online or offline; 2) a hands-on experience, where teams of participants learn ... Presentation slides, Robot Building a
Engineer a Robot Overview The Engineer a Robot activity allows participants to experience team-building and problem solving challenges in a one-to-two hour engineering activity. Engineer a Robot has two parts: 1) A-Mazing Robot, an experiment from www.tryscience.org, where participants can program and control a virtual robot online or offline; 2) a hands-on experience, where teams of participants learn how to design, build, and program an actual, physical robot, using the LEGO® ROBO Technology Set™ and ROBOLAB™ programming software. The participants also learn how to produce a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation summarizing their findings. Both activities can be used in a classroom setting (in a school, museum, community center, etc.) or in an exhibition hall (at a technical conference, an Engineer’s Week family day, an IBM Kids and Technology program, etc). This document provides the details for conducting the program, along with a sample script. Complexity: Moderate Resources: 1. A-Mazing Robots experiment installer downloaded and set up on your laptop. Review and print the experiment Volunteer Card. We also recommend that you review the A-Mazing Robot offline experiment for additional presentation tips. For best results, your screen resolution needs to be set to at least 1024x768. The online experiment runs in Internet Explorer version 5 (or higher) only. You will need the Flash (version 5 or higher) and Shockwave (version 8.5) plug-ins. The first time you open the online experiment, you will be prompted to download these plug-ins if you do not already have them. Be sure you can successfully run the experiment on your workstation before attempting to present it to your audience. Download A-Mazing Robots Online Experiment (EXE file) Download A-Mazing Robot Volunteer Card (PDF document) 2. Engineer a Robot presentation assets downloaded to your laptop. You should review these assets in detail before conducting your workshop. These assets include: Engineer a Robot Presentation Slides Robot Building and Programming Handout ROBOLAB Sample Program Engineer a Robot Team Presentation Template
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Engineer a Robot 3. Projector system for presenting your slides and the online experiment in front of the class or exhibit hall. 4. One or two LEGO® Product #: B979786 Robo Technology Set™ kits and ROBOLAB™ version 2.5.2 (or higher) programming software. You should become familiar with the LEGO kits; the accompanying booklet (also known as a “Constructopedia”), which, through diagrams, shows how to construct some sample robots; and the ROBOLAB programming language. The Robot Building and Programming Handout contains excerpts from the LEGO “Constructopedia” and information about the ROBOLAB Sample Program. To obtain these products, visit the LEGO Education store online at: www.legoeducationstore.com or contact your local IBM Community Corporate Relations (CCR) manager. Your local IBM CCR manager may have LEGO kits and ROBOLAB software that you can borrow to conduct this workshop. To borrow a kit, you will need to coordinate the pickup and return of the kits according to the guidelines set by your local CCR manager. Please refer to the On Demand Community web site for a listing of CCR managers in your area. 5. Two laptops or workstations with presentation software (i.e., PowerPoint) to allow the participants to create their team presentations. In addition, each laptop should contain the Engineer a Robot Team Presentation Template and the ROBOLAB Sample Program file. 6. A simulation area on the floor marked off in a 5 x 5 grid. You will also need printed sheets of paper (see slides 16 to 18) or objects to serve as the “toxic waste” and the “containment vessel.” 7.
Scissors, masking tape and rulers to give to the teams to create their own robot maze layouts on the floor. Each team should have a simulation area large enough to create a 5 x 5 grid.
8. A digital camera to take participant photos for the team presentation, and a portable storage device to transfer the photos to the participants’ workstations. 9. Optional TryScience giveaways (paper airplane or brochure). Venue: Classroom setting or exhibit hall Timing: 60 to 120 minutes for a classroom; N/A for exhibit hall Participants: Flexible (teams with four to ten team members) Participant Age Range: Targeted at children 9 to 14 years old; can also be used with teachers or adults Number of Experiments: 1 (A-Mazing Robots Experiment)
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Engineer a Robot Set up •
Read all presentation materials and try the activities before the presentation date. You should be familiar with the A-Mazing Robot online experiment, the LEGO kits and Constructopedia, the Engineer a Robot Presentation slides, Robot Building and Programming Handout, Engineer a Robot Team Presentation Template, and the ROBOLAB Sample Program.
