Ins and Outs of Elementary Engineering

I'm working on getting a little more organized for substitutes and such. I have started a document that gives general guidelines for different materials in the lab and classroom management techniques. My classroom setup is that of a specialist. I see 22 classes each week, 1st - 5th grades for one hour and kindergarten for a half an hour. There are four classes each of kindergarten through 3rd grade with a maximum of 24 students in each class. There are three classes each of 4th and 5th grades with a maximum of 32 students in each class. At each grade level there are approximately 96 students. This poses challenges for project storage and managing materials that are shared at a grade level and between grade levels.  Below is the link to the live document as I create it. Feel free to take a look and also check back for updates and improvements.

Elementary Engineering Notes

Changes for 2017-2018 School Year

Changes for this school year include adjusting the student menu I used in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, continuing research or robotics in the classroom, applying for new opportunities, and implementing new ideas such as BreakoutEDU lessons.

The student menus I used last year were comprehensive and designed to cover a year's worth of instruction. Students were required to complete the main dishes and choose from the different side dishes. The main dishes were projects that we had typically completed whole class in previous years. My goal was to allow students to choose the order in which to complete projects as well as choosing areas of interest. However, for 3rd grade students, I ran into challenges of not enough direct instruction time for the different technologies. Also, not all students completed all the main dishes, which were projects I wanted all students to complete. It was also difficult for me to assist all students since there were so many projects going at one time. Students could ask classmates for assistance since they were all working on different projects.  This year, I will have the opportunity to offer more direct instruction and we will complete all projects whole class. The menus will offer students an opportunity to work on additional projects when they complete the main project the class is working on. This will allow all students to work mastery still and complete projects at their own pace. Additional days can be offered as time permits to fie students additional class time to work on menu projects.

Last year, we had a large team of teachers and students who participated in NASA MgUE. I would like to look for more opportunities to involve the students in real-world projects. One opportunity is the Astrosat competition http://astrosat.ardusat.com/. Students submit one minute videos about what they would hope to learn from a science experiment in space for a chance to be selected to participate in the awesome project. I also look for new grant opportunities that bring new and engaging experiences my students. We received a FabSLAM grant through the Idaho STEM Action Center that provides training to two staff members on the 3D printing competition and helps them facilitate at team of students to participate in the local and possibly national competition. Please comment if  you have other opportunities that would be appropriate for K-5 students.

Finally, I tried my first BreakoutEDU https://www.breakoutedu.com/ lesson this year with students in 1-5 grades. I had a different lesson for the students in 1-3 and a more challenging lesson for students in 4-5. All the classes loved the challenge and look forward to completing another BreakoutEDU lesson. My biggest challenge was when I had a lock that I reset and managed to foul it up. I improvised and all wen well until I could cut the lock off. At times it was challenging switching between the two different lessons since I only had one class setup for the lesson. However, with time I was able to minimize the amount of time it took and became very adept at switching the codes for the various locks, except the one that had to be cut off.

There are of course other changes that I implement as needed and opportunities arise. I will try to keep up my blog this school year so that I can share successes and challenges. I would love to hear what others are doing as well.

Global Conference on Educational Robotics

It was a busy summer with professional opportunities. So busy, that it has taken almost three months to have time to share. The first two weeks of the new school year are behind me. As usual, I will be making changes based on the new information on instructional practices I have learned throughout the summer. One big change is moving my robotics instructions for fourth and fifth grade students, as well as my after school groups, towards the Junior Botball robot (https://www.juniorbotballchallenge.org/).

I have tried and used various robotics platforms during elementary engineering instruction, after school groups, and makerspace. LEGO robotics, WeDo and Mindstorms, have been the predominant robotics used. These are fantastic because they come with a variety of curriculum and are easy to start using whether experienced with robotics or not. Other robotics formats include Cubit and Edison. All of these platforms have pros and cons. The Cubit robot is a platform that allows students to see the inner components of the robot and demystifies the hardware components. Edison robots are easy to use and do not require any formal programming since the robot can scan programmed bar-codes to program the robot for specific tasks. In fact, these robots were used to hold a school-wide sumobot challenge because students of all ages could program the robots either using the bar-codes or drag and drop. In fact, all of the robots, LEGO, Cubit, and Edison, use a drag and drop programming platform. Junior Botball is the first robotics platform I have experienced that is designed for students from kindergarten through high school and requires the students to program in C++ or Python.

Junior Botball does not use a drag and drop interface but instead teaches the students a programming language. I was able to see students as young as first grade programming at the Global Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER). The competition portion of GCER (http://new.gcer.net/) had different divisions including elementary, middle school/high school, and adult. In addition to the competition, GCER held various sessions for coaches and students. The sessions included how to implement Junior Botball, programming and engineering instruction, and much more. The overall feel of GCER was that of a learning experience. This was one of the best aspects of competing in the Junior Botball division at GCER. The students worked to complete individual challenges rather than competing against another team. This approach helped to build friendships between the different teams and allow students to work towards their personal bests. So, not only were elementary students' fingers flying over the keyboards programming in C++ or Python, but participants were also placed in a low stress situation of learning that could be as competitive as students wanted. This was a refreshing experience compared to other student competitions I have participated in as a coach. I look forward to growing my Junior Botball group and school and seeing students walk away from the program with an actual programming language in their tool kit rather than just a drag and drop experience.

