Reflexions

Authentic Engineering Drawings | John Heffernan

2011-06-04T21:29:00.001-07:00

Authentic Engineering Drawings

Posted on May 25, 2011 by John Heffernan

At the Tufts Lego Engineering Symposium, we were assigned the task of making a drawing of a device that could hover in a vertical wind tunnel powered by a fan. After time ran out, we were told that the we should pass the drawing and our device to another team to implement the modifications. While drawing, there was not a strong motivation to make a good drawing. Of course, if we knew that it would be used, there would have been a strong motivation.

via jheffernan.com

Why do we have students do activities? Are we always clear in our expectations?

Jeff Heffernan discusses an activity he experienced at Tufts LEGO Engineering Symposium.

He has proposed an authentic drawing diagram to create authentic drawings. Drawings should be for external audiences and express high complexity.

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Boy Delivers Motivational Speech After Learning to Ride His Bike

2011-06-02T18:09:00.001-07:00

Boy Delivers Motivational Speech After Learning to Ride His Bike

by Jessica Samakow

Filed under: Amazing Kids, Funny Stuff

Text Size:

We adore this little boy, who gives hope to any kid who has ever failed at riding a bike with an inspirational speech to rival the best rhetoric out there. A recently accomplished rider himself, he reminds his peers with training wheels to believe in themselves and to keep practicing.

We can't wait to buy a T-shirt that reads, "Thumbs up to rock and roll!"

via parentdish.com

Very simple message - Everybody can do it.

Great video and such extreme and genuine excitement.

Thumbs up for sure!!!!

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Failure is not optional « Physics! Blog!

2011-05-22T20:05:00.001-07:00

Physics! Blog!

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett

Failure is not optional

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Kelly O'Shea

20

It’s time for the mindset talk in my physics classes. I’ve been trying to prime them for a while now. Honors Physics read part of Carol Dweck’s book as part of their summer homework and two chapters of The Talent Code during the year. The “regular” physics class has been talking about myelin and how feeling confused means you’re about to learn something. On the course evaluation in January, 36% of them agreed with “You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.” while 38% agreed with “You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.” (it wasn’t either/or).

I’ve decided that the regular class is going to read a short part of Bounce aloud and discuss it on Monday. Honors Physics is going to read an abridged version of How Not to Talk to Your Kids (the parts about very young children are cut out) for homework and talk about it in class. We read it in Honors last year at this time, and it had a profound effect on many of my students. They start to recognize themselves as they read the article, and some start to recognize what has happened to them this year in physics. At this point in the year, almost all of them will have “hit the wall” in this class. They will have encountered something difficult enough that they couldn’t immediately understand how to do it. For the students who have always found easy success in math and science, they initially believe this means they’ve reached the end of their “potential” and are no longer as smart as they’d always known they were. Sure, they’ve earned A’s on every math test they’ve ever taken, even as they’ve watched their friends struggle, but 10th grade science is as far as they are going to get on their academic journey. This is the end of the road.

via kellyoshea.wordpress.com

Very interesting post by a Physics teacher Kelly Oshea. Students are required to do reading during the summer prior to the school year. He discusses students approach to the year and Project Based Grading.

He emphasizes the Failure is not an option if you want to be successful. It we want to get better at something, we must practice which involves practice.

I received a painting from my Aunt Kaki when I was young. It read " I am not judged by the number of times I fail but by the number of times I succeed, and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail." Step forward, make yourself do something. If you fail, try again. If you succeed, step forward again.

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Life lessons: Try, Failure, Try again.

2011-05-22T19:56:00.001-07:00

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
— Samuel Beckett

via goodreads.com

Great quote.

Key points are
-Try again
-Failure is not bad.

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Kitbot Presentation (Kitbot On Steroids) | Simbotics

2011-05-22T10:02:00.001-07:00

Kitbot Presentation (Kitbot On Steroids)

Recent Media

News

Photo Galleries

Videos

In the Media

Recent Videos

Animations

Chairman's

Matches

Presentations

Posted 3 months ago

Team 1114 on Jan 8, 2011 at Don Mills Collegiate

Presenters: Karthik Kanagasabapathy and Todd Willick

via simbotics.org

Simibotics, Team 1114 video on Kitbot on Steroids.

Great video and example of a FIRST Robotics team sharing resources.

