Let's Start a Thread for Distance Learning LEGO Robotics

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Ian Chow-Miller

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Mar 16, 2020, 11:52:14 AM3/16/20
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Hi All,

Things are very fluid at my school. Today is last day for students and teachers are expected in the next two days for "planning distance learning opportunities." What this looks like for Robotics is difficult to say. 

My district is 1:1 with iPads so we have that advantage.

However they already have a Scratch heavy class so I don't want to repeat that. 

Obviously my course is EV3 dependent but I am willing to be flexible with platforms as long as I can make some some sort of distance learning that involves Robotics and/or Mechanical Engineering even in a virtual environment.

I don't have a lot of experience in this but if everyone wants to commit their ideas here, I will be glad to compile them into a shareable Google Doc.

So, how are you managing to teach Robotics/Engineering without LEGO materials for the next few months?

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Pereira, Lana

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Mar 16, 2020, 2:51:00 PM3/16/20
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Several years ago, I taught some classes using ASM robots. Lovely, but fragile and they all broke. I managed to repair them once, but after that it was beyond me.

I finally found BotsInc online, and taught that for the whole semester. It uses  SmallTalk, and creates little bots which you program to draw lines on your screen. Once the students got used to it and started playing, they could produce fascinating patterns. The only two I can find right now are this image and this video made with Screencast-o-matic.  There is a link to the book online, but you can also find some of the the very rudimentary video lessons I made here. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, as it's not LEGO related. The software can be downloaded from here, and I see that since I used it in 2011, they have added their own videos.

I am exiled from my classroom during standardized testing, as they use the computers for testing, so I do have other lessons I can use. The PhET simulations have a lot of useful things. I have used the Energy simulations, and the Circuit lessons. The Forces simulation looks useful, and I might use the Projectile Motion lesson if we have time to do the Building Project, where one of their choices is to throw a ball into a goal (thank you, World Class mat).

We have closed for two weeks. I hope we can get back to school after that. 🙂 We are Title 1 and many students don't have internet access or even phones.

Good luck to everyone. Stay safe.
Lana

Lana Pereira
Robotics Teacher
Milwee Middle School

"Let's Make America Smart Again."

Neil DeGrasse Tyson


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Robotics in Education - Mailing List
LEGO Robotics Resources available at www.damienkee.com
 
The aim of this mailing list is connect educators from around the world who have a common interest using robotics in education. We welcome any and all conversation that is on-topic, (and occasionally off-topic!) and strongly encourage all members, regardless of their level of experience, to be a part of the conversation. While we want our member to give their opinions on commercial products so that others may benefit, sales-pitch posts are not permitted.
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Nelson

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Mar 17, 2020, 5:57:05 PM3/17/20
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SimpleRockets 2 rocket simulator with real physics and a Scratch-like programming language (Vizzy), free for education:
https://www.simplerockets.com/Education

Example of the Vizzy programming interface:
https://youtu.be/EGi0tbFhA_M

There are also mobile versions for iOS and Android, but I don't know if they are free for education.

For the PC version, I've had a part in the creation of a mod that does data streaming and/or logging: https://github.com/WNP78/SR2Logger - it's a bit rough at this point. My hope is to connect this to the NASA OpenMCT for real-time displays (https://nasa.github.io/openmct/).

Cheers,
Nelson

Pereira, Lana

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Mar 19, 2020, 1:01:34 PM3/19/20
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These look interesting, thanks! And a post on FB reminded me about the Open Roberta simulator, based on the EV3, with a Scratch-like language.

I've just been told we will start online teaching but not told how. I hope I'll be allowed to use my regular web pages.

Lana

Lana Pereira
Robotics Teacher
Milwee Middle School

"Let's Make America Smart Again."

Neil DeGrasse Tyson


From: legoeng...@googlegroups.com <legoeng...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Nelson <nelson...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 5:57 PM
To: legoengineering <legoeng...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [legoengineering] Let's Start a Thread for Distance Learning LEGO Robotics
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SimpleRockets 2 rocket simulator with real physics and a Scratch-like programming language (Vizzy), free for education:


Example of the Vizzy programming interface:


There are also mobile versions for iOS and Android, but I don't know if they are free for education.

For the PC version, I've had a part in the creation of a mod that does data streaming and/or logging: https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2FWNP78%2FSR2Logger&amp;data=02%7C01%7Clana_pereira%40scps.k12.fl.us%7C2d05d530d497434e009708d7cabe2381%7Cd1e9e6b2778e48e5a961e9836af08827%7C0%7C0%7C637200790297913191&amp;sdata=m%2FpS4SVkRQ4eRMBdNL9Ey5%2B3lk1XNB4wgZTN9hXitvY%3D&amp;reserved=0 - it's a bit rough at this point. My hope is to connect this to the NASA OpenMCT for real-time displays (https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnasa.github.io%2Fopenmct%2F&amp;data=02%7C01%7Clana_pereira%40scps.k12.fl.us%7C2d05d530d497434e009708d7cabe2381%7Cd1e9e6b2778e48e5a961e9836af08827%7C0%7C0%7C637200790297913191&amp;sdata=04zDo%2FbZaIdIKvYUnCW73YzFlK2CckEl7%2Bq2lJ532Ec%3D&amp;reserved=0).

