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March 1, 2008.
I will be presenting 2 x 1 hour workshops at Graceville State School, 23 Acacia Ave Graceville,
Brisbane, Queenaland. The workshops begin with registration at 8:30am. This workshop will be held amongst other professional
development workshops and is organised by "The Science Teachers Association of Queensland". Professional development day for
primary teachers & pre-service teachers.
Dr. Robert Bell is the program host for Network Ten's science television show SCOPE and a science
education officer for the CSIRO Science Education Centre in Brisbane: http://www.csiro.au/people/ps2o5.html He will be attending on the day. The Robotics workshop I will be presenting alongside Rose-marie Thrupp and Peter Johnson will
begin with a hands on experience of working with Lego Robotics as a tool for learning. Followed by a DVD of my Robotics experience
at Woongarra State School and how Lego Robotics fits in with Science Learning Essentials. Rosie will sum up the presentation
and discuss Science Learning Essentials in more depth.
Proudly supported by Education Queensland.
I had
Pete take some pics of me whilst I was presenting the Robotics and Science Learning Essentials at Graceville. It was a great
day and there were some interesting questions from teachers. I heard that there were some nice comments about me from the
feedback. I’m the one in the green shirt.
March
15, 2008
Today
I went to the Lego Conferences at QUT for a 7 hour conference and Lego Robotics workshops. Melissa Pickering from Tufts University, in Boston, America
hosted the workshops alongside Sandra Googan from Lego Australia.
Tony Ford gave a presentation, as did Dr. Colin Baskins who is from FLL (First Lego League) and there were a few other interesting
guests as well. It was a really informative day working alongside teachers from all over Brisbane
and the south east Qld.
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE:
The Third Australian FLL Robot Challenge - The
Climate Connection - for participants aged 8 - 16 years is hosted by IBM and Macquarie
University Sydney. It will be held on site at Macquarie University on December 7th. Be part of this exciting challenge to solve the Climate
Connections Puzzle. Both NXT and RCX robots are able to participate in this unique Climatic Challenge. and you can call Colin for details at: 0408796264 or email: Colin@primefll.com.au
18.04.08
Today
was my first day at Burnett Heads State
School and I felt so welcome! What a lovely school! Today was a pupil
free day but I went in and met all the staff and we did some resiliency PD. I explained what I would be showing the kids and
demonstrated the robotics kit to the IT administrator.
02.05.05
My second day at BHSS (Burnett Heads State School). Today I was given 10 students from grades 4, 5, 6, and 7 (all together)
to begin a Robotics investigation. The kids were so excited and very keen to start construction. I have been going every Friday
since then and I have only missed one day when my son became ill. All up so far I have done 48 hrs with the kids. We have
begun creating a documentary of the learning and the kids have written two songs to sing and program their robots to dance
in time with the music that they made. We will record after the holidays. It's so exciting to be a part of it all. Being a
volunteer is more rewarding than money!
17.06.08
Today
I visited the Centre for Learning Management (Positive learning centre) in Bundaberg. I presented a workshop to teachers from
Central
State School and the Teachers
who help students who are challenging or struggling academically. The Principal attended and was very interested in the learning
that can happen through the use of Lego robotics. The school is going to participate in the Continuing to Coast into Robotics
project that will commence this year if all goes to plan. Other schools that will be participating are: Kalkie
State School, Burnett
Heads State School,
West State School, Centre for Learning Management and the Indigenous Wellbeing Centre which are
all in the Bundaberg Coral Coast Cluster. This project will provide the essential professional development needed to teach
with the kits as well as the resources for each stakeholder. It is going to be the best thing I have ever been involved in.
I am anticipating a wonderful experience.
14.06.08
Today
I attended the IT day at Thebeban State School, Bundaberg, Queensland Australia. The day consisted of information conferences
and workshops about cyber safety, Probots and Bee bots. There was also a session about the interactive Smart Boards.