Junior Botball Challenge Training

I attended the Junior Botball Challenge Training in Boise with a colleague yesterday.  We were attending this training as part of a grant through the Idaho STEM Action Center (https://stem.idaho.gov/).  The grant covered our time and travel to the training, seven robotics kits, seven sets of mats, and the curriculum resources for students to learn C programming while completing robotics challenges.  I had no previous knowledge of the Junior Botball Challenge but was thoroughly impressed by the robotics kits and the learning goals for the students.  In addition, the ease of use as an educator with the program and the robot itself was great for beginners but also could challenge more experienced users.

 

 

During the first part of the training, we built our first robot.  The intention of the Junior Botball Challenge (https://www.juniorbotballchallenge.org/) is to focus on students learning to program using C language and receiving the immediate feedback from the hands-on use of a robot.  While we built our robot, students will typically only by using pre-built robots and add on parts to perform the necessary task for various challenges.  Two things struck me about the program.  I like both the emphasis on programming and using C language instead of a drag and drop (GUI) interface.

   

I look forward to getting started with students, which will be after the next five robots are built.

Student Choice Menus in Engineering

Well, I did it.  I created my Menus for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade engineering.  I have been introducing them to the classes this past week.  It has gone remarkably well.  I go through the process of asking the students if they all run the mile at the same time in P.E.  Do they all finish their classwork at the same time?  Or, finish reading a book at the same time.  I explain to them that building is the same.  This seems to make perfect sense to the students.

Realistically, this is probably just the honeymoon of the new instructional practice, but I have high hopes for students to progress at their own pace and increase engagement with less down time listening to me explain what they will be doing each day.  I know I will have to continually monitor and check in with all the students, but I think this will take pressure off the less experienced builders while allowing the more experienced students to try builds that will challenge them.

I am including links to the menus I created for my class, as well as, project guidelines for some of the projects listed in the Main Dishes.

3rd Grade Menu
4th Grade Menu
5th Grade Menu

3rd Grade Rube Goldberg Project
4th and 5th Grade Explorer Robotics Project
5th Grade 3D Printing Project

First FLL Meeting

We had our first FLL meeting this week.  It was fantastic to have time for a meeting to just organize the team, set goals and rules for team participation, and get to know each other.  The team will be working through NXT programming tutorials for the next few weeks to improve their programming skills for the upcoming missions in August.

The team consists of three incoming fourth graders, four incoming fifth graders, one incoming sixth grader, and one incoming seventh grader.  Six of our nine team members made up our first FLL team last year.  I consider last season a success since they all returned.  I am excited to see the team grow, in part, so the workload isn't as heavy for each team member.  It looks to be a great season.

First-time First LEGO League (FLL) Coach

There was a change of plans for coaching an FLL team over the summer.  Therefore, our school was not going to have a team.  I had been interested in coaching a team, but the teams had previously been led by parents.  I had never participated in FLL in any way.  However, I felt this was a fantastic opportunity to get my feet wet and provide students with the opportunity to do the same.

In years past, FLL participation had only been available to the middle level students at our K-8 school.  As the K-5 engineering teacher, I opened it up to students in 4th through 8th grades.  I did not send the signups home for all students but advertised on the school announcements for students to "apply" to be on the team.  The application process involved submitting information, in any format, about why the students wanted to be on the team, how they would be able to make the time commitment, and what made them a good team member.  I received six applications and was impressed with them all.  One of the applications that really made me reflect on why I was crazy enough to start a FLL team in October, before the mid-December competition, involved a student telling me he wanted to learn to be a better group member.  That was very powerful for me and very motivational as a coach.  

If you have not participated in FLL before, you may not realize that many teams begin in the spring around May or so.  They work through the summer and have ample time for the various aspects of the competition.  I did not realize this and it is a good thing since I probably would have thought the challenge before the team impossible or too daunting.  However, I am very proud of what the team produced in a matter of eight weeks with a novice coach.

It took some time to register as a team and order the field setup kit for the robotics game.  This gave us time to work on the project and begin preparing a poster for the team's implementation of the Core Values.  Once the field setup kit arrived, the team built the various components for the missions in the robotics game.  Once we analyzed the different missions, the team built robot models that they thought could handle the majority of the missions.  They voted on the best design based on performance on turns and stability.  The chosen design was then modified to include an arm needed for some of the missions.  They did get a little carried away making modifications to the design for the arm addition.  Also, the original arm was more complex than we had time for given that the team was building the robot two weeks before the December competition.  I did encourage them to look for a more simplistic arm design so that they could start programming.  I truly believe in the FLL values that the coach is simply a mentor and facilitator.  I helped by providing to-do lists, and assisting with the group dynamics.  They had approximately two weeks to program and had difficulty with the first mission they had decided on.  In retrospect, I probably should have had them move on to another mission as recommended in the coaching manual.  The team practiced their presentations and running the robot prior in the days prior to the competition with the team parents.  This also gave me the opportunity to organize lunches, snacks, and the responsibilities for the materials arriving at the competition.

The competition was a fantastic experience!  It reminded me of times in the past when my own children had competed in Future Cities and National History Day events.  Although the organizers made the robotics competitions very fun with the help of an announcer, I felt the most valuable part was the presentations and interactions with the judges.  The judges were fantastic in asking good questions and interacting with the students.  For many of the team members, this was one of the most challenging aspects of the competition.  The event was so fantastic that I found myself planning for next year.  Normally, after an involved time commitment such as this, I might have been second guessing whether there would be a next year.  Nevertheless, I am planning to start a team in spring of 2015, and I recommend to all who have the funding to participate.

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/thechallenge