Robotics Summer Camp - BOE-Bot???

[ChuckDickerson]

Originally Posted by whytheheckme

BOE-Bots are fun. They now use them in ES-101 at the university, just to get kids submerged on something hands on.

They are totally appropriate for Juniors and Seniors at the HS level... They are quite a bit of fun, and pretty customizable.

Just my 2 cents.

Jacob

Thanks Jacob. Are they too advanced for junior high school level students (8th grade going into 9th)? These are not high school juniors.

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

Thanks Jacob. Are they too advanced for junior high school level students (8th grade going into 9th)? These are not high school juniors.

Sorry. I read that incorrectly.

The BOE-Bots are programmed in PBASIC, and are EXTREMELY similar to <=2003 FRC controllers. If your students are bright, (8th grade, maybe some smart 7th graders), they should be able to figure it out. It's fairly simple, and can be taught quickly (more quickly than say, C).

So I'd say that as long as you have someone experienced, or someone that will become very easily familiar with the product teaching the class, and your students are selected (definatley not for the left of the bell curve), that it would be very feasible to run this program in 8th grade, maybe with some 7th grade students.

Jacob

[seanl]

we have like 20 of em they are so much fun and they can also be accessorized.

[Andrew Schuetze]

My thoughts are that lego NXT kits might work better. Legos snap together very quickly and the NXT software cdrom has construction plans for a quick robot with a touch and ultrasound sensor. The mindstorms software is a visual application using NI LabView so you don't have to mess around with declaring variable and if statements ...
You can get kits from the Lego educational division for $250 that include the NiCad battery pack and ac adapter. The technical sales rep. for the Texas area is Betty Justus.

I have a BOE bot, and I love the little bugger. I'd say go for it, as I got mine as a freshmen. They should be able to figure out the basics well enough. If not, you could always go to VEX....

[Jeremiah Johnson]

The BOE-Bot should work perfectly for what you want to teach them, so long as there isn't much mechanical curriculum, I think. There's no way to mount an arm or similar. But for programming and electrical stuff, BOE-Bot is perfect.

[ChuckDickerson]

Thanks for all the votes of confidence in the BOE-Bot. I have put in to order some and feel they will work great. I thought about the Lego NXT but to get enough kits would be a little out of our buget and I wasn't sure I needed that level of construction flexibility. I am thinking all the teams will build the standard BOE-Bot "chassis" and then each team can experiment with the programming more than the mechanics. I only have half a day so I am limited to what we can do. Any advice on how best to actually use the BOE-Bots is still welcomed.

Thanks,
Chuck