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"Quought for The Day" Not a misspelling.

2011-05-21T08:21:00.001-07:00

Announcing "Quought for The Day" series

By Rajesh Setty on Thu 21 Dec 2006, 12:25 AM - 0 Comments and 0 Reactions

No, there was no spelling mistake.

Quought = Question that provokes thought. Questions are important. Thinking is important. Questions that make you think are very important!

Some background first – I have always believed that it is not always the answers but sometimes asking one good question is what is required to make a difference in a person’s life or business or both. So as we approach the new year, I thought posting a series of questions that people should consider asking themselves in 2007 to get more out of their life or business or both. Since there is only so much that I can do alone, I reached out to several influencers and thought leaders to get those questions. Here was the question I asked these thoughtful, kind and smart people:

So, what is the ONE important question a person should ask himself or herself in 2007?

I have started receiving those questions. My goal was to post one of these questions everyday but it will take me a long while to post them that way. So I decided to post more than one “Quought for the Day” starting today.

Here is the link to all the Quoughts.
Life Beyond Code:: Quought for the Day

For more about questions, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo lens: The Power of Questions

Note: The word “Quought” was coined by my friend Ashwin Rangan, former CIO of Walmart.com. Special thanks to Ashwin for the suggestion

via rajeshsetty.com

Interesting concept: Quought for the Day. "A question that provokes thought". This sounds like a good idea for journaling or reflecting.

Asking questions is such an important skill each of us needs to develop. Often times we ask all different kinds of questions but do we ever compile those answers for ourselves or even for others to read. Rajesh has done just that. He asked the same question of many others whom he feels are successful and has compiled and posted the answers here. Most often these questions are to others. He feels we should be asking ourselves these questions as well.

So, what is the one important question a person should ask himself or herself?

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Quote: Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

2011-05-21T06:16:00.001-07:00

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

Author: Hal Borland

(Submitted by: RScrapIT)

via scrapbook.com

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Learn how to learn! Computer science teachers hopes.

2011-05-20T21:01:00.001-07:00

Sem 3: Learn a language (actually several) that we do not have a text book for. Use an API, on-line resources and sample code to reach a fairly operational level in the language. Hopefully learn how to learn. I want them to be able to find and read the resources.

Kids hate to learn how to learn. They want it handed to them in a nice package, hopefully in a step-by-step manner in a lecture. (I kind of like it that way too but then I am also pretty lazy.) For the Corona assignment I show them where to get the free download of Corona, how the website is laid out, which tutorials are halfway decent and some good sample code to look at. At this stage I do not want to teach them to code, I want them to learn to code using the resources available. The class becomes much more interactive. The kids share the “how did you do that?” code. They end up having to teach themselves to a large extent. They learn how to learn.

via gflint.wordpress.com

Garth Flint shares in his "More on learning to learn" what he wants his kids to learn to to in his programming class. Semester 3, he wants to the students to "learn to learn". Many times, we as teachers give them each step of the procedure. We do not allow them to learn by learning itself. We as teachers need to move aside and be the guide. Let's provide resources and direct them in the right direction. This means we need to be prepared to allow them to struggle and sometimes even fail. Failure is a lesson learned as well. We are there ready to redirect and help them when they need it but not give them the answer.

Thank you to Garth for posting his thoughts for others to read.

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Magician? Jack of all trades? Mike Rowe Speaks To Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee

2011-05-19T20:09:00.001-07:00

Mike Rowe Speaks To Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
8:56 am | 5/12/11
-->

Mike speaks to the Senate and shares his views on jobs, the skills gap, manufacturing and he announces the “Discover Your Skills” initiative and more.

Click here to watch Mike’s speech.

Read Mike’s Oral Testimony here.

Locate links to more articles and videos here.
Read Mike’s article “Get Ready to Get Dirty” here.

via mikeroweworks.com

Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs speaks to Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and it rings a bell with me. He talks about his Granddad being a jack of all trades. I have a Dad, Uncles and Granddads and not to mention, a father in law, who all fit the same mold, A job needed to be done, and they did it. No instruction manual, no internet, just go out and get it done. The following are a few key points Mike makes in his brief testimony to the committee with my comments. I hope you had the privilege to have one of these "magicians" that Mike mentions in your life. I will be forever influenced by these magicians and I am very thankful for that.

