Category Archives: Robotics

WeDo Car

Posted on May 20, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

For our amusement park ride challenge this year, we had a team make a really nice car. This was the first time I have seen a team make a car in five or so years of doing this challenge. I … Continue reading →

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Ride Poster Improvements

Posted on May 16, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

A classroom teacher I am working with for the first time had some great ideas for improving the ride poster for our second grade open ended engineering challenge to make their own amusement park ride. She told the students to … Continue reading →

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Computer Programming at Williamsburg Schools

Posted on March 5, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

There’s been a lot of buzz about a recent video featuring Mark Zuckerberg (founder of FaceBook) and Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft).  You can watch it at http://www.code.org/.  The video advocates the teaching of programming to students (including young students).  … Continue reading →

Posted in Robotics, Teaching, Technology | 2 Comments

Data Analysis And Implications – Grade 6 Survey

Posted on January 23, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

In a previous post ( https://kidsengineer.com/?p=572 ) I showed a graph of sixth grade attitudes towards computers/technology and engineering as a career.  This results were pre/post surveys before and after a grade 6 robotics unit.  The students had not experienced … Continue reading →

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The Missing E in STEM

Posted on January 17, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

I will be presenting at the Tech in Education Conference in Holyoke, MA today.  The slides can be found under Resources.

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Survey Results for Grade 6 Class

Posted on January 3, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

Here is some data from a grade 6 class I just finished working with.  They were new to robotics.  The pre/post survey asked 2 quantitative questions. Q1 – I like using computers and other technology.  Strongly Agree          Agree          Neither Agree … Continue reading →

Posted in Research, Robotics | 1 Comment

SEER – Sustaining Elementary Engineering with Robotics – Grant Submitted

Posted on December 12, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

A big thanks to all the researchers,  schools, and LEGO Education  that helped put the National Robotics Initiative grant together. The grant application ended up being 87 pages long. It will span 5 years and has a total budget of … Continue reading →

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Preparation

Posted on December 7, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

Well, our NSF National Robotics Initiative (NRI) grant is pretty much done as well as my class in Research in Science, Math, and Learning Technologies so I can get back to some blogging. I am teaching in a second school … Continue reading →

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The Times They Are A Changing

Posted on November 8, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I was teaching robotics today at a new school and the 6th graders were timing their cars to determine the velocity.  I started to tell them to use the second hand of the classroom clock to time their cars going … Continue reading →

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Self-talk and Kid’s Building

Posted on September 28, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I noticed a lot of self-talk during the case study building sessions last year with kindergarten kids.  You may recall that I am going a seven year case study starting in grade K and going to grade 6 with 8 … Continue reading →

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