Gears Tutorial
September 29th, 2009
Excellent explanation of gears found in LEGO kits. Great pictures with explanations of each gear are included. Example gear systems are explained with disadvantages and advantages.
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Love this design of a robot/wheel chair wheel that can morph from a single wheel into a multi-wheel tank track, as terrain conditions dictate.
Wheels on a wheelchair morph from one large drive wheel into a tank track. What applications can you see this on?
Very interesting applications demonstrated in the video.
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VEX Workshop: Manipulators and Mechanisms
This is another case where I don’t need to write too much, as it makes more sense to direct people to some superb resources.
A powerpoint presentation that I often use to describe various lifting mechanisms to new members of our robotics team is available at:
http://first.wpi.edu/Images/CMS/First/2006CON_Manipulators_Needel.ppt
Another presentation that goes a bit more into the various mechanisms that can be used to collect and manipulate game pieces is at:
http://first.wpi.edu/Images/CMS/First/2007ROW_Mechanisms.ppt
While the robots discussed in these presentations are for the FIRST Robotics Competition, and therefore much larger than a VEX robot, the principles are the same. In fact I highly recommend taking a look through the various files available from FIRST at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=1108
Jason provides a great resource for teachers and mentors to access in regards to Building Robots in School. He is an example of resources he utilizes for his classes.
Give his site a look if you are looking for ideas, help or guidance
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Robotics lessons
The following lesson plans are for free use by Teachers of Robotics using the LEGO NXT Mindstorms Education kit.There are Junior, Middle and Senior School Lesson Sequences and plans that build on Robot Educator.They are designed to be used in an approximate 6 week block, but feel free to access single lessons.These lesson sequences and plans are free to use by teachers at educational institutions (see note at the bottom of this page).My only request is that I get some feedback (via the email address below) from you as to how they assisted you.Things that worked well and things that could be improved.Enjoy!Junior SchoolLessonsMiddle SchoolLessonsSenior SchoolLessonsThese lesson sequences and plans are all copyrighted and are the Intellectual property of Chris Bracken, ProactivePD(Some Images have been used from screenshots taken from Robot Educator within NXT-G by LEGO)
Looking for a series of activities for Lego to use in a classroom. He is a resource of lessons geared toward to different age levels of students. The plans are very well thought out.
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What Is Gearing Up?
Six weeks. Identical kits. No instructions. All assembly required.
Gearing Up, a one-hour documentary produced by KETC St. Louis and STORY HOUSE PRODUCTIONS chronicles behind-the-scenes drama and excitement leading up to the 2008 FIRST Robotics National Competition.Teams receive identical robot kits with no instructions and have just six weeks to build a robot capable of performing specific tasks. We follow four teams in their regional competitions: Miss Daisy, a seasoned team from Ambler, Pennsylvania; RoboDoves, a small, all-girl rookie team from Baltimore, Maryland; Rambotics, a team of teenaged felons incarcerated at the Ridge View Academy correctional facility for boys in Watkins, Colorado; and Ratchet Rockers, a group of suburban kids from Wentzville, Missouri.
Will they succeed? Will they fail? Gearing Up details the triumphs and disasters high school students encounter while sharing ideas and solving technical challenges.
Check out this promotional video documentary concerning FIRST Robotics and STEM education. Check you local PBS station to see when it is airing on your local station.
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DEKA Research founder and Segway creator Dean Kamen comes to D6 to demonstrate his “Luke Arm” prosthesis. Named after the artificial limb worn by Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars,” the state-of-the-art bionic arm looks and feels to its user like his or her native arm. Posted from http://allthingsd.com/
Follow the development and the latest news in the sequence of videos below.
Here is a video posted in 2008:
A 60 minutes segment demonstrating the arm:
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If you have a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robotics kit, then this site provides free building instructions and downloadable programs for lots of fun projects.
Projects designed for the young and young at heart!
Only one NXT kit required, no extra parts are needed
Full building instructions with color photographs
No programming experienced required! You can simply download and use the programs provided.
Know some programming but want to learn more? Study the fully commented programs to learn how they work, modify them, and use what you learn in your own programs.
Are you looking for resources for LEGO projects? This site has great examples of projects that includes building as well as the programming for the projects.
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Welcome to the Virtual Machine Shop
Machine tool training and instruction onlineThe Virtual Machine Shop (VMS) is a web site dedicated to the perpetuation of machine tool knowledge and training. This project is designed and maintained by volunteers from industry and academia and is free to everyone. Please feel free to learn here. Please feel free to teach here. The VMS is supported by donations (a donation of as little as $2.00 helps keep this site going).