• I am more of a guest. I am more of an apprentice.
Humble is the word that comes to mind in his reference here. Always willing to learn more and giving credit where credit is due.

• Tell you about my grandfather – Jack of all trades
Did you have someone like this is your life? I hope you did. I was very fortunate to have several people who I feel fall into this category. They had such knowledge about so many things. Where did this knowledge come from? Experience, plain and simple. They were what we want our students and children to be today: Life long learners. They learned each and every day of their lives. Days were not made up by watching TV, but by learning by doing and most often it was by helping others in a time of need.

• Remember him mostly as a magician
It was amazing to me watching these gentlemen in my life do their craft. How did they do that? It appears right before my eyes just like the bunny out of the hat.

• Invited to about 12 hours of forced labor
I remember those times when I was "invited" out to help. I would never have consider not to be involved much less challenged them not to help. Many times the job would extend into longs hours of work but the time together seems so precious now as I look back.

• One of my Favorite days ever
I can still remember working on the three wheeler in the drive of the house, putting in the basketball goal in the backyard, thawing the pipes in the dead of winter because we need to have running water for the house, working on the tractor or plow that had broken down, etc.
• I had been disconnected from what used to fascinate me.
Are you disconnected? Do you just leave a check on the counter for the plumber? Who is he or she? Do you know them? Would someone you love learn and cherish the time that it would take to fix the problem at hand?

• I believe we need a national PR campaign for skilled labor.
America needs to be fixed. Education needs to be fixed. Not everyone is going to go to University for a degree. Skilled labor is important and needs to be valued not by our pocketbook but by the schools, parents and legislatures.

• Reconnect the country
Let's go build some relationships. Build some memories. Create some magicians for the future.

• Skills gap is real and getting wider

• Progress often is slowed due to lack of skilled workers

• Vocational arts have been vanished

• How can high unemployment can exist at the same time as skill labor shortage.
Many people find this very surprising. Our skilled worker force continues to get older and decrease in size. Who will fill their shoes when they are no longer there?
• Vocational consolation prizes for those that are not cut out for four year college.
Many people, including administrators at our schools, feel that vocational school and skilled labor is settling for something less than what our children are cut out for. Skilled labor built this country and we continue to need skilled labor and will always need skilled labor. Students should be exposed informed and educated about the possibilities in these careers.

• Guys like my granddad are no less important today
In fact they are more important today than ever before.

• Close the skills gap
How do we go about doing this? Change our programs! Inform students! Demand changes to our programs for our students.

Ira Morgan, Jack Morgan, PK McPearson, John Bates, ________________

Can you fill in the blank with a name who was a magician?

I hope you had the privilege to have one of these "magicians" that Mike mentions in your life. I will be forever influenced by these magicians and I am very thankful for that.

Thank you to my magicians for being so passionate about learning as a life long passion. We need to take some lessons from the simpler days.

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Chap Robotics Cardboard Boat Regatta

2011-05-18T12:52:00.001-07:00

The link for the registration your sponsors will be here (posted later).

Be sure you put your potential sponsors in the form. Rembember first come first serve. Check to make sure no other team has put your potential contact in. If another team has that business/organization/individual down, you may not contact them. You must have all the information to fill in before you may claim that potential sponsor as yours.

You will need to inculde how you will contact your potential sponsor, but remember, face-to-face is the best method of contacting potential sponors.

You will need to get at least $150 worth of sponsorship for your team. This sponsorship will be companies, businesses, organizations, etc that are not your family and/or parents. You

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Don't Fail Me Know - Must See TV. Sunday, May 21 at 8 pm EDT

2011-05-18T12:13:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to give you a heads up on a special program that aired this
past Sunday night. Soledad O'Brien's latest CNN documentary, Don't Fail Me, will be
rebroadcast on May 21 at 8 EDT.
The special is part of the network's continuing "In America" series.
CNN Special Featuring FIRST, Sunday 5/15 - REBROADCAST ON May 21 at 8
EDT, (7 Central). In "Education in America: Don't Fail Me," we learn that at this very
moment, America's future is at stake.

"If we don't generate the next group of innovators, scientists,
engineers, and problem solvers," inventor Dean Kamen warns, "our
standard of living, our quality of life, our security, will plummet!"

