Sample Lesson Plan – Grade 2 Robotic Amusement Park Ride Challenge

Posted on June 26, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

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!

G2 Ride Challenge

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New NXT Dragster Record

Posted on June 3, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

Our sixth grade had a new dragster speed record this week. The previous record was around 6 feet per speed. This year we had a student, Evrett, who achieved a time of 1.3 seconds on a 10 foot course, which comes out to 7.63 feet per second. Evrett build a gear chain of a small, medium, and large gear. He improved a previous design that used 2 gears. The car was well built, stable, solid, and steered straight. Here are some photos of Evrett and his the prototype. I did change the rules slightly allowing the cars to get up to speed before starting across the line.

evrettnxtCarGearing 1

nxtCarGearing 2.

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LEGO WeDo Vehicle Challenge

Posted on May 31, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

I needed another open ended challenge for a grade 3 class that wanted to do another project this year. A couple of second graders made a car for the amusement park challenge this year (see below) so I thought I would try it with a whole class. I wondered if there were sufficient parts to enable all the kids in a class to succeed at making a vehicle.

WeDo Car

One thing I realized later after was that the car above was made with extra parts. I have no idea how that team found longer axles and 2 additional green pulleys and tires to make their wonderful car.

But we quickly realized with the grade 3 class with the basic WeDo kit and no additional parts that the axles that come with the kit are not long enough to span the base piece as the second graders had done. We also saw that they would have to use gears as wheels in most cases to get 4 wheels.

I felt a strong urge to go get some longer axles from resources kits to help them and additional tires but we decided to wait to see if they could solve the problem. Sure enough, some teams were able to construct a car chassis from beams.

Even though we went over the 3 ways to drive the wheels before, you can see from the photos below that some teams will need additional work to connect the motor to the wheels either 1) directly, 2) with gears, or 3) with pulleys.

We did decide that though it might not be 100% required to succeed, we would give the students 2 longer axles and 4 wheels from the resource kits.

I was pleased that this project seems very doable for third graders. All the photos below were the result of one 60 minute design and building session. This included about 10 minutes of teacher talk at the beginning to go over the 3 methods to drive the wheels and a review of the engineering design process. I will be writing this up and adding it to the Elementary Engineering Curriculum.

WeDo Cars

WeDo Car 2

WeDo Car 3

WeDo Car 4

Posted in Robotics, Teaching, Technology | 5 Comments

Robotics Thank You Letters

Posted on May 24, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

I received some very nice thank you letters from some second grade students I taught for the first time. They had just finished their amusement park ride challenge.

Robot Thank You Letters (PDF)

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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 beleive this to be fairly difficult to do with the parts in the WeDo Kit. I am thinking of trying this as an open ended engineering challenge for a third grade class I am working with. The teacher is looking for an additional open ended challenge this year. We will see if it is doable for most third graders and if the problem is rich enough to allow multiple, feasible designs. WeDo Car

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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 diagram their ride and add vocabulary to explain how it works. She also helped them with drawing by saying that they did not have to draw every piece but to render the most important pieces. I like that the students thus have to share out their design in more technical detail (engineering design process) and also document their science knowledge (energy, simple machines, electricity).

Ride Poster With Diagram

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4 Color Map Problem Video

Posted on April 25, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

Here’s a video of some grade 4 students working on the famous 4 color map problem.  They formed spontaneous groups to try and find 5 color counterexamples, maps that REQUIRE 5 colors.

 

4 Color Map Problem from John Heffernan on Vimeo.

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4 Color Map Problem Research Conclusion

Posted on April 18, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

It was extremely valuable and interesting for me to take a lesson I have been doing for twenty years and examine it in-depth and against the background of extant research and theory.  For example, the research provided insights into how the lesson’s motivating questions need to differ for different age groups.  It also allowed me to see where my preferred teaching methodology fits in existing classifications of theoretical approaches.  The drawings showed common patterns and solutions across students and cohort groups.  An analysis of the progression of five color map drawings showed a creative blending of new and old ideas in different combinations to try and come up with a five color map.  The primary difference between groups was the speed of working through the problem though some experienced or gifted learners were able to start to articulate a conceptual model of the problem.  Despite some initial frustration grappling with a difficult and open problem, motivation was high. The author has noticed the same phenomenon in elementary and middle school open-ended engineering challenges based on robotics. The study suggests that frustration and challenge are necessary to induce high interest and motivation even on unfamiliar topics.   Further research might untangle the relationship between difficult problems, frustration, challenge, and motivation in the adaption of difficult computer science problems for K-12 students.

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Spinning Top Misconceptions

Posted on April 1, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

The study of alternative or common misconceptions is an active educational research field (Confrey 1990).  I have been paying more attention to it in my second grade robotics unit this year which focuses on gears and pulleys.  One the of gear projects is a spinning top (and a handle that spins the top) made out of LEGOs.  I found some interesting student conceptions this year for tops.

  • The tops stays up by moving the air underneath the top, like a helicopter.
  • The top stays up from gravity.
  • The gears on the top (which change in size) cause the top to stay up longer (or shorter).  [Actually, it is due to the gear rations involved.]
  • Tops are a kind of BeyBlade.
Confrey, J. (1990). A Review of the Research on Student Conceptions in Mathematics, Science, and Programming. Review of Research in Education, 16, 3–56.
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New Social Technologies

Posted on April 1, 2013 by JohnHeffernan

I noticed for the first time this year (when sixth graders were doing their yearbook pages),  how much of their photos are on Instagram and other social media.  In the past, kids have brought in photos on CD and USB drives with some pulling photos of their parent’s Facebook pages.  This year, they were using their email (gmail), their own Facebook pages, and Instagram.  I have not got into Instagram and Pinterest much myself, finding that keeping up with my Facebook feed takes more than enough time.  But I was reading recently that kids are moving away from Facebook and more into these more specific, fast moving sites.

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