Kids Engineer!

Elementary Robotics Here – How It All Started

Posted on November 28, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

When I came to the Williamsburg Schools eight years ago, there was an established robotics program for sixth graders, which I continued. It was based on the older Lego RCX robots, which were problem prone. A grade 1/2 teacher and I were interested in a robot that would work with younger kids as well as a replacment for the RCX robots. So when the Lego NXT (for middle school) and the WeDo (for elementary school) robots were announced, I bought some kits right away and started using them in different grades. Later, I learned about BeeBots at a conference and it hit me that we could now have robotics in every grade level from preschool to grade 6.

After a year or so of using robots across the grades and figuring out a scope and sequence, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced a technology grant program that originated from the federal stimulus money. So I got together a group of 8 (mostly) local school districts and wrote a 2 year, $200,000 grant to teach forty teachers the Lego WeDo for elementary or Lego Mindstorms NXT for middle school robotics. It went very well and about 1500 students directly benefited in those 2 years.

At the same time, I thought about my own practice. What would it look like to have students coming out of sixth grade with seven years of robotics experience? What are the developmental stages of engineering knowledge for younger kids? How do elementary schools support (or not) the natural engineering instincts of young kids as builders and explorers and engineers that they possess as preschoolers and kindergarten students? Would our program influence students to be interested in STEM fields?

So I used all the successes (and missteps) here to design and document a preschool to grade 6 Elementary Engineering Curriculum (available on the kidsengineer.com Resources page), which we have implemented here in Williamsburg and are still refining. I also obtained the resources (with help from the Williamsburg Trust Fund) for parents to start First Lego League (FLL) Teams after school. We now have 1 FLL and 2 FLL, Jr teams here in our rural town of 2500. Our first and oldest team has moved onto Hampshire Regional Middle School and is competing for the first time this year. A sister school, New Hingham, in Chesterfield-Goshen, is also in the process of implementing a full K to 6 engineering program based on robotics with assistance from Williamsburg and is also starting afterschool robotics clubs. After attending some conferences, I found out that our program was very innovative (even internationally). Currently, I am seeking additional funding and higher education researchers to spread the idea and study the effects of elementary engineering based on robotics.

Posted in Child Development, Robotics, Teaching, Technology | 4 Comments

Integration of Writing and Robots

Posted on November 23, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

Wow. The third graders are writing up a storm with their adventure stories that go along with the WeDo airplane robot. They also started creating Lego and paper props and backgrounds. Some students, who are in the FLL, Jr club, are using the WeDo backgrounds, to add to their story retelling. Can’t wait to see the final stories presented. I’ll take video and post it here. The use of robots does seem to be spurring a lot of writing and tapping into the creative play instinct of the kids.

Posted in Robotics, Teaching | 1 Comment

Legos – Does The Idea Come First or the Blocks?

Posted on November 22, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

I was building with Legos last night with my 5 year old son and he told me that he thinks of the idea for a Lego creation first and then builds it. I usually look at the blocks first and that gives me an idea for building. I have felt a little stuck lately building either a house or a car. I saw recently that Lego has an idea book. Might be a good resource. Do you build first of get the idea first?

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3 Year Third Grade Students

Posted on November 22, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

The third grade robotics students seem very proficient to me in both building and programming. I started this group in grade 1 with WeDo robotics. I wish I could quantify this more. I will be able to compare their open ended challenges next year with a group that only had one year of previous experience.

Posted in Child Development, Robotics, Teaching, Technology | Leave a comment

Use of Props for Robotics Related Writing

Posted on November 16, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

We are doing the Lego WeDo Adventure Stories unit in third grade. This unit integrates with language arts, particularly writing. Students write in a number of different formats (plays, interviews, logs) with their adventure robots as the setting and impetus for the writing. We started with the Airplane Rescue robot. By the book, the robot changes engine speed and makes a different sound when it is tilted up or tilted down.

I like the tie in with creative play, STEM, and ELA. We had the students build the robot and make the basic program and them asked them to start acting out a story. We watched the Lego supplied story/video in the Activity Pack and I also had the kids make up story collectively. An interesting decision point came up on how much to allow (or now) the kids to make additional props for their story. At first, we said yes, but then noticed that the focus had changed in some of the groups from writing to making all kids of props. Ideally, in my view, the props would support the story. What I worried about was making props from the limited WeDo parts that would then dictate and limit the story. What would you do?

Posted in Robotics, Teaching | 2 Comments

iPad versus Computer

Posted on November 10, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

I initially saw the iPad as handy way to consume content without having the bulk and “long” startup times of my laptop. So I mostly used it to consume content: check but not write email, check Facebook, web sites, etc. However, watching my 5 year old son use it, I am now wondering if it is more than that. What I have seen is that he effortlessly can navigate the iPad and iPad apps without even being able to read. Is it very intuitive? Does the direct physically of the touch screen make it very easy to use? Do young kids have much better memories so that he can easily remember what to “click”?

Posted in Child Development, Technology | 1 Comment

Reaction to Robotics

Posted on November 9, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

I walked into one of my third grade class yesterday with the cart of robotics materials and all the kids in the class cheered when I came in. That does not happen every day!

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Generalization of Rules

Posted on October 25, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

Those of us who are teachers or parents have seen the phenomenon where children figure out rules and have trouble with the exceptions to the rules, which is quite understandable. As adults, we should remember this, and correct them but do it understanding how amazing it is that they figured out the rule in the first place and how many exceptions we have. This is most commonly seen with the past tense in the English language. I recently heard my son do the same thing in math. He is enjoying learning how to count to 100 or more and to read numbers over 20 where there is a regular pattern. So he will count: twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-zero. It took me a while to figure out that he was correctly generalizing a pattern and that, once again, our language did not follow the pattern. I guess my point in all this is how amazing it is that kids’s brains can find these patterns and that it is helpful to understand what is going when kids generalize a pattern.

Posted in Child Development, Teaching | Leave a comment

PK to Grade 6 Elementary Engineering Curriculum Maps Available!

Posted on October 21, 2011 by JohnHeffernan

I have finished the first drafts of Curriculum Maps, based on an Understanding By Design model, for a PK to Grade 6 robotics curriculum called the Elementary Engineering Curriculum based on BeeBots (PK-K), Lego Education WeDo (Grade 1-4), and Lego Education Mindstorms NXT (Grade 5-6). Grades K, 2, 4, and 6 have an open ended engineering challenge. The assessments need some work and the standards need to be double checked. The maps are aligned, where application to the new Massachusetts ELA and Math standards, which are nearly identical to the new US National Common Core Standards. I would be happy to answer any questions or fix any errors you find. You can find each unit under the Resources tab as well as a zip file of the complete curriculum. Note that our Atlas Rubicon Curriculum Mapping Tool does not allow me to embed the resource files. However, these may also be found on the Resources page. Enjoy!