American students rank 17th in science and 25th in math when compared
to other industrialized nations. They don't have the skills to take on
the high tech jobs of the future.

This is because of how and what we teach American kids. It is also
because of a culture that values sports and celebrities above all.

The United States needs to change the way students are taught math and
science, and children need to be encouraged and inspired to take the
toughest classes in those subjects.

There is a nationwide competition designed to motivate high school
students to take those classes, push themselves, and learn more (FIRST).
Students Maria Castro, Brian Whited, and Shaan Patel are actively
involved in it. But is it too late for them? Is it too late for us?

For Teachers and Others Who Want to Discuss the CNN Program... Pre and
Post Program Questions, Learning Activities and Curricula Connections
can be found at:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/studentne...ide/index.html
FIRST® Robotics Competition Teams featured in the CNN Special include:
FRC Team 842, Falcon Robotics, Carl Hayden High School, Phoenix, Ariz.
FRC Team 1403, Cougar Robotics, Montgomery High School, Skillman, N.J.
FRC Team 3675, Eagletrons, Seymour High School, Seymour, Tenn.

Twitter Hash Tag for "Education in America: Don't Fail Me":
#dontfailme

Norman Morgan
Robotics I and II
Room 149 - NGC
512.732.9280 ext. 33459
Team 2468 - Who do you Appreciate? www.chaprobotics.com

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Sphero Spirit! « Orbotix - Robotic Ball controlled with your Phone

2011-05-16T20:46:00.001-07:00

via orbotix.com

Very interesting example of a simple looking device that attracts and inspires students. The truth behind the story is the device is quite complicated. The CTO, Adam Wilson and CEO, Ian Bernstein openly discuss the robotic sphere in this video: http://www.coloradotechtv.com/gearbox-demos-a-robotic-ball.

You can find out more about the device at the following link: http://www.gosphero.com/.>

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Tinkering School: learning through doing | JonJolly.com

2011-05-14T09:58:00.001-07:00

The video below is from Gever Tulley’s presentation at Big Ideas Fest 2009.

Although the movie is a little slow in explaining the educational concepts, there is some real gems in there that apply to all forms of education.

“The best engagement we got was when they were forced to deviate from the materials list.”

Essentially Tulley found that the kids were more engaged and active when they didn’t know the outcome of a project. He articulates it like this:

The opportunities for engaged learning are inversely proportional to the knowability of the outcome

Another point he makes is about the experience of education:

Create a meaningful experience and the learning will follow.
“Our best outcomes were from projects where we focused on the quality of the experience first… and looked for learning inside those experiences.”

Personally, I love this engaging and lively approach to education. Some parents have even started a blog on their experiences of allowing their kids to do the fifty dangerous things in Tulley’s book! Maybe we all need to be a little bit more dangerous in our learning…

via jonjolly.com

Engaged learning
Meaningful experience
Both of these are outcomes all educators want in their classrooms and parents should expect.

We need to provide these opportunities to all children of all ages. I believe each of us, no matter the age want these as well but many times we get lost in the everyday life and do not pursue this.

Thank you Gever Tulley for your Tinkering School model.

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Why Robotics in the Classroom - VEX World Championships

2011-05-10T11:52:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Penn Trafford Robotics team interview and news coverage regarding their participation in the VEX World Championships this year.

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6 Weeks, 1 Goal, #omgrobots, Soledad O'Brien: Don't Fail Me on CNN May 15

2011-05-10T07:43:00.001-07:00

via soledadobrieninfo.blogspot.com

I am looking forward to Soledad O"Brien's Don't Fail Me which airs on CNN May 15th. Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST Robotics speaks candidly with her about the future of our country and how his robotics competition helps solve the problem.

6 Weeks - 1 Goal - What will be the outcome?

Give the following video a look to get a sneak peak of the program.

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/05/soledad-o%E2%80%99brien-reports-...

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Seth's Blog: What's high school for?

2011-05-06T06:03:00.001-07:00

« Seeing the truth when it might be invisible | Blog Home

What's high school for?

Perhaps we could endeavor to teach our future the following:

How to focus intently on a problem until it's solved.

The benefit of postponing short-term satisfaction in exchange for long-term success.

How to read critically.

The power of being able to lead groups of peers without receiving clear delegated authority.

