighton8 (with a capital B)

You may also be able to get an individual Minecraft Education account for about $5/yr. https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/licensing

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