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Originally Posted by JosephM
Hey guys, I've done some searching but found little. Anyway, here is my question:
People I know are looking into starting a fall robotics camp where we would bring in kids from surrounding areas to teach them about robotics and get them excited in the program. Anyway, my main question is for those who have done it, what was your curriculum? What did you do, how long did it take, and also, how hard was it for the kids?
Thanks for all your replies in advance. If you want to contact me, just drop me a line a josephmatt@gmail.com. |
I haven't actually taught a robotics camp yet, so I can't anwser all of your questions, but I am planning on doing a camp for my lego team at the end of August. Having mentored a lego team this past year, I can offer some advice and tell you a little bit about the curriculum.
We are planning on having sessions where we teach the kids new things and having sessions where we have the kids take what they have learned and apply it to a challenge. The camp will be a week long and will meet at the school in an unused classroom. Some of the major topics that will be discussed are: (remember that this is for kids in 3-6 grade)
1) What is a robot? Where can we find robots in our everyday lives?
2)How do we tell a robot what to do?? (Programmming - basic drive commands, loops, structures, logic, etc.)
3)How can a robot gather information? (Sensors - light, touch, IR, etc.)
4)How do we make a robot get places (Motors, gears, sprockets, chains, treads, wheels etc. -- different drive trains)?
After we learn the basics, we will take it to the next level by giving the group mini challenges; we will ask them to experiment with their new knowledge by completing a task. One of the activities we are planning on doing is having the group split up and build different robots to climb up the playground slide. They will then record how well each different drive train performs this task.
We will continue teaching more advanced topics and then continue giving the kids mini-challenges. How old are the kids you are going to teach? Make sure that the material you are covering isn't over their heads or too boring. Another thing you should try to teach is teamwork and brainstorming skills. Often, the kids are so excited about playing with robots that they forget about listening to everyone's ideas and waiting to brainstorm before they build. Make sure that nobody gets left out.
I hope this was helpful to you. If you have more questions, keep posting and/or pm me.