Kids Engineer!

NRI Grant

Posted on November 7, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I have been very busy with a National Robotics Initiative grant that is due on December 6 so I have not been blogging. I have also started a education doctoral program at UMass Amherst in the Math, Science, and Learning Technology strand. But I have started teaching robotics at a second school in the district and I am doing the fourth grade unit at my home school. I am reading tons of papers on robotics and engineering education, which has been interesting and also confusing in some ways. Sounds like a good topic for my next blog!

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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 or 9 kids. I hear my son’s self-talk all the time. He is the same age as the case study kids. I have always thought of it as a dialogue for fantasy play. That’s what I see most in my son, especially when engaged in play. However, I did notice a variety of types of self-talk during the case study sessions, from a girl who had a constant stream of talk that centered on social issues (who was walking by, who else was in the case study) to fantasy-type talk, to one advanced builder whose self-talk was an ongoing discussion of his building choices.

I happen to be reading some Vygotsky for my doctoral course in Math, Science, and Learning Technology research. Vygotsky’s theory was that this self-talk is social in younger children and transforms into internal, rational thought in older kids. In contrast, Piaget and others (and I thought this too) thought it was something younger kids did that dies off with time. So it was interested to read Vygotsky’s thoughts on this, which put the whole thing in a new perspective for me and got me interested in examining this further. I have to say that I am having many experiences like this where I read a study of theory article that relates directly to something I have observed and was wondering about.

This motivated me work some more on uploading the hours of video from the case study. I did figure out how to use an external hard drive with iMovie so I would not fill up my internal hard drive. After I review video, I’ll try and post some video clips that show the differences in self-talk with different kids. It certainly is interesting that the most advanced builder had the self-talk that sounded most like rational thought, just like Vygotsky theorized.

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Robotics Starts!

Posted on September 23, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I had my first robotics class last week. In order to get every grade level done, I need to start in September. I am starting with grade 4 (2 sections) this year. The kids were very eager to get going. This class has been doing robotics since grade 1. They were super fast at assembling the “Goal Kicker” WeDo robot and the teacher was in meeting so I gave them a choice or read, draw, or make something with the extra parts. They all choose the latter. I still had time so I had them write about their experience and/or any burglar alarm ideas they had for the grade 4 challenge in their journal. Some students went to creative ideas that were more in the realm of creative play (not buildable) while other drew and wrote about how they would use sensors. I will try and scan some journal entries to see what I mean.

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Robot Kits Stacked and Ready To Go

Posted on September 19, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I am looking forward to starting 4th grade robotics this week. We will do the LEGO WeDo Soccer Unit and then an open ended challenge. Here’s how I store the robot kits in my “new” space.

LEGO Robot Kits Ready To Go

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Local teacher poised to make mark in Lego world

Posted on September 16, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

WILLIAMSBURG – John Heffernan, who teaches technology in Williamsburg elementary schools, has been using Lego educational materials in his classrooms for years. He has developed a pre-K through sixth grade robotics curriculum involving the popular building toys. And he has taught Lego engineering to dozens of teachers and hundreds of students in western Massachusetts through a state grant he applied for in 2009. Now Heffernan has a chance to share his insights with the company that makes Legos. He is among 39 educators nationwide – and the only teacher in Hampshire County – named to this year’s Lego Education Advisory Panel (LEAP). Panel members, who are teachers from preschool to the college level, will advise the company on product design and development, according to Lego officials. “They know what works and what doesn’t,” said Brice Rockers, who coordinates the advisory panel program for Kansas-based Lego Education. “The panel will help us do marketing and test out products that are coming up.” Rocker said more than 1,600 educators applied to be on the advisory panel, now in its second year. In addition to helping the company with product design, members also attend Lego Education conferences and workshops. Heffernan, a former software engineer who has been teaching since 1992 and joined the Williamsburg school system in 2003, said he has enjoyed having contact with other panel members. “I’ve gotten a lot of ideas from other teachers,” he said. “And not all of them are about robotics.” Heffernan, who holds an undergraduate degree from Tufts University and a master’s from Lesley College in Boston, has also introduced Lego robotics in classrooms and after-school clubs in the Chesterfield-Goshen and Hampshire Regional school districts. He is studying for a doctoral degree in education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

http://www.gazettenet.com/2012/09/15/local-teacher-poised-to-make-mark-in-lego-world

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Elementary Engineering Survey of Practice and Attitudes

Posted on July 20, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I am seeking to determine how schools support or don’t support the natural engineering instincts of children through the use of a survey.

The working thesis is that the natural engineering and building instincts of children are supported in preschool (PK) and kindergarten (K) classrooms with things like sand tables, blocks, and LEGO bricks but these are taken away as children progress through elementary school and that is a major factor in the shortage of STEM workers in the United States. The survey will determine if, in fact, engineering activities drop off in grades 1 to grades 6. Initially, this survey will be for the Hampshire Regional School District only (Phase 1). Later, the survey will be given to other schools (Phase 2).

