Requesting help with developing classes in Japan

Technical Robotics Education and Curriculum
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Foreword:
This thread is primarily directed towards mentors and teachers, considering this is mostly about curriculum development, class structures, and such. That being said, however, I more than welcome any input from students about what makes your robotics classes fun (and the opposite, what makes them boring). Please feel free to share your thoughts - I read EVERY comment and will try to reply as soon as possible, however I am 9 hours ahead of America (Japan), so you may not see the response until the day after.
ありがとうございます！

Thread:
I am a Network engineer-turned-English teacher in Japan. I currently have the gracious opportunity of being able to start my own school for kids, teens, and adults about electronics, engineering, and robotics, taught in English. Despite the fact that I have been teaching for the last four years (and mentoring robotics teams two years prior to that), I have never had to create my own curriculum, syllabus, or class materials. This is a very daunting task for me and I am struggling a bit, however I cannot let this opportunity pass me up.

Most of the classes, for now, will be focused on beginners. I would like to tie in all 3 elements stated above, but not all at the same time (information overload and all).

To Teachers:
If you could provide me with any links to resources or information about developing a curriculum for a class, I would be eternally grateful. I plan to most likely develop an intense class style where students will come at a minimum of twice a week for 2 hours per class (max 3 classes in a day). It will consist of 80% hands-on and 20% lecture, worksheets and tests. What are your thoughts about this type of class, have you created an engineering / robotics course for students?

To Mentors/Graduates:
I would like to ask if you can share ideas about activities, projects, videos, websites or other resources that we could use to help increase student learning and understanding, while keeping it interesting and fun. What kind of tools and resources do you use when teaching the students under your care about your field of expertise?

To FRC Students:
When you were learning about engineering, programming, and robotics, what did you find fun, and what helped you to learn about it? Other than tests or worksheets, what were some of your “boring” experiences when being taught these subjects? Lastly - what’s your opinion of what a school dedicated to teaching engineering and robotics should include?

I apologize in advance for the difficulty and seriousness of my questions, however my goal is to build a school that is dedicated to this education, and where students can eventually join and compete in FRC. I would like to possibly even use FRC’s competition as a type of “Final” or “Midterm” for the class…

I thank you all for reading my lengthy post, and I look forward to reading and responding to your comments and questions!

Respectfully,

Mr. McMahon (RoboSensei)
Head Instructor
Hiroshima City, Hiroshima, Japan

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I am in an “Introduction to Engineering and Design” class at a community college this quarter.

The class consists of very little lecture time, quoted from my syllabus: “Topics include: disciplines and opportunities in engineering, engineering fundamentals (e.g. basic dimensional analysis), creativity in problem solving, building group skills, investigation of professionalism, ethical issues, and the historical impact of engineering on human societies.”

We have three projects, two of which have been completed already:

  1. We had to disassemble a broken/malfunctioning object and explain what was wrong and what could have been improved/it’s fatal flaws. Ex. RC helicopter, a PlayStation, a leaf blower. With a report, we were given two weeks.

  2. Toothpick bridge- this is popular in high school and college from what I can tell. There are many variations, but our goal was to be economical and meet weight requirements. We used a $:Newton ratio and the lower the score, the better you had done. 2.5 weeks and a report.

We are just starting our third project, which is an automatic mini golf/Rube Goldberg machine stated simply. We have nearly a month and this counts as our final. I would be happy to elaborate on any of the projects if it interests you.

To get kids interested in STEM, I believe these hands on projects are very important. To be able to see how things operate and to put skills to work makes the learning process much more enjoyable and encourages kids to further their education. One of the best things is that in this class/FRC something new is always happening. It isn’t a consistent sit in a desk for an hour to hear a lecture. Curriculum variance might be the term I am looking for. Having each class fulfill a different role of the FRC team may be part of what you are looking for? FRC is a year-round commitment, so I’m not sure how well it could be implemented as a final/mid-term.

Resources that may help:
code.org
http://www.learnengineering.org/

Some questions I have:

  • If this is for kids, teens, and adults, will this school be offering some kind of degree?
  •  Do the kids attend a different school for their language/history classes/etc.?  

  •  How are the age groups separated, if at all? 