An understanding of the extraordinary power of the scientific method, in just about any situation or endeavor.

How to persuasively present ideas in multiple forms, especially in writing and before a group.

Project management. Self-management and the management of ideas, projects and people.

Personal finance. Understanding the truth about money and debt and leverage.

An insatiable desire (and the ability) to learn more. Forever.

Most of all, the self-reliance that comes from understanding that relentless hard work can be applied to solve problems worth solving.

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Posted by Seth Godin on May 06, 2011 | Permalink

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via sethgodin.typepad.com

Seth hits the nail on the head here.

It is not about Standardized tests, it more about being able to function with others. Students do not need to memorize a set of how to's or details.

Learn more - Forever. We are in a continual learning cycle now in our modern day world. Students to know and embrace this fact.

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President Obama… Please Let Me Help You Make Science Cool | Steve Spangler's Blog

2011-05-03T19:56:00.001-07:00

Mr. President, I would love to share what we’ve learned over the past 15 years of training nearly 30,000 teachers in ways to turn ordinary lessons into unforgettable learning experiences. I know that you’re serious about making science cool and I think that we can help. Honestly, I’ll share anything and everything we’ve learned about training an army of highly motivated teachers who are truly inspiring their students to look at STEM careers – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

via stevespangler.com

Check out Steve's site for great videos and insights to how teachers are making science cool (already not again).

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Mr. McCluskey's Method — An Autodesk Film Preview

2011-05-01T20:02:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Autodesk Film preview of Mr. Cluskey's Method. - Dead Poet's Society style.

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High school physics teacher has perfected the formula for inspiration

2011-05-01T11:10:00.001-07:00

High school physics teacher perfects the formula for inspiring students

Amir Abo-Shaeer's successful combination includes founding a growing engineering academy and inspiring motivated, robot-building students. He is the first high school teacher to win a MacArthur Foundation 'genius' grant.

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Dos Pueblos High School physics teacher Amir Abo-Shaeer leads a high-achieving engineering academy at the Goleta, Calif., campus. Abo-Shaeer and his robot-building students are the subject of a new book, and a film is in the works. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times / March 1, 2011)

via latimes.com

Amir Abo-Shaeer is most definitely a model to follow. Check out the article above to gain a little insight to his program, beliefs and FIRST Robotics.

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Leadership Insights: Process or Outcome, Design with Intent

2011-04-30T08:53:00.001-07:00

As a leadership team, we spent a few minutes watch and discussing this video about Kenyon College swim coach Jim Steen and this streak. Steen coached Kenyon to 31 consecutive Division III National Titles, a streak that was snapped just this year.

While the story of the swim team itself is amazing, the wisdom that guides the team and Steen offers many insights for leadership and schools.

Focus on the Process not the Outcome

Be Preoccupied with Being Successful

Design with Intent

The Same Path Leads to Stagnation

Imagination is More Important than Hard Work

Focus on the Process not the Outcome

It is ironic that I write these words on the day of the ACT, but I firmly believe that schools and communities that have the heart will turn their focus away from these outcomes and pour their energy into the process of learning.

Be Preoccupied with Being Successful

It seems Steen would have been preoccupied with winning given the 31 years of just that. Nope. The focus was on their definition of success. What is our definition of success not only for a score or national label but for the whole child, for life? How are we developing tunnel vision action for that locally defined, globally informed definition of success?

Design with Intent

A subtle point in the video but one that is worth noting is how they placed the 31 trophies. Instead of randomly placing them or using a predefined expectation of placing them all together to showcase the achievement, Steen designed with intent. He had them spread out in strategic locations to eliminate pressure while maintaining focus. How often do we design with intent in schools? Sure, the main pieces of schools are at least thought about, but what about the various nooks and crannies of schools? What about surfaces, hallways, stairs, and more? Are we designing every facet of our schools with intent?

The Same Path Leads to Stagnation

It is easy to rest upon what works. It is easy to be caught up in one’s own success. More and more, I am coming to realize that true leaders, real innovators, see the same and common paths as points of stagnation and inevitable regression. Steen talks about how he never travels the same way when he takes a trip and this is a metaphor for his philosophy. This is a powerful thought and one that makes me wonder how many paths we continue to travel each and every day in education. What are the points of stagnation in our organizations? Where are the different paths that would enlighten us? In many ways, it speaks directly to focusing on the process and being preoccupied with being successful. If you aren’t, you’ll take the path of least resistance that gives you the same answer, the known answer.

