I have been working with a group of children
who are as varied in ages (7-11 in grades 2-6)
as in abilities (no experience all the way to experienced with some sensors). We meet
afterschool in my small classroom. There are 15
kids but this year (we begin the school year in
July) we will grow to 18 kids. I have limited
resources (7 bots and 4-5 laptops, but lots of
spare LEGO parts. I find our times rather
chaotic, and loud. Also, there is a degree of
goofing-around for the kids who are just waiting
around for a bot or a laptop or their turn at
something. I would welcome suggestions on how
you run your robotics classes after school. How do
you do it all?
This is a typical situation for many teams.
1. Recruit one mentor per 5 kids. Don’t
forget, you can use FLL alumni or grab FTC/FRC
students.
2. Break them into sub-teams of no more than
5 (in your case you’d have four sub-teams)
3. Group them by temperament and skill level
(ie, don’t put a really overwhelming personality
with a subdued one for now. Later you can mix
them up).
4. Give each group a specific task for that
period and make sure they have the resources to
accomplish the task. For example. The goal is
not downtime. Inversely, they should be
complaining that they didn’t get enough done.
Overwhelm them
DAY 1
GROUP 1&2: Work on line following with 2 robots
each for one hour. Then compare results and
combine your solutions.
GROUPS 3&4: Begin Research on Transportation:
Identify all modern forms of transportation in
use today for one hour. Compare results and
combine them into one report.
LAST 30 minutes: Report and Demonstrate
DAY 2
GROUP 3&4: Work on line following with 2 robots
each for one hour. Then compare results and
combine your solutions.
GROUPS 3&4: Continue Research on Transportation.
Research rail transportation globally. Looking
for history, statistics, pros/cons today for one
hour. Compare results and combine them into one
report.
LAST 30 minutes: Report and Demonstrate
************************************************************************************
Etc.
RESOURCE FOR PROGRAMMING TUTORIALS
http://webclass.superquest.net/sboost
