Dear Parents and Students,
Here are a few pictures from class activities and a video showing a bridge being tested.
I've attached a passage from a website named thenxtclassroom.com. I've subscribed to the site as a resource and I was pleased and intrigued to discover how well aligned our student observations are with the bulleted fundamental concepts presented on the site. I thought you might be interested.
Why teach Robotics?
Robotics is fast becoming an integral part of school curriculum with its ability to integrate across a broad range of topics, most notably the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Areas. Robotics encourages kids to think creatively, analyze situations and apply critical thinking and problem solving skills to real world problems. Teamwork and co-operation are a cornerstone of any robotics project. Students learn it is acceptable to make mistakes, especially if it leads them to better solutions.
Robotics is a fun and engaging way to teach fundamental technology, math and science concepts. There are several key facets that the teaching of robotics promotes:
Problem Analysis: Robotics encourages students to take a broad look at a situation and identify exactly what problem needs to be solved. Real world applications are easily found, giving students context for their project. Before any construction can begin, students must identify "what need will this robot fulfill?". With this in mind, how should the robot be designed to meet these need?
Real World Design: With an application in mind and an idea of implementation, students can now begin the design process. This stage provides great rewards for students as the as they produce physical realizations of conceptual ideas. There is plenty of opportunity for refinement and improvement as they discover errors in their plans and issues they would never have considered during the design stage. Prototypes are quickly built and just as quickly discarded with lessons learnt as students progress towards an optimal solution. Resources must be managed and compromise made between form, function and cost.
Programming: There are a variety of programming languages available for robotics, from graphical development environments to text-based languages. Programming skills teach students to think logically and to consider multiple situations, as they learn a robot will do exactly as it is told, no more and no less. Information from a variety of sensors must be processed and dealt with logically and as with the design stage, there is ample opportunity for trial and error as students fine-tune their robots to perform at their best.
In our robotics unit, students have learned some basic programming. Each student has worked through a series of fundamental skill building exercises and learned to instruct vehicles to travel away and back, in a square, and in a triangle route. Students have also practiced programming loop and sequence. In the process, students have been actively using the terms degree, rotation and percent. It’s great to hear the language of math being applied. In a short writing response to the project, students shared the following observations.
I couldn’t ask to work with a more enthusiastic and thoughtfully engaged group.
In math, we’ve been learning to apply an estimation division algorithm. For some students, this has been a relatively easy task made especially easy with single digit divisors and strong multiplication fact recall. For others, the process has been facilitated using estimation and friendly multiples. Our work has been complimented by hands-on division exercises. We’ve used decimal blocks to trade, regroup, and distribute. This has proven a satisfying and grounding activity.
Generally speaking, students who struggle with division at an abstract level are struggling with automaticity of multiplication fact recall. The struggle signifies the importance of frequent multiplication review. Please take a few minutes, every few days, to toss out a number of random multiplication questions. If your child hesitates in naming the product, I advise giving the correct answer as a way to reinforce the correct answer.
Dear Parents,
I’m writing to you on my return trip from St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA. Eve McDermott, Kathy Richardson and I attended a lecture on technology, engineering, and neuroscience. The topic of our children coming of age in a world of technological innovation and change was exciting and controversial. Most interesting to me was the exploration of an assessment matrix that focused on critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, information literacy, flexibility and adaptability, innovation and self direction, and leadership and responsibility. These are assessment benchmarks that I haven’t written down in a formal assessment matrix but they are, decidedly, the guiding principles of my curriculum development. It was satisfying to see them presented as essential to assessment.
This week I launched a pilot program in science. We dove headlong into a Lego robotics activity (Lego Mindstorm NXT) that will engage students at the exhilarating level of play and sophisticated levels of mathematics, programming, problem solving, and creativity. There is a vibration of energy in the classroom as the students work together in the initial building phase of this project and a measurable excitement in the anticipation of what is to come. On Friday, students will begin to program their robotic creations. They’ll encounter one challenge after another, giggle with nervous excitement, try and fail and try again and discover, in the process, relevance in their work with mathematics. These are exciting days to be in the fifth grade.
Incidentally, this pilot program was made possible by a generous earmarked gift to The Grammar School’s science department. I am enormously appreciative.