It reminds me of my favorite quote from Walt Disney: “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Imagination is more Important than Hard Work

As a leader, what do you see when you walk around the school? I fear that educators and students are being asked to work harder and harder not innovative, think deeply, and act boldly. How can we renew the spirit of the natural learning, creating, and curiosity? I also wonder about leaders. What are we challenging our leaders to do: work harder or innovative more?

Organizations focused on an outcome with a preoccupation of winning “The Race” are destined to travel the same path over and over that leads to harder work. With that, we kill the human spirit. We kill natural learning. We kill innovations.

No related posts.

via ryanbretag.com

Great video by the NCAA about coach Jim Steen and his program at Kenyon College. Being a former coach, I appreciate his words of advice. He has enjoyed the success in men's and woman's programs. He holds the two longest streaks for National Championships in NCAA history. He must be a great mentor as well since both of his streaks were broken by a former student of his own. Coach Steen not only is successful, but he has provided a model that proves successful for others in his sport.

Thanks to Ryan Bretag for posting this video and his comments above. Ryan has boiled down the essence of the video into a few words above. Thank you to Ryan for posting and sharing.

This post and video makes me want to evaluate myself, my school and my program. The key points all seem simple and very down to earth. Programs and school do not need complicated and whole sale changes, we need leaders such as Jim and Ryan.

To many times in education, we here "that is the way we have always done it", Coach Steen warns about utilizing the same path always leads to stagnation. Do you work with individuals who continue to follow the same path each year? Tried and true methods are good but don't we need to be continually improving. Our students are changing, we need to challenge ourselves to continue to meet their needs.

I know teachers and students at my school work extremely hard to be successful. Do we have to work so hard or is there a more effective way of achieving our goals and objectives? Does holding on the "old" create more work for all parties involved?

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How to use your calipers

2011-04-25T19:04:00.001-07:00

via ladyada.net

Great explanation on how to utilize a digital caliper

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MightyOhm » Blog Archive » Announcing the “Soldering is Easy” Complete Comic Book!

2011-04-25T18:44:00.001-07:00

Announcing the “Soldering is Easy” Complete Comic Book!
April 11th, 2011 by Jeff

Do you want to learn how to solder? Do you want to make really cool things? Do you want to teach other people how to solder (and make cool things too)?

I’m happy to announce the release of Soldering is Easy, a comic book that will teach anyone the basics of soldering.

This seven page comic book explains in detail and with pictures how to make a good solder connection. It also teaches you all the other bits and pieces of knowledge that you need to successfully solder together an electronic kit, even if you’ve never soldered before!

I worked with Mitch Altman (@maltman23) and Andie Nordgren to create this revised and extended version of the wildly popular one page handout that Mitch and Andie created in 2010.

The comic (and lots more cool stuff!) will be included in a book that Mitch and I are writing about How to Make Cool Things with Microcontrollers (For People Who Know Nothing). It will be published by No Starch Press later this year.

Here’s a sample page (click for a bigger version):

The original one page handout has been translated into lots of languages! You can see a few of the existing translations on Mitch’s site. We would love for people to translate the full comic book as well. If you create a translation, please post a comment here and I’ll link to it!

The comic is released under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-ShareAlike), so you are free to teach with it, color it, modify it, share it with your friends, translate it, and basically do whatever you like with it!

English:

The complete comic book is available for download here:

“Soldering is Easy” Comic Book (PDF)

We also have some other versions of the comic available:

FullSolderComic_Images_20110409.zip – 300 DPI images of each page

FullSolderComic_NoText_20110409.zip – 300 DPI images without text (for translation)

A PDF version without text is also available.

FullSolderComic.zip – the Comic Life source file used to create all of the other versions.

High resolution images of both versions of the comic are also available on Flickr:

“Soldering is Easy” Comic Book Flickr Set

“Soldering is Easy” Comic Book for translation (no text) Flickr Set

via mightyohm.com

Soldering comic book

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Physical Computing at ITP | Policy / Cleanup

2011-04-25T18:22:00.001-07:00

If you're taking a physical computing class this semester, or if you're planning a physical computing project for your thesis or another class, you need to sign up for TWO DAYS of shop cleanup during the semester. This means you're expected to show up half an hour before shop closing time, and see to it that the shop is clean and neat.