Great resource for machine shop training.
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Course Description: This course will provide a basic overview of the hazards involved with use of shop equipment and tools, and how to reduce the risk of such hazards to acceptable levels.
As a result of this course, trainees will be able to:
What do you do for safety training for your students in the class or on the robotics team.? Here is a rescource of Powerpoints and handouts on safety.
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Do you need to learn SolidWorks? He is a start with 9 video lessons to learn from.
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Teampedia is a collaborative encyclopedia of free team building activities, free icebreakers, teamwork resources, and tools for teams that anyone can edit!
This site is designed for a wide audience including: team leaders, trainers, teachers, managers, camp directors, counselors, and youth groups.
Begin by browsing for games and activities below or read more about the mission, goals, and history on the About Teampedia page.
I used several activities today in my robotics classes from Teampedia today. It was a fun Friday in class today.
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What is STOMP?
Overview
STOMP stands for the Student Teacher Outreach Mentorship Program. The STOMP model is designed to create partnerships between STEM "experts" and K-12 classrooms to assist K-12 teachers in developing and implementing interactive STEM lessons. Through this model, "experts" in the form of university students, high school students, and industry employees collaborate with K-12 educators to develop curriculum and resources aiding the long-term sustainability of STEM education. K-12 teaches benefit from the partnership by gaining knowledge of STEM concepts, subsequently becoming more comfortable with engineering and implementing engineering-based activities in their classrooms. STOMP participants, or fellows, also benefit in that they are awarded an opportunity to work with their local community gaining communication, teaching, and leadership skills.
History
High school students working with elementary and middle school students as mentors in STEM... sounds like a winning combination.
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TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: March 28, 2006
The Great Robot Race homepage
Join NOVA for an exclusive backstage pass to the DARPA Grand Challenge—a raucous race for robotic, driverless vehicles sponsored by the Pentagon, which awards a $2 million purse to the winning team. Armed with artificial intelligence, laser-guided vision, GPS navigation, and 3-D mapping systems, the contenders are some of the world's most advanced robots. Yet even their formidable technology and mechanical prowess may not be enough to overcome the grueling 130-mile course through Nevada's desert terrain. From concept to construction to the final competition, "The Great Robot Race" delivers the absorbing inside story of clever engineers and their unyielding drive to create a champion, capturing the only aerial footage that exists of the Grand Challenge.
It would seem that the essentials to road racing are clear—a fast car and talented driver, right? Wrong. The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) turns this assumption on its head with its Grand Challenge, a contest solely for autonomous vehicles that go relatively slowly. Following its success with unmanned aircraft, DARPA is pushing for the same on-ground advantage to keep soldiers out of harm's way. Private Jessica Lynch's ambush in Iraq might well have been avoided if the U.S. Army could have had a robotic supply truck to carry out missions in dangerous zones.
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Media:Steps_to_starting_a_VEX_robotics_program.pdf -- CMU's guide to Starting a Vex Robotics Program.
Media:VEX Robots for Beginners.pdf -- a guide to building VEX robots
Media:VEX for the Technically Challenged.pdf -- a detailed guide on building VEX robots, we use this for the Mentor's class.
Media:Robot Recipes.pdf -- a collection of cool VEX robots that you can build
Media:Clueless Coach.pdf -- timeless tips and ideas on how to be a competition robotics coach
Carnegie-Mellon's Summer Programs for Educators: http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/content/educators/professional_dev/index.htm
VEX Programming Information about the VEX Programming environments
Interested in starting a VEX robotics team or club in your school or area? If so, give this site a look for ideas and resources.
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NXT and RobotC for the FIRST Tech Challenge
-->This Page Was Last Updated Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:01:58 GMT
This website is being created to help those who are trying to program the LEGO NXT brick with Robot C. The website is a work in progress and we are looking for contributions of material (many pages show Under Construction). We appreciate any comments from those who try to use the site and we hope you will let us know where you have difficulties with it (submit your comments to jensn058@hsd.k12.or.us OR domesd@hsd.k12.or.us). We are high school students in a Robotics class and we are entering the First Tech Challenge. As an FTC team we are hopeful that this site is helpful to you.
This site contains instructions and setup for RobotC with LEGO NXT kit. It is geared toward First Technical Challenge Robotics Contest.