While the primary goal is the measure the number of engineering activities by grade level, secondary goals are to:

measure the impact of robotics engineering programs on elementary engineering education,
determine educator attitudes towards the teaching of elementary engineering,
determine educator perceived barriers towards the teaching of elementary engineering.

This research is important for many reasons.

Elementary engineering education is not well understood.
Schools and districts will be required to have much more of a focus on engineering education with the upcoming Next Generation Science Standards. (Framework for K-12 Science Education, 2012)
The shortage of STEM workers in the United States is a well-understood and critical problem for the country (The Gathering Storm, 2007).
If the survey does show that engineering is not supported in grades 1 to grade 6 classrooms, it will lend support to efforts to add elementary engineering activities in these grades.
Because teachers I have currently trained in robotics engineering education are self-selected and enthusiastic about engineering education, the survey will give a much more representative view of general attitudes towards engineering education.

Here are the actual questions. I have a full document describing the design and rationale with references available upon request (this was done for my Survey Methodology class).

Elementary Engineering Survey

Posted in Research, Robotics, Teaching | 2 Comments

Grade 6 Survey Results

Posted on July 4, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

This cohort had 2 years of LEGO robotics. Last year’s only had one. Also, the unit was much more successful this year. I did change the wording of the engineering question slightly this year to match another study sponsored by Intel so they can’t be compared exactly. The answers key is:

SA – Strongly agree
A – Agree
NAD – Neither agree or disagree
D – Disagree
SD – Strongly Disagree

Grade 6 Survey Results 2012

The interest in engineering appears much more positive than last year, which could be due to the change in wording, the more successful unit, or the more experience in robotics. I also added an open ended question to explain their answer to the “interest in engineering” question. Many six graders answered that they liked engineering but were interested in other careers. Some were interested and described it as cool, that they are really interested in technology, or, in one case, as a good way to make money.

I forgot to give the presurvey this year so I can’t compare before and after.

Someone asked for last year’s results so here they are. Though we can’t compare them directly, it is clear there was a much more positive attitude towards engineering this year.

G6 Chart 2011

Posted in Child Development, Research, Robotics, Technology | 3 Comments

First Year of Case Study – Observations

Posted on June 12, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I saw some interesting things in the first year of the seven-year longitudinal case study of engineering skills of young children from grades K to 6. Each year, they will be given a variety of materials and be asked to design an amusement park ride. This year, I observed 9 kindergarten aged children performing the task.

The first thing to note was that 7 of 8 children choose to use LEGO blocks to construct their rides. A few children were very interested in using the motors and sensors. However, I decided not to bring laptops, which would be needed to do so, because they have not used LEGO WeDo materials in school yet. One very creative student used mixed materials, combining craft materials with LEGO materials. I had a difficult time getting this student to leave. He said that he could have stayed all day. I have noticed this student previously during indoor recess very engaged in similar project using craft materials.

I noticed that many of the children engaged in self-talk as they built. Most were quiet initially but started talking as I gently asked questions about what they were doing. The self-talk varied from pragmatic (centered around their building) to fantasy talk (centered around a drama that the building supported). This made me wonder about the importance of self-talk during building and how it changes over time. Does it change from fantasy to pragmatic self-talk over time?

The range of products was quite remarkable for 5 and 6 years olds. There were 2 projects with sophisticated gear trains while other did not have moving parts. See photos below.

I learned quite a bit about the logistics of such a project.

Make sure the video camera is optimally positioned before starting. Don’t be afraid to move it. The amount of disk space required and processing time to fully videotape everything is very large. I will probably try to an external hard drive just for this project.
Take a bird’s eye view and 4 side views of each finished project.
Make sure each project is fully taken apart before the next student comes in. [It would be great to be able to save them but that would detract from the parts for subsequent students.]
Be careful how you introduce the task. Don’t feed examples of rides unless absolutely necessary. Be clear that rides can be based on real rides or made up.
Be careful that all materials are equally accessible to the student.
I did see that the level of fine motor skills at this age could be frustrating to students in that it was difficult, at times, to realize their ideas easily.

Ride Line

Fun House

Ride with Crane

Horse

Park

Slide

Ferris Wheel

Swing

Merry Go Round

Posted in Child Development, Research, Robotics, Technology | 3 Comments

Teacher Interview – How Is Robotics Different Than More Traditional Activities?

Posted on June 8, 2012 by JohnHeffernan

I found this grade 5 teacher very inspiring in her willingness to try something new. Her experience with robotics was obviously very affirming to me because what I have been trying to do is having an impact on teachers and students.

Posted in Robotics, Teaching, Technology | 2 Comments

Effects