Engineering/Robotics class in High School

[Sean Schuff]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Interesting. I wonder how PLTW is working out for them, and what it's giving them that they couldn't do independently. I don't have enough experience with it, but I've heard some unfavorable things about it.

You aren't the first and you certainly won't be the last to hear unfavorable things about PLTW but that doesn't necessarily make it a universal truth. Everyone will have their opinion. Everyone will have different expectations and different issues.

As for me, as an educator, I appreciate the PLTW curriculum for a variety of reasons. First and foremost is the industry and educational support behind the program. A lot of well-known, reputable companies, colleges, and universities see a tremendous amount of value in the program or they wouldn't be the state affiliates or offer university credit for PLTW courses. The rigidity in the curriculum comes from the need for standard delivery and common assessment that allows those colleges and universities to offer credit. There is also the flexibility to add your own projects and activities as you see fit but the fundamental concepts will remain the same no matter what pre-engineering curriculum you look at.

An added bonus to PLTW is the integration of the VEX Robotics System into the curriculum. I know VEX is not a part of FIRST but robot building is robot building and automation is automation and engineering is engineering. It doesn't matter whose platform you use - the concepts are the same.

Our school looked at a few other programs for pre-engineering and PLTW was the best one available and the most established. It's hard to fight momentum. No matter what curriculum you look at, each one is going to have a few warts you'll need to look past or tweak for improvement. Yes, PLTW does have some up-front costs associated with it but if you do your homework, you'll find you may already have on hand the equipment associated with those up-front costs. Otherwise look into grant funding. The Kern Family Foundation does an AMAZING job of supporting PLTW in a four-state area of the Midwest.

As for a robotics curriculum, ours is based on providing students with the foundation for being on our robotics team so it deals with the specifics of being a member of the N.E.W. Apple Corps. Safety, wiring, machine use, where to find our stuff (we've got a balcony full of supplies), Inventor, game strategy development, robot integration, and programming are just a few of the things we cover. The class is lead by veteran members of the team with a teacher mentor serving as a guide. That last part provides some tremendous leadership and organizational opportunities for our veterans.

Hope this helps the conversation. I'd be more than happy to answer other questions via PM.

Thanks and HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

[lcoreyl]

I am also looking to see what is out there for curriculum that directly relates to USFIRST. I will look at the posts here so far, but has anyone heard about 1717? Amir's kickoff mentioned something about being a model and having his integrated curriculum available, but I've had no luck finding it or contacting someone from the team. Anyone else hear of where we could find this or how to contact Amir Abo-Shaeer (or another good contact for 1717)?

[mathking]

I would like to second Sean's comments about having a lot of the needed equipment. PLTW is expensive, but we did not find it to be more expensive than any of the other established programs we examined. This is probably particularly true for a school that already has an FRC team, since much of the expensive equipment is the same.

[holygrail]

I am a teacher and FRC coach at a small private school and we have neither the money, nor the room for Project Lead the Way. I am considering trying to really boost the engineering curriculum in our school over the coming years and I am starting by running a VEX robotics elective.

The bots are small enough that you can have several small teams each build a bot and have in-class competitions. You can still get pretty deep into the engineering and design aspects including CAD, and it makes it fun because you can always have them preparing for a competition.

My class is structured around the VEX boot camp at first where we will have three separate in-class mini competitions. Competition 1 is focused mostly on the mechanical aspects of building. Competition 2 is focused on programming including autonomous movement and sensors. Competition 3 is a free build where I just tell them about the game and it is up to them to design a winning robot. We will probably have 8 or 9 bots in the competition. I try to run the competitions as FIRST-like as possible in order to make it a good prep for students to join up with our FRC team afterward.

If you are interested in something like this and want more info, just e-mail me at gavin.wood@barstowschool.org

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by holygrail

(...)
My class is structured around the VEX boot camp at first where we will have three separate in-class mini competitions. Competition 1 is focused mostly on the mechanical aspects of building. Competition 2 is focused on programming including autonomous movement and sensors. Competition 3 is a free build where I just tell them about the game and it is up to them to design a winning robot. We will probably have 8 or 9 bots in the competition. I try to run the competitions as FIRST-like as possible in order to make it a good prep for students to join up with our FRC team afterward.

If you are interested in something like this and want more info, just e-mail me at gavin.wood@barstowschool.org

You can also take your teams to a local VEX Robotics Competition event in Kansas City: http://robotevents.com/robot-competi...etition-1.html.

[Jacob Paikoff]

I went to East Lake High School in Tarpon Springs, Florida and starting my freshman year of high school, 2006-07, we began running a hybrid PLTW-CTEF program.

CTEF, otherwise known as Career Tech Education Foundation, was founded by 79's former coach Paul Wahnish and the program which uses the PLTW curriculum along with internships for the high school students at local engineering companies, is now in about 5 or 6 schools throughout Florida.

For new info go to http://www.careertechedfoundation.org/.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by lcoreyl

I am also looking to see what is out there for curriculum that directly relates to USFIRST. I will look at the posts here so far, but has anyone heard about 1717? Amir's kickoff mentioned something about being a model and having his integrated curriculum available, but I've had no luck finding it or contacting someone from the team. Anyone else hear of where we could find this or how to contact Amir Abo-Shaeer (or another good contact for 1717)?

Team 1717 is from Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy, Goleta, CA.

You might try searching the CD members list (orange bar at the top of the page) using the advanced search for team 1717. There are at least a couple of mentors in that listing. Some of them might not have been on in a while, but at least one was on not terribly long ago.

You could also go to the FIRST website, click the "Events and teams locator" blue box on the right side of the page, and search for FRC teams in California. From there, you should be able to find their number, click it to get to their team page, and follow the link to their website.