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Submitted by: Carol Szabo
Email: CBS53@aol.com
School/University/Affiliation: Elgin Community College
Date: February 22, 1999
Grade Level(s): 9, 10, 11, 12, Higher Education
Subject(s):
- Language Arts/Listening Comprehension
Duration: 45 minutes
Description: Students team up with a partner. They set up their work area so they are sitting back to back and cannot see each other's work space. Each partner gets a bag of lego pieces (both partners have the identical pieces). They take turns building a structure and giving directions to their partners to build the identical structure. Compare and discuss. Do the activity at least twice per person.
Goals: Students will become aware of the pitfalls of communicating both orally and in written expression. They will realize the importance of transitional expression, specific details, order and clarity when attempting to communicate. Also, realizing the importance of audience--how this influences the language used. Use as an intro to writing a process analysis.
Objectives: Students will be able to improve on their skills as the lesson progresses. The better their partner does constructing the legos according to the instructions given, the better job the partner is doing giving the directions.
Materials: baggies of lego pieces---each team must have identical pieces in their bags.
Procedure:
1. Give each team materials.
2. Position themselves so they cannot see each other's work space---back to back works well.
3. One member builds a structure from his pieces.
4. He then gives the partner oral instructions on how to duplicate his structure.
5. Neither may look at each other's work until the end of the exercise.
6. The person building cannot ask questions---just must follow directions.
7. Compare structures and then switch roles.
8. Do the activity at least twice.Assessment: How well the structures are duplicated will give insight into the ability of the students to communicate effectively. Discuss the problems that came up and how to solve them. Apply the discussion to writing a process analysis--- what points are important to remember?
Great idea that is simple to use with students to work on listening comprehension and effective communication skills.
Two skills any student can improve on.
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The presentation is introduced with a slide show by advisors Rich Kressly and Mark Piotrowski. Then students are divided into groups and rotate through various stations entitled, “Simple Machines,” “Robots in Our World,” “Lower Merion Robotics,” “Teamwork,” and hands-on competitive experiences with operating VEX robots. Each station lasts about 5-7 minutes long and is run solely by the LMHS Technology and Engineering Club students. “When we use Portable Inspiration as a workshop package for elementary schools, we include the teacher at the end of a session by having him/her drive one of our 120-pound robots in front of the class. Each teacher leaves with a CD of files for follow up with the class on teamwork, simple machines, and robotics,” Mr. Kressly said.
Robotics team students teaching younger students at elementary and middle schools with hands on learning experiences. All participants learn through this process.
We need more opportunities in our school systems utilizing this method of teaching and inspiration.
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Cool Tech Tools for Teachers April 2008.ppt
Original Creation by Susan Palmer, April 2008
Revised for ACS Conference Training October 2008. If you are using a hard copy of this presentation, begin in the wiki at www.masterymaze.com.Today we will take a look at some cool tools. Please explore these in order presented, if possible. While some of them are "processing", you can go to the next and explore that as well!
PREFACE--A word about Schoolwires! I LOVE our website created in Schoolwires. It has become the platform for my online presence and my students love it! It is a great place to add cool tools to your instructional resources! Here's a peek at my schoolwires site! I will not talk about podcasting today, however it has been the tool I have used most this past year. I will mention Camtasia Studio as my number one tool, and ask you to look to the podcast presentations and resources on this site after the presentation for more info! My "masterycast" podcasts are in the Subjects section of www.masterymaze.com. Here we go...
A great resource page with examples of how to engage students in your classroom with cool tools as Susan Palmer refers to them. Many of them are Web 2.0 that many educators are already using. If you are using them already, you might get a new idea or even post your examples as well.
We need more Susan Palmers in the classroom.
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On Sept. 3, the school’s team will head to UAB for the annual kickoff. There, they will receive a kit with materials to build their robot, which must perform an unknown task. They will have 42 days to design and build the robot before returning to the college to compete.
“This is abstract thinking,” LeCroy said. “They’ve got to take a clean sheet of paper, figure out how to make it work, and then make it work. The best one wins. In the real world, the best one gets the money.”
The team will consist of every division one would find in a real-life company — engineering, mechanics, sales and marketing, spirit and sportsmanship, and of course, a CEO. Teachers will function as the board of directors, and mentors will be real engineers who are willing to come in and work with the students.
BEST Robotics will be kicking off on different dates for each of the hubs. Capital BEST in Austin, Texas will be holding Kickoff on September 13 at Anderson High School with the contest to be held on October 24 at Westlake High School's Ninth Grade Center.