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Mark off a grid on the floor that’s five steps wide and five steps long. You can use masking tape to mark off the rectangles or tape paper rectangles to the floor. Create paper symbols (see slides 16 to 18) or choose objects made from LEGO bricks to represent the “toxic waste” and “containment vessel,” and place them in the grid. Ideally, the grid simulation area should be flat with a slightly textured surface (i.e., concrete floor or low nap carpet).
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Before starting the presentation, test your projection system and equipment. You should also be sure that the computers used by the participants are working properly and that the PowerPoint and ROBOLAB software is loaded and ready to use.
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Divide the group into teams (ideally 4 to 10 members for each team). Set up an experiment station for each team. Provide each team with a computer with presentation software (i.e. Microsoft PowerPoint), ROBOLAB software and sample program file, copies of the Robot Building and Programming Handout, a LEGO kit, and a LEGO Constructopedia. Each experiment station should also have scissors, masking tape and rulers to allow teams to create their own robot maze on the floor.
The Program 1. Launch the Engineer a Robot Presentation and go to Slide 1. Introduce yourself, describe your job, and give some TryScience, LEGO Mindstorms Robotics, and FIRST LEGO League background. Hi, I’m _____________________ from IBM, and I’m here today to tell you about TryScience and LEGO Robotics. TryScience is an IBM program that brings the science center experience online with a cool science web site: www.tryscience.org. How many of you have ever been to a science center like the New York Hall of Science or to the Liberty Science Center (or other regional science center*)? You can get a taste of what science centers from around the world have to offer with the TryScience Field Trips, Experiments and Live Web Cams. Now, how many have you have played with LEGO kits or heard of the FIRST LEGO League? FIRST LEGO League is an alliance between an organization named FIRST and the LEGO Company. They sponsor an annual challenge in which young people design, build, and program robot vehicles using LEGO components and robot design software. We’re going to get a taste of this experience using an experiment from TryScience.
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Engineer a Robot * Prior to the presentation, you might want to check out the Find a Science Center feature on www.tryscience.org to locate a regional science center. 2. Divide the group into teams, and get them settled around their respective experiment stations. Each experiment station should have one laptop or workstation on which a team can program its robot and create a presentation. Each team should also be given one LEGO kit. The robot maze that you marked on the floor should be located between the two (or more) teams or in an area where the teams can easily see and access it. OK. Before we get started, let’s divide into two teams, with each team going to one of the experiment stations. With the teacher / chaperone’s help, divide the class into groups and arrange them around each experiment setup. Is everyone ready for their challenge? 3. Go to Slide 2 and review the workshop agenda. Have the A-Mazing Robot online experiment available in the background. Provide a science overview for the experiment using Slides 3 to 5. The fun activity we’re going to do today will show you how programmers everywhere get computers to do the things they want! Does everyone know what programming is? Programming is all about thinking logically and creating mathematical patterns! You think logically everyday, and you probably didn’t know it. Like when you get ready for school, you think logically about all the things that you need to do to get ready – get out of bed, brush your teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, and get on the school bus! See, isn’t that simple? Now, let’s program our A-Mazing Robots! Launch the A-Mazing Robots online experiment. Review the buttons as you present an example of how to program and move through the maze. Toxic waste is stuff that people create that could really hurt our environment. So, what better way to get rid of it than to use a robot! OK, using these buttons (Point to the buttons on the left of the screen), you’re going to decide which direction, right or left, and how far, one step or five steps, our Robot has to go to pick up the toxic waste, and then take it to the dump and drop it in. So watch as we enter commands that make the Robot move. Notice the arrow on the top of the robot’s head. It is pointing in the direction the robot will move. Be sure to make the number of turns needed to point the robot in the correct direction. Oh, and one more thing, avoid these big red boxes. They will stop our robot every time. Does everybody get it? Ask each team to take turns shouting out the commands as you build the program.
