I am in the process of finishing my Elementary Engineering with Robotics book. I am now finishing all the lesson plans. Here is a sample lesson that will be in the book. Note that the standards alignment will be in separate document. Still looking for editing help this summer!
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Might I be placed on a list for notification when your book is available? Kinda a “pre-order”?? I loved the lesson plan though it is more appropriate for my 3rd graders than 2nds (but I’m working on ’em!!) & would LOVE to see more! Thanks for all the hard work!
Hi John,
It’s about time! You have lots of great stuff in your curriculum. A book would be a help to many teachers (and students). There are tons of great ideas in your teaser…mentioning the stable base (safety), the poster identifying the simple machine(s), a Fair (we called it an Exhibition), etc.
I have done something quite similar with my middle school students using the NXT. Of course, much more was required of them. Still, a few suggestions that might be useful:
1. I really like that students are encouraged/required to draw or write a few ideas. I think an extension (if not for all) could be to write why they picked one design over another. Could be as simple as a pro/con analysis.
2. The safety aspect could be broadened. For example, is speed a factor in safety? Will students think about seat belts (which could be done via elastic bands)?
3. With tablets like iPads around in schools so much, they could make a video to advertise or demonstrate what they have designed.
4. Not sure about this one. But, with my students I encouraged them to look at videos of real rides and Lego rides. They were not allowed to copy them but were encouraged to document in writing the ideas that they found useful (even negative ideas…things they didn’t want to copy). It’s perhaps not feasible to have grade 2s surfing YouTube freely, but the teacher notes could suggest showing some rides, of quite different styles, to help generate ideas.
5. Similarly class discussion could start with rides that students have enjoyed and the teacher might even find pics/videos of those particular rides.
6. The design worksheet/safety is important. If you can, I’d consider making that available in a modifiable format (like .docs or .rtf) so teachers can change it for their students. It’s part of figuring out the level of scaffolding they want to provide. They could then identify things like safety, stability, aesthetics (does it look exciting?), target audience, etc.
Hope something here is of some use.
Cheers, Wayne
Your welcome, Debbie. I will save your name and also post here when the book is ready.
Lots of great suggestions, Wayne. A few I already do but many no. Lots of good ideas for extensions. I expect when we get more iPads, we will be doing a lot of documenting with iPads. Thanks, again!
Not sure of the format yet, Fay. I expect hard copy and/or PDF…
Book is now ready! See the book tab to order.
There is always the important, but sometimes politically incorrect, “learning to following directions”—troubleshooting skills, comparing how their model looks with the instructions (what’s different between these two pictures…).
Your work will be a boon to teachers using WeDo. Are you publishing it? If so, in what format?
Sorry it took me a while to see these comments but thanks for the encouragement!