It all started when Ms. Hanak met my mother who was doing the same course at university. My mother is very proud of me
and mentioned my experience with Lego Robotics. It just happened that Ms. Hanak was the Community Liason Officer for Burnett
Heads State, Yandaran State and Thebeban State schools! Next thing you know, here I am at a cafe at Hinkler Mall speaking
to Ms. Hanak and one of her colleagues about Lego Robotics. I demonstrated a small portion of my knowledge with
them and then it was organised that I take on a small group of students from grades 5, 6 and 7 at Burnett Heads State school
on a volunteer basis.
The organisation of the unit plan that I developed was created to introduce learners who had no experience with Robotics.
I decided that for the first term, learners would explore the procedure of construction, team roles and the function of each
robotic sensor. Then I would introduce the open ended tasks so they could put all the information in motion.
The first lesson was a "let's get to know each other" lesson. I brought in lots of books from the town library about
robots and robotics. We talked about our ideas of what a robot was and where they are used in society. Learners discovered
that robots are not specifically humanoid. Robots come in all shapes, sizes and forms such as a washing machine, a car manufacturing
plant, and a simple movement light sensor for keeping your house safe from prowlers at night.
The next step was exploring how to follow a procedure and we had to match the diagram with the real Lego piece. Learners
found out that each bar of Lego was a certain size depending on the number of holes in each one. That corresponded with the
number in the diagram in the procedure manual. Learners experienced some difficulty with associating certain pictures because
some pieces looked very similar to other pieces hence a small amount of confusion when other parts would not connect. Due
to some parts being constructed incorrectly we experienced an unsteady robot that would not withstand the 'drop' test.
"The drop test?" you ask. Well, it's not as scary as you think. Learners are encouraged to make their robots tough so
they don't fall apart when in use. So in the beginning of an investigation I make them do a drop test from a small height
(20cms approx.) just so they understand that they will always need to make their construction solid. After they realise this,
the drop test is not needed.
Once learners have explored each sensor, they are ready to combine the use of the sensors. They may use a touch sensor
to 'tag' another robot. They may use a light sensor to follow tape or to 'sense' the tape and move in a different direction.
I challenged learners with an open ended task after exploring one sensor at a time. So, after they learned how to program
their robots to go forwards until it recognised the tape and stop, I challenged them to a round of 'Burnett World Wrestling'
where they needed to program their robot to use the tape sensing to stay in the ring while they push another robot out of
the ring. This was an engaging task for the learners and they were successful.
Another task was 'Velocity'. Learners had to find the distance between point A and point B using the 'seconds' on their
program. They had 5 goes at recording 5 different times (I'd recommend 3 times instead after reflecting on the learning experience).
Then they were to use this gathered information to estimate an unknown distance. I was amazed at how only one learner had
listened, used the information he had recorded and won the challenge. All the other learners were using their feet stance
and hands to try and guess the distance. They even counted in what they thought were 'seconds' but they didn't realise that
the robot's program is different to real seconds depending on how much power the robot is set to. This is another discovery
when they complete this challenge. When the successful learner explained what he did, the rest of the class had lightbulbs
popping on. So even though they did not succeed in the challenge, they still learnt a great deal about how you can use information
to calculate the answer (or an approximate answer). We don't just record information to get a mark for. We use it for a purpose.