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Engineer a Robot OK. Here’s how we’re going to work together. Each team will get 60 seconds to come up with as many robot commands as you can. When I say “START,” the first team will call out their robot commands, and I will enter the commands for you. At the end of 60 seconds, we’ll get a chance to see how many instructions you got right by hitting the “RUN” key. Then the next team will have their turn. Let’s give it a try. We’ll start with team number one. Your 60 seconds have started now, team number one. 4. Complete the online experiment one or more times depending on the time you have available. 5. When the team exercise is done, resume the presentation at Slide 6. Introduce the LEGO Robot building activity using content on Slides 6 to 11. Now that we’re expert programmers, it’s time to develop our own robot invention. The first thing that you need to do is give your team a name. Your next challenge will be to use your LEGO kit to build a robot and develop a computer program to find and dispose of toxic waste like in the experiment. Finally, each team will create a PowerPoint presentation to share your results with everyone. Like all engineering projects, we have to create a strong team to help us meet our goals. For this challenge, you will form four sub-teams: an industrial engineering team, a hardware engineering team, a software engineering team, and a marketing and communications team. The industrial engineering team is responsible for designing and testing the robot. The hardware engineering team is the “nuts and bolts” folks; they’re responsible for the parts, assembly and electrical systems. The software engineering team is responsible for programming the robot. Finally, the marketing and communications team will create the PowerPoint presentation and organize the presenters. You got it? Allow time for response. 6. On Slide 12, call the participants’ attention to the Robot Building and Programming Handouts at each of the team experiment stations. The handout provides construction steps to build the robot known as “Tracker” with parts in the LEGO ROBOT Technology Set. (This is the name given in the ROBOLAB Software Training Missions, which teach you how to program in ROBOLAB). OK, I’d like for everyone to look at the Robot Building and Programming Handouts in their team areas. The first pages show you how to build a LEGO robot called “Tracker”. The Hardware Engineering Team can use this as a guide to construct a robot. 7.
Next, go to Slide 13 and call the participants’ attention to the “pre-fabricated” maze, which is a floor grid made up of rectangular sheets of 8.5” x 11” paper, each sheet having its own “decoration.” Alternatively, the maze may be fabricated from masking tape defining the borders of each rectangle. Slides 16 to 18 show images of the some of the maze rectangles including the toxic waste containment vessel, trash containment vessel, and forbidden area / maze obstacles. As you review these slides, point out these areas on the floor grid that you created.
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Engineer a Robot OK. I need everybody to look down at the floor now. Here we see the same type of maze and obstacles that we saw in the online experiment. The job of your engineering team will be to program an A-Mazing LEGO Robot that can travel through this maze, pick up the toxic waste and take it to the trash, just like in the online experiment. The Industrial Engineering Team will be responsible for creating a robot maze like this one that your team can use to test your robot’s construction and programming. You can use the scissors, tape, rulers and paper in your team areas to create your own robot maze. The Software Engineering Team has to learn to use ROBOLAB software to program the robot built by the Hardware Engineering Team, so that this robot can physically negotiate the maze, picking up the toxic waste and bringing it to the trash. 8. Go to Slide 19 to introduce programming using ROBOLAB. ROBOLAB is a graphical software programming environment with tiered levels of programming. There are three levels in ROBOLAB. This activity uses the PILOT level. The graphical interface allows users to run, edit, and create new robot programs around building experiences. This activity comes with a sample program for downloading and running a robot maze. The user can edit the variables to meet their actual layout requirements, and add advanced command structures, such as switches and light sensors. ROBOLAB variables that can be edited include motor speeds and direction, timing (travel distances), and point-to-point objectives outlined in this activity. Running ROBOLAB Software: The user should use ROBOLAB Version 2.5.2 or higher for this experiment. ROBOLAB must be installed on the laptops, tested, and de-bugged prior to carrying out this activity with students. This workshop experiment is based on using the LEGO B979786 ROBO Technology Set™, and a five-by-five layout based on a 8.5" x 11" rectangles to create the maze; standard masking tape can be used to create the five-by-five matrix on a flat and slightly textured surface. Sample ROBOLAB program: A sample program – engineerarobot.pi4 – has been prewritten in PILOT 4. The Robot Building and Programming Handout shows the detailed steps that make up this program. Ask the participants to call their attention to the Robot Building and Programming Handout at their experiment stations. This document shows the individual steps contained in the sample ROBOLAB program. OK. Now we're going to learn more about programming our robot. The software that we are going to use is called ROBOLAB. This software is will allow us to create commands to control our robot while it moves through the maze that we created. ROBOLAB is a graphical programming environment; it has two levels - PILOT and INVENTOR. The PILOT level is a good place to get started with ROBOLAB; you can move on to the INVENTOR level if you want to do more advanced programming. We are going to use a sample program at the PILOT level to learn how to use ROBOLAB.