It was a small gathering of attendants; however, the sessions were most informative and well worth going to. Email me if you
are interested in hearing some more about this at: marknshon@yahoo.com.au
25.08.08
Today I presented a Lego robotics workshop with my expert robotics associate John McKenzie, to pre-service
teachers and invited guests at Central Queensland University. I followed the 5 E’s structure to plan my workshop. John presented
a fantastic powerpoint about RCX robotics and then I demonstrated the NXT robotics and we compared the two and there were
many questions asked and answered. The content of the workshop focused on using Lego robotics as a tool for learning Science,
Technology and Mathematics. I used a dvd video clip that I created to show people the journey of the learners from Burnett
Heads State School. I also invited a robotics student (Jeromy Pollitt, grade 7) from my group to 'show and tell' his ideas
to everyone. It is amazing how much learners learn when they are engaged with such a useful, meaningful, relative tool for
learning such as Lego Robotics. The children have designed a mini skateboard half-pipe to use in their robotics 'Dance' competition
at the Maryborough Technology Challenge on the 13th Sept, 2008. It is going to be an extra special day for me to see how my
pedagogy panned out.
On the 13th of September, 2008 I attended the Maryborough Technology Challenge with children from Burnett Heads State
School. It was an amazing experience for the children and for me too. It was bigger than I had expected. The children learnt
a great deal that day because it cemented their knowledge and settled their expectations. One of my teams came 2nd place with
their 'ballet' theme and my other team came 5th with their hip-hop skate-park theme. The children learnt all about Imagery
poetry and movement (ballet and hip-hop dancing). They wrote and sang their own original songs (which was not a compulsory
component of the competition; however, it was a beneficial team-bonding experience). Two teams in the top 5! I was pleased
to say the least. It certainly raised the bar! We went in without any expectations of coming a place at all. The whole time
I guided the learners to just do their best and try. The whole idea of attending the MTC was to 'experience' it as it is.
I did not under-estimate any of my learners. I had learners that ranged from ages from grades 5, 6, and 7. Girls and boys.
I think I learnt the most throughout the whole experience! I will not doubt my abilities. I will not 'give up' when things
are tough. I have seen and experienced my pedagogy growing and developing and look forward to what's to come. See some pictures
below of the MTC experience. I have to stop writing here or I will not stop! Please contact me for further communications.
I welcome it.
On the 28th Oct I will be hosting 3x robotics workshops for the 'Girls in ICT' day which will be held at CQUniversity.
I am expecting attendance of at least 45 girls from a variety of schools in and around Bundaberg from grades 7-12 so I am
sure
it will be an event to remember. Stay tuned for information about how my day went!
On the 22nd of November I will attend the QUT First Lego League event as a member of audience to 'check out' the atmosphere
and to meet others interested in teaching robotics. I will be leaving Bundaberg the day before and staying with my brother
so I can be refreshed in the morning. My brother is almost an Aviation Mechanic! I am very proud of him. I am very interested
in Robotics in Aviation. As a child I would have never dreamed that things could be possible! Everyday I learn something new!
My new found saying is..."If you work hard, magic happens!"
On the 19th of March, I hosted a robotics workshop
at Emerald CQUniversity, Qld. Teachers from surrounding areas were able to 'play' with Lego Mindstorm NXT robotics kits and
participate in an open-ended activity/challenge. We talked about how we could use Lego robotics as a 'tool' for learning across
the curriculum. We brainstormed ideas for lessons in many different key learning areas. The teachers used 'programming' cards
to plan their programs before exploring the software. We also explored where robots are used in society and found that we
asked the same questions that children ask. This means that a learning experience can be planned using enquiry based exploration.
(Thank you to all the teachers for their input on the day, I hope you enjoyed it too.)
On the 20th March, 2009 I will be teaching a
year 8 class of 30 children (approx.) at Springsure. Apart from enjoying the beautiful (absolutely gorgeous) mountains I will
be guiding the learners through the same activity that I did with the teachers at Emerald. It is my test run of an activity
that will be used at the TREK CQUniversity robotics event on 26th June, 2009. TREK stands for: Teaching Robotics Education
across Key learning areas. The project is exploring robotics education not as a resource for 'gifted' students or for 'well
behaved' learners but as a tool for learning concepts across the curriculum. So we are not teaching robotics for 'robotics
sake'. We are not only teaching 'talented' or 'trustworthy' children. Children who struggle with literacy, numeracy and handwriting
skills benefit 100 fold using robotics because in general they are 'hands on' learners who learn a great deal by 'doing'.
The other thing I have seen is that these learners improve academically after using robotics because they become engaged and
they want to do their best. They want to share what they know with others. Girls become as obsessed as the boys and the learners
become surprised at the extent of their abilities. They say "Wow! Look what we did! We have come so far and I can't believe
that we did it." I teach them that they don't have to be 'better than Joe Blow'. All they need to do is try the best they
can and trust that their team will support them in learning. And... when you work hard, magic happens! (I know I've said that
before!)
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