Anyone in the shop who's working at closing time should help, so don't do it alone. Ask your fellow classmates in the shop for assistance. If you're there at closing time, help out, even if you're not on clean-up duty that night.

If the shop is left a mess, it will be closed until it is cleaned.

Anyone using the shop for any project this semester is expected to sign up for cleanup.

Power tool area
Sweep / vacuum all surfaces, including
the power tools - don't leave a layer of dust on them
table tops
behind power tool tables
Make sure the lab assistants shut off power tools
Put all hand power tools in Equipment Room
Throw away all trash
Sweep floor
Close cabinets
Close doors to power tool shop
Main Shop area
Put all Hand tools away
Put Soldering Irons in Equipment Room
Put all student projects on shelves with names labeled on them
Check that the tool drawers are in order:
Large Cabinet Top
Both Cabinets
Clamp drawer
Drillbits
Goggles and safety gear
Hammers
Handsaws, blades, etc.
Multimeters
Nut drivers
Pliers, tin snips, etc.
Rivet tools
Sandpaper, dremel, etc.
Screwdrivers
Sockets
Tape, Staple Guns, etc.
Tape Measures
Wire Cutters
Cutting Blades
Identify any damaged tools, email itp.helpdesk@nyu.edu
Put any unidentified parts in a blue bin on the worktable
Put any leftover wire or electronic parts in appropriate bins in cabinet
Sweep all tabletops
Sweep floor
Close cabinets
Initial your name on the cleanup schedule
Turn off lights
IF THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WORKING AFTER YOU LEAVE:
Clean up as much as possible
Get all the names and email addresses of people still working
Email those names to itp.helpdesk@nyu.edu and tom.igoe@nyu.edu
Inform those people that they should clean up the rest of the shop
Show them where this checklist is
IF YOU ARE THE LAST PERSON (or people) HERE:
Do everything on this checklist;
even if it is not your day to clean up.
even if you didn't make the mess.

via itp.nyu.edu

Clean up policy. I need to instill this in my team and myself.

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RoboZZle online puzzle game

2011-04-25T14:28:00.001-07:00

via robozzle.com

Simple programming of an online robot.

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IncrediBots • IncrediBots

2011-04-25T14:26:00.001-07:00

via incredibots.com

Have a little fun building Incredibots

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Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Foundation - Video on Advances in Metal fabrication

2011-04-25T14:04:00.001-07:00

via nutsandboltsfoundation.org

How are things made? Fabrication methods demonstrated and explained.

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Power Tool Institute - Home

2011-04-25T13:54:00.001-07:00

Check out this website I found at powertoolinstitute.com

Great resource site on Powertool safety with videos and educational materials.

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Design Thinking for Educators

2011-04-20T20:47:00.001-07:00

Process

DISCOVERY

I have a challenge.
How do I approach it?

Discovery builds a solid foundation for ideas.
Creating meaningful solutions for people begins with a deep understanding for their needs. Discovery means opening up to new opportunities, and getting inspired for new ideas.

INTERPRETATION

I learned something.
How do I interpret it?

Interpretation transforms stories to meaningful insights. Observations, field visits, or just a simple conversation can be great inspiration—but finding meaning in that and turning it into actionable opportunities for design is not an easy task. It involves storytelling, sorting and condensing thoughts, until a compelling point of view and clear direction for ideation emerge.

IDEATION

I see an opportunity.
What do I create?

Ideation means generating lots of ideas. Brainstorming encourages expansive thinking without constraints. Often it’s the wild ideas that spark the thought for something visionary. With careful preparation and a set of rules to follow, a brainstorm session can yield hundreds of fresh ideas.

EXPERIMENTATION

I have an idea.
How do I build it?

Experimentation brings ideas to life. Building prototypes means making ideas tangible, learning while building them, and sharing them with other people. Even early and rough prototypes can evoke a direct response and help learn how to further improve and refine an idea.

EVOLUTION

I tried something.
How do I evolve it?

Evolution is the development of a concept over time. It involves planning next steps, communicating the idea to people who can help realize it, and documenting the process. Change often happens
over time, and reminders of even subtle signs of progress are important.