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Engineer a Robot Everyone pull out their Robot Building and Programming Handout. The last pages of this handout will show you how to launch the ROBOLAB software and load a sample ROBOLAB program. The Software Engineering Team can use this guide to help them get started with ROBOLAB programming. To get started, follow these steps: 1) launch the ROBOLAB software 2) select the PILOT mode 3) load the engineerarobot.pi4 file 4) select the Run button to download the file to the LEGO robot 5) make adjustments to the motor power levels and timing to travel around your robot maze OK. We've talked about building a robot, creating a maze layout and programming a robot. Now let's get started building our A-Mazing Robots! 9. Once the programs are written and downloaded to the robots, the teams will test their robots, making hardware and software modifications to improve the robots’ ability to negotiate the maze. The teams should be allowed 20 minutes to complete this engineering challenge. 10. Go to Slide 26 to describe the slides that are required for the team presentation. Your final team task will be to create a presentation. The presentation will have your team name and a list of team members. I also have a digital camera that we can use to take your team photo. Your presentation will cover your team objectives, information about your robot’s performance, like accomplishments and areas for improvement. You will also make a slide about your lessons learned – what did your team learn from this activity? Or what would you do differently next time? Finally, you’ll create a slide giving some comments about the overall project experience, like what did you learn most; would you want to do this again? Any questions? OK. Let’s get started! You’ve got 20 minutes to create your team presentation. Let’s get to work! 11. Direct the teams to open the PowerPoint software on their computers. When the software is open, ask the teams to open the Engineer a Robot Team Presentation Template. Float from team to team to provide assistance, ask and answer questions as needed. Be careful not to steer participants down a particular path; make suggestions for possible options, but let them make the decisions. Assist participants with the team photos. Announce when you’ve reached the halfway point with the time allotted and encourage the kids to keep moving along. When everyone is done, ask one team to volunteer to start the presentations. Allow each team up to seven minutes to present their presentation.
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Engineer a Robot I have seen some great engineering minds at work here today! It looks like my time is up. Thanks for letting me do this experiment and work with you today. Be sure to take a giveaway and check out www.tryscience.org and firstlegoleague.org for more experiments and for a description of FIRST LEGO League, a team engineering “sports-like” competition, based on designing, constructing, and programming LEGO robots, just as we did here today. Go to Slide 28 showing the TryScience and FIRST LEGO League URLs. Place the giveaways on a table in the room before the participants leave.
Modifications • While the participants are working independently, float around the room and take photos of everyone working. Make a PowerPoint slide show of the photos and show it at the end of the program.
Tips • Meet with the facilitator (teacher, parent or other assistant) before the session to prepare them to help out during the program. • Encourage everyone to participate – you might want to ask the students what they think will happen at different points in the experiment.
Clean Up After your workshop, be sure to uninstall the ROBOLAB software and sample program from the laptops or desktop computers used by the teams. If you borrowed LEGO products from your local IBM CCR manager, you will need to reassemble the kits and inventory all parts before returning the materials. Please be a courteous borrower and understand that someone else will use this kit for their activity after you return it.
TryScience Project Background For those not familiar with TryScience, it is a unique, interactive science resource targeted to children ages 8 to 12, their parents and teachers. From a content perspective, TryScience brings the science center experience to the web. All the activities on the site are based on an experiment, exhibit, workshop, program, etc. from a science museum around the world. The goal is to: extend the informal science education mission, give online visitors a taste of what science centers have to offer, provide the science centers more exposure and promote higher attendance. The site is available to an international audience and is available in: English, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.