Know any engineers, web designers, computer programmers or any other individuals for that matter who want to mentor a team? Feel free to contact me for more information.
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Five Tips (and a Bonus!) on How to Write a Fantastic About Page
I always struggle on what to say about myself on the About Me page. Do you? Some interesting tips about what to put there.
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Coming Soon: SolidWorks 2010 Beta Program
Every year we give our customers a chance to preview the newest release of our software before it's made available to the public, and this year is no different.
If you are a SolidWorks user, have you signed up yet? If not, get in on the goodies.
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The Hardest Jobs to Fill in America
In today's economic climate, it's hard to believe there are jobs that employers are having a hard time filling. But they do exist, according to the staffing firm Manpower's annual talent shortage survey. From the 2,019 employers who responded to the survey in January, Manpower created this list of the 10 hardest jobs to fill in the U.S.
1. Engineer
There are several reasons it's hard for employers to find qualified engineers, says Jonas Prising, Manpower's president for the Americas. First, employers don't want to hire two or three engineers with a variety of specialties, they want one engineer who is trained in several areas. Another reason is that there are far too few new college graduates in engineering to replace retiring engineers. Also, the Obama administration's pledge to rebuild America's infrastructure is increasing the need for talented engineers.
2. Nurse
There are several causes of this shortage. First, America's aging population requires more caregivers for chronic illnesses affecting older people. Also, advances in medical care require more nurses to assist in treatment. However, there's a shortage of nurse educators, so while demand for professionals is great, there aren't enough teachers to train the next generation fast enough.
3. Technician
These are workers in engineering, technical, operations or maintenance roles who may be classified as either skilled or semi-skilled workers. They often support professionals who have deeper skill bases. Like workers in skilled trades, technicians are trained at vocational schools, and they're in short supply because so many high school students are encouraged to go to four-year colleges instead.
4. Teacher
Many schools find it hard to hire qualified teachers, because becoming a teacher often requires a graduate degree, but salaries remain relatively low. Meanwhile, they need more teachers, with many baby boomers retiring.
5. Sales Representative
Salespeople are in demand during tough economies because they're instrumental in companies' growth. But it takes a long time to become a skilled sales representative, since it involves serious training and becoming an expert in your product and its market. Also, you need a mix of soft skills and technical skills, a tough combination to find.
What profession are you encouraging your students to pursue?
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Welcome to Jeff's Tool Shed
While most of what I write will be about SolidWorks, or partner products, from time to time I've been known to go off on random rants about whatever crosses my mind.
Legal B.S.: The thoughts, opinions and commentary posted on Jeff's Tool Shed are mine and mine only. I speak only for myself and no other person(s) or entities. Questions, comments or complaints can be posted in the 'comments' section of each post or you can email me directly. Thanks for reading!
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I visited with Al Whatmough earlier this year about his SolidWorks training videos. His samples are very easy to follow and very informative. It is definitely a resource you should look into if you are interested in SolidWorks use. The DVD has 8 hours of instruction on SolidWorks. Al states "the need for quality training will never go away." I tend to agree with All here but where do we go to get this training? In the past, you were lucky if you have someone in your school you could learn from. In my case, I am the first to begin to use SolidWorks in my school. So where do you find the resources you need to learn: Your Personal Learning Network. Mine started within my campus with @Technolibrary and @Mradkins as they are know on Twitter. They both had a profound influence on me as a teacher as well as a teacher but more importantly on me in terms of professional learning and sharing. But again, where do you find the expertise or mentor you need? Students or our children learn from each other all the time whether it be in person or interactively over some connection they have made. I found Al through a search on Google along with many other resources concerning SolidWorks including blogs, podcasts, videos as well as learning and teaching resources.
Do you have a sage or mentor in your hallway or even your schooL? Do you have access to someone who can teach you? I challenge you to reach out and find the mentor you need. They only as far away as a search on the internet. Twitter, Edubloggercon, Diigo, Google are just a few tools you can use to find your mentor or a group of like minded learners such as yourself. Stick you neck and give it a try.
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100 Best Science Twitterers
Posted by Site Administrator in Learning Tools on 06 10th, 2009 | no responsesBy Caitlin Smith
Just about everyone is on Twitter these days-celebrities, businesses, and even astronauts. You’ll also find lots of people that work in and support science, and they have lots to share. Check out our list to find 100 of the best scientific people to follow on Twitter.
Great site for science related Twitters.