Cheers,
Nelson


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The aim of this mailing list is connect educators from around the world who have a common interest using robotics in education.  We welcome any and all conversation that is on-topic, (and occasionally off-topic!) and strongly encourage all members, regardless of their level of experience, to be a part of the conversation.  While we want our member to give their opinions on commercial products so that others may benefit, sales-pitch posts are not permitted.
If in doubt, please ask me off-line first - dam...@damienkee.com
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Glenda J. Guerrero

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Mar 19, 2020, 2:01:49 PM3/19/20
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Hi, 

Here are some resources I am going to try before the remote learning begins at my school:

Makecode

Open Roberta Lab


Glenda Guerrero
Computer Science and Robotics Department
Middle and Upper Division
Horace Mann School
231 West 246 Street
Bronx, NY 10471
718-432-3921 (office)

"Teach by works more than by words.” ~ Saint Teresa of Avila


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Nikki Meador [CPD]

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Mar 19, 2020, 2:51:03 PM3/19/20
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Thank you for sharing

LEGO Robotics Resources available at www.damienkee.com

 
The aim of this mailing list is connect educators from around the world who have a common interest using robotics in education. We welcome any and all conversation that is on-topic, (and occasionally off-topic!) and strongly encourage all members, regardless of their level of experience, to be a part of the conversation. While we want our member to give their opinions on commercial products so that others may benefit, sales-pitch posts are not permitted.
If in doubt, please ask me off-line first - dam...@damienkee.com
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Pereira, Lana

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Mar 25, 2020, 9:13:15 PM3/25/20
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Amazon Future Engineer offers  free robotics lessons via CoderZ. They look great, and seem to use a Mindstorms type virtual robot, but I think the language used is Blockly. This is similar to Scratch, but I'm not sure whether my lower students will take kindly to a language change. The curriculum looks really good, though.


Lana Pereira
Robotics Teacher
Milwee Middle School

"Let's Make America Smart Again."

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Subject: [legoengineering] Let's Start a Thread for Distance Learning LEGO Robotics

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Hi All,

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Robotics in Education - Mailing List
LEGO Robotics Resources available at www.damienkee.com
 
The aim of this mailing list is connect educators from around the world who have a common interest using robotics in education. We welcome any and all conversation that is on-topic, (and occasionally off-topic!) and strongly encourage all members, regardless of their level of experience, to be a part of the conversation. While we want our member to give their opinions on commercial products so that others may benefit, sales-pitch posts are not permitted.
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Christine Chu

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Mar 26, 2020, 12:05:51 AM3/26/20
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http://cmra.rec.ri.cmu.edu/previews/ev3_products/ev3_curriculum/ 

Carnegie Mellon has an online program that is very basic, but good for beginners and for review. 

John Garrett

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Mar 27, 2020, 2:40:29 PM3/27/20
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I have been working with coderz and like it but would like to get a feel from others about how intuitive it is for kids and teachers. I have been working through the demo and find my self getting frustrated on doing things that should be simple like turning and stopping. I am wondering if it is my lack of true coding experience or if it might be the platform. For example in the zig zig activity I can get it to go forward until pressed and then get it turn to the right but I can't get it to stop turning till it "times out" I have tried using the get right motor block and set that to turn to various degrees and various speeds but find that turns till a timeout. I have tried using a wait for 1000 to 100 miliseconds with same result as well as putting a motor forward block and setting speed to zero. 

I also wonder if it is my mindstorms ev3 programming experience getting in the way.

Thoughts on how usability and/or how good the PD is for teachers? Is the PD online or is it a class you have to take?

I do like the platform though and think it will be a good transition possibly for next year as I move away from Lego to the REV robotics platform and FTC.

John Garrett
Surprise Lake Middle School
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lana_p...@scps.k12.fl.us

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Apr 9, 2020, 3:38:05 PM4/9/20
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VEX has a virtual robot with changeable fields and a Blockly/Scratch like program. It looks as though it is free at the moment, and you can download your programs. It looks really useful for this situation.


Lana

Lana Pereira
Robotics Teacher
Milwee Middle School

"Let's Make America Smart Again."

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

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Hi All,

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Robotics in Education - Mailing List
LEGO Robotics Resources available at www.damienkee.com
 
The aim of this mailing list is connect educators from around the world who have a common interest using robotics in education. We welcome any and all conversation that is on-topic, (and occasionally off-topic!) and strongly encourage all members, regardless of their level of experience, to be a part of the conversation. While we want our member to give their opinions on commercial products so that others may benefit, sales-pitch posts are not permitted.
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lana_pereira

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May 20, 2020, 2:31:46 PM5/20/20
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John, did you sort out the CoderZ problems? I found the same thing happening when I started doing the programs, though some of my students got them done before I did. For me, the solution was to open the heads Up Display and pay meticulous attention to the sensor readings - that solved a lot of problems for me. But I am clearly not very smart, as everything was logical, but just not intuitive initially. Or I'm just brain dead after sitting at a computer day after day after week.

Lana
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