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Engineer a Robot From a project perspective, TryScience is a not-for-profit partnership among IBM’s Corporate Community Relations division, the New York Hall of Science and the Association of Science- Technology Centers. It started as a web site launched in May 2000, www.tryscience.org, to highlight and benefit science centers from around the world. The project has since expanded to include live events, webcasts, and a kiosk program. The TryScience team, based out of the New York Hall of Science, is responsible for conceptual development of each feature, as well as content gathering and production and general project management. The project is funded by the IBM Foundation. IBM also provides hosting, technical support and web / multimedia production. TryScience Web Site Overview The site, www.tryscience.org, consists of several content areas. The home page highlights the current features, but every section also includes archived materials. The site includes the following sections: 1. Adventure: a rich, in-depth series of activities related by an overall theme (e.g. the science behind sports). Several science centers contribute content to each adventure. 2. Experiment: the feature “flashcard” from the home page is an online experiment (contributed by a science center) with a printable, hands-on version available as well. Clicking on the red experiment notebook will bring you to the Experiment List of several hands-on experiments – some have online versions as well. This is a great resource for teachers, students and adults. 3. Field Trip: virtual trip to a specific science center worldwide. A tour gives a taste of the museum itself, with images and a brief overview. Additionally, online activities based on a signature exhibit or program at the museum provide another science resource as well as give online visitors a chance to experience a museum in a different part of the world. 4. Curious?: online polls / quizzes on current science topics in the news, with links to related museum resources. Click on the “Curious?” bubble on the top left corner of the home page to view the featured poll. Archives can be accessed from the “results” page. 5. Live Cams: cam images from science centers around the world. Most cams are controllable by the user to pan around the scene and zoom in on specific areas of interest.
FIRST LEGO League Program The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is the result of a partnership between FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) and the LEGO Company. FLL brings to children aged 9 through 14 the FIRST concept of using robotics to inspire and celebrate science and technology, using real-world context and hands-on experimentation.
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Engineer a Robot With the help of LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ technology sets, young participants can build a robot and compete in a friendly, FIRST-style robotic event specially designed for their age group. Using LEGO bricks and other elements such as sensors, motors, and gears, teams gain hands-on experience in engineering and computer programming principles as they construct and program their unique robot inventions. FLL teams organize through schools, civic organizations, or neighborhood groups. Teams register online on the FLL web site during the months of May to September. In mid-September, FLL announces the annual challenge. October and November are the active months when teams prepare their solutions to the Challenge. Local and state tournaments occur from November through February. An FLL team in the United States and Canada consists of a maximum of ten children and a minimum of one adult coach. To form and coach a FIRST LEGO League team, you need to: 1
Identify a group (i.e., a school or youth organization).
2. Identify a coach. This person coordinates the team and its activities, including registering the team with FIRST and with any tournament the team will enter. 3. Identify a mentor. This is a technical person. The coach and mentor can be the same person, but the coach is likely to be a teacher at a school or your organization and the mentor should be an interested IBM employee. 4. Find space to hold team meetings and store materials. 5. Get a laptop (i.e., school provides or parents purchase). Each team needs one to bring to the tournament, where the team will need to refine the computer programs that instruct the robot. 6. Select the team members. The team should have six to ten members and, in the United States and Canada, they must be no more than 14 years of age on January 1 of the year that you are entering the FLL tournament. 7.
Raise funds. You will need $500.00 US dollars to start. You will need to find a source of funding; this could be a sponsorship, fund-raising efforts, or a student participation fee. Through IBM’s Community Grant Program, an IBM employee who volunteers at least 40 hours with an eligible institution (e.g., a school) may apply for a grant of $1000 to support the team.
8. Register the team, preferably in May. 9. Conduct team-building and learning sessions for the team to develop programming skills and an understanding of LEGO materials.
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Engineer a Robot 10. Conduct weekly team meetings after the Challenge is announced in September. 11. Register for local / state tournaments in October. 12. Participate in tournaments during the months of November to February. 13. Celebrate your team! If you are interesting in forming a FIRST LEGO League team, you may find more detailed information at www.usfirst.org/jrobtcs/flego.htm.
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