Give it a look, lots of interesting links and Tweets.
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American Society for Engineering Education K-12 Robotics Workshop
I am attending the ASEE K-12 Robotics workshop for educators in Austin, Texas.I will be Liveblogging at this site here and possibly trying to webcast.
The hashtag for Twitter will be #ASEEK-12 or #ASEERobotics.
Find my Liveblogs and UStreams from the American Society for Engineering and Education K-12 Robotics Workshop here.
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Increasing the N!
Welcome to our new and improved site! Anyone is welcome to use these badges, although a link to this site (or the specific badge entry) is much appreciated. Even better is if you provide an anecdote in the comments section to explain your reasons for awarding yourself the badge....
Read the rest
Science Scout badges for your website.
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Social and Connected
Personal and Self-Directed
Shared and Transparent
Rich in Content and Diversity
Ought to be Fun.
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Great Video and statement from Jim (@jmaklary) about his son watching the Team 624's robot at a demonstration.
Our team, Team 2468 does presentations such as this one at schools as well. It never fails for the team to come home and be so excited about the responses from the little kids and teachers. Just a Jim's son sets and watches so intrigued, the team members are captivated by the enthusiasm and excitement of the little kids.
If you have not investigated FIRST Robotics or any other robotics contest, you should. I firmly believe it is the type of learning and education we need for the future. Project based, learn by doing, work with mentors from the industry and most importantly total engagement. Failures and successes abound in these competitions. Students interact with other teams while at the same time competing with and against them.
I am so glad I was in the right place at the right time when our school began our robotics classes and contest team. It has been a tornado of activities over the past year and a half but the rewards have been huge. Just yesterday, I was working in my classroom and three students contacted me about summer activities.
Scenario one: A freshman student is getting LEGO robotics kits to use at an elementary camp to show them what robotics it and how they work. This is something he is doing on his own as a way of informing and reaching out to other students in our community.
Scenario two was a phone call: "Coach, do you have the LabVIEW disks?" That is the way the conversation started. Stevo wanted to get the LabVIEW disks to install the software at home so he could learn to program with it. No one made him call. No one is going to force him to learn the program It is something he wants to do for the team as well as himself. When is the last time you have a student call you up during the summer to get some educational material so that they could LEARN it on their own.
Scenario three is very similar to scenario two. A student has requested the Solidworks laptop or software for the summer. He came up to get the laptop so he could work thru the online tutorials. He wants to get SolidWorks certified but he knows he will have to work on his own to get there. We are provided with several industry standard software programs in the Robotics contest including SolidWorks, LabVIEW, 3D Studio Max, AutoCad, Windriver C++ and ProE. These software programs are another perk of the robotics contest. The students are exposed to industry standard systems and tools that they might never have the chance to engage in until they are in college.
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Great site for when you need to stick one item to another and you do not know what to use.
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What do you love? This print by hijirik http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5584012 says it so simply.
It is plain Black and White with a very simple statement. How many times do we get distracted by the things that we do not love and therefore we do not get to live for ourselves.
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My wife has taught four and five year olds for over 25 years now, and occasionally, I'm lucky enough to visit one of her classrooms and see her at work. When I do, I usually learn (or re-learn) something myself. During one visit, it struck me how smooth playtime was. You would think that a room full of five year olds would be a real beehive of activity; while the children were certainly displaying all of the energy and enthusiasm you would expect, they weren't flitting from one activity to the next. Since five year olds don't have the longest attention spans, I marveled, "How do you keep them so focused?"
"It's easy" she replied. "They know they're not allowed to start a new activity until they finish playing with the old one and put it away." Wow!
What a simple, but powerful lesson: Focus on one thing at a time and finish it before moving on to the next task. The children know they can't jump from working on a puzzle over to the sand table until they've finished, picked up all the pieces, put them back in the box and put it back on the shelf.
Thank you to @presentationzen on Twitter for lending me to this article by Michael A. Dalton. I am so guilty of multitasking and do not even begin to think about it. What effect's does it have on my ability to perform my job? How do I control it? The things we learned in elementary school seem so far away and so simple but often are the most important things in life. I need to make a more conscious effort to stay on task and "put it away" as the article says.
I find myself trying to multitask as I writing this post. Do not look over at the email or twitter tab. They will wait and still be there when i get to it.
Note to self: Complete one task and put it away before beginning another.
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Final project in Robotics I - Space Supremacy.
This contest will be a two on two remote controlled LEGO battle.
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