  •  I am mainly looking for a fuller intent and goal of this school in order to better understand the situation and hopefully help with any knowledge/ideas/resources I can.
  • Are there any standardized tests or anything of the sort that must be prepared for by the kids/teens?
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Rachel, Thank you for your response. I will definitely make notes about these ideas and see if we can incorporate them into our lessons, ESPECIALLY the rube goldberg idea - In Japan, we have a TV program called “PI.TA.GO.RA. Switch” (ピタゴラスイッチ) that often has a rube goldberg style contraption to show their logo.

youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AdAKDaVuJ0

  1. Since we are just starting out, no - not at this moment, however we may plan to do so in the future if we do well with student numbers.
  2. Yes, Currently our style will be an “extra curricular activity” that is held outside of the public classroom. In the future, however, we will incorporate more GE classes as we push towards 1, the degree.
  3. We plan to hold each age group at a different time of the day, for the time being, due to other school or work schedules. Elementary will be held in the morning, high school will be in the afternoon, and adults will be held in the evening.
  4. In Japan, private schools do not currently have a set standard of education like in America, thus each school is free to develop their own systems and curriculum styles. As said above, we will start with the intent of being an extra-curricular academy outside of normal public schools & work, but with the goal of attaining accreditation eventually.
  5. As far as I know, there are not, due to the above reason.
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Here are some resources I posted in a recent, similar thread:

Good luck and feel free to contact me directly with any more questions.

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Thank you for your link, Rich. I will check out the link once I get to work!

P.S. - Nice Feng Shui!

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I’ve been in several CAD classes and two high school Engineering Design classes. On my FRC team, I’ve been a jack-of-all-trades, stepping in to learn and teach wherever it is needed. The team’s years during my high school career have been spent reclaiming what was lost due to seniors’ senioritis and mentor turnover. I’ve been helped by other FRC teams in my area (thank you again programmers of team 5013) and assisted others.

The most boring part of room 105 for me is guided instruction. I understand it is necessary, but it moves at such a slow pace. Somewhere out there, there’s an organized way of enabling students to move at their own pace without missing any components of the lesson. I haven’t found it, but some we’ve created some ways of alleviating the boredom. We built a classroom library full of STEM related books; my favorite is Elon Musk’s biography by Ashlee Vance. We make lists of CAD projects, programming alterations, and offseason projects (BOM required) that either need to be done or just-for-fun. Thankfully, I also now have the freedom to move and work at my own pace! I’m doing an independent study project to build and test swerve drive; I can work from home or at school, go to the hardware store, or consult with mentors from Honeywell whenever I need.

One of our problems in the past was student retention. We now include small-team robot building during our pre-season training and it has helped tremendously.
We have an alright number of girls. I read somewhere (Brandeis study? FIRST’s published statistics?) that 80% of girls in STEM focus on business/fundraising/outreach. When I was a freshman, I thought that I didn’t know anything because I was a girl, so I chose not to focus on the building aspects at first. This gives each member a basic level of training in EVERY domain of FRC. It changed something: 75% of girls in our school district now say their favorite part about being on the team is getting to work on the robot.
Younger members also felt that they were not given the opportunity to work on the robot. They were taught at such a slow pace they were bored. Not only does this give them an initial team-building, hands-on project, but also allows us to give them the proper supervision. Once our younger members pass all of our safety requirements, they are allowed to use all tools and their opinions are equal to those of upperclassmen.
We tried a number of pre-season projects: the popular pneumatic t-shirt launcher, the robot rebuild, the VEX duels, the two-liter rockets during a summer camp, building planes with motors powered by current on metal track, etc. Students seem to like them all (the long-term projects teach MUCH more!) but we’ve settled on choosing an old FRC competition and splitting new members into groups to compete. We don’t even have a real field, but it’s fun to have a mock competition between two plywood bots.

I’d say that any STEM related class needs to have students turn around and mentor the subject matter/concepts to younger students. Not only does it help students retain information, but personally I think it has the most value. Our team members love mentoring our FLL team and are just as excited when they succeed. We go to events all throughout the year to teach younger kids/the public about our robot. I’m a senior now, and a student leader, and nothing tells you whether or not you know something than teaching it to others.

We occasionally hear of our own alumni, though only one has returned to visit regularly, and they are all successful. It would mean the world to me if they ever visited and, well, even just sat down and talked for a bit.

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Stopyourself,

Thank you very much for your reply. I also think it is an important educational step to have both higher level students and graduates to mentor the newer students as this often builds a higher complexity of understanding for both and reinforces what the mentors have learned thus far.

I will make notes about your suggestions and stories!

Kindly,
Robosensei