The design process is what puts Design Thinking into action. It’s a structured approach to generating and developing ideas.

The Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators, available as a free download here, provides guidance through the five phases of the design process. It outlines a sequence of steps that leads from defining a challenge to building a solution. The toolkit offers a variety of instructional methods to choose from, including concise explanations, useful suggestions and tips.

via designthinkingforeducators.com

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Columnists 04-15-2011 :: AmericanWay

2011-04-20T20:32:00.001-07:00

Aye, Robot
by Cathy Booth Thomas
Share|
MULTITASKING: Science meets sports in this robotic competition for high schoolers.

Five minutes into John Sperry’s high school robotics class, I realize I’m out of my depth intellectually — and they haven’t even started talking mechanics or physics yet. Juliette Heyman, a 17-year-old junior, is standing in front of the class, writing down strategies for winning this year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition as classmates lob ideas at her. “How about blocking lanes?” one student offers. Juliette writes it down. “Can you descore?” asks another. Scribble, scribble. Shove a robot against a wall? Impede its visibility? How about two runner robots clearing the way for a scoring robot? What about strategic alliances? Soon, they’re talking deliverables and deadlines. On Monday, there will be a quiz on the 70-plus-page contest rules.
It’s a Sunday at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas, and the room is packed with teenagers, ages 14 to 18, who are surprisingly wide awake and engaged. It’s day two of Anderson High’s six-week crunch to get a robot built for the 20th season of robot madness ending with the FIRST Championship, to be held in St. Louis from April 27 to 30.
“Every spring, I live robotics,” says Caroline Moy, part of the team’s leadership (along with Nate McLauchlin), whose dad has been known to beg her to leave school at 10 p.m., after a 15-hour day. In January, the Anderson team and about 50,000 other robot maniacs tuned in to hear Segway inventor Dean Kamen and Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas announce this year’s challenge: a robotic game called Logo Motion, involving six teams competing on a 27-foot-by-54-foot field. Each team’s robot must earn points by hanging pieces shaped like a triangle, a circle or a square on a rack. (Bonus points if the robot’s minibots can climb a 9-foot tower in the last 10 seconds.) “It’s not just about building a robot. It’s ‘How can we design the robot correctly so it can accomplish the task?’ ” explains Matt Carroll, 16.
The robotics competition is only part of the FIRST Championship, the NBA Finals of science and technology for students competing for awards, trophies and medallions. High schoolers are eligible to apply for scholarships totaling more than $14 million. Corporate mentors from Microsoft to NASA are on hand to help the nearly 2,000 teams (50,000-plus contestants) win the show. And it is a show, make no mistake. There are amped-up teens, cheerleaders, bands, DJs and awards. It’s how Kamen envisioned FIRST back in 1989, when he realized the United States was falling behind in science and engineering. He deliberately picked the sports model, setting up double-elimination tournaments, bringing in the hoopla of sports to show that science and technology don’t have to be boring. Last year, 10,000 students from 30 countries and 10,000 volunteers took over Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.
Kamen made millions on medical devices and the Segway. Eager to give back, he created the SEE (Science Enrichment Encounters) Science Center, a “little science museum” next to his business, DEKA Research & Development, in Manchester, N.H. One Saturday, he says, he walked into a mob of shrieking kids and parents and asked a student to name a famous scientist, engineer or inventor. “He looked at me with a blank stare. So I asked the next kid, the next kid … and I realized that all these kids are in this science center wearing Celtics T-shirts and Bruins T-shirts and Patriots sweatshirts,” he says. Then he asked the parents. Finally, one said, “Well, Einstein, but I think he’s dead.”
“All of a sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks. In a free country, in a free culture, you get what you celebrate,” he says. Kids see sports and music figures making it big, so that’s whom they emulate — even if their chances of breaking through are minimal.
At Anderson High today, however, 35 teenagers are getting into Kamen’s dream with the help of mentor David Yanoshak, an engineer at Texas Instruments, and adviser Sperry. Matt Carroll and Trent Pokorny, both 16, are unloading boxes of robot parts with 14-year-old Casey Aldridge. They have just six weeks to build a robot for regionals in hopes of making the FIRST national competition. “This is what we call our kitbot,” Matt explains. “They give us a basic robotics platform to start out with, so there are different iterations of the kitbot