Quote:
Originally Posted by galewind
If you want to focus on sensors and programming, there are tons of options for both beginners and advanced users. There is a scratch-style programming language called MODKit that can be used, or the robots can be programmed using text-based RobotC (Which anyone in FTC should be familiar with). We opted to use RobotC, and my students programmed autonomous robots (with state machines) and teleoperated robots.
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RobotC also has a graphical mode. It also is somewhat scratch-like. It is very simplified. No task control, no function definitions, no variables (this is going to be harder to get around). It does a very nice job of highlighting the extents of each loop and if/else in a different color. Another useful feature is the ability to convert the graphical program to a C file.
For the past 5 years we have had Lego Robotics as a wheel course for almost all 7th graders (the students get 9 weeks each of 4 different subjects). A few students can opt-out for courses such a robotics, but in general we get 90+% of the students each year. Not everyone comes in with an interest in robotics, so we keep it pretty basic. Little lecturing and lots of hands-on experimenting.
Next school year, we are going to convert to VEX IQ. I volunteer for the programming part of the course. This summer I am converting our lesson plan to use RobotC Graphical mode. I also plan to use the Graphical mode as a starting point for our incoming VEX and VEX IQ team programmers. I think that the color highlighting will make it easier to teach the extents and show the relationship between the colors in graphical mode and the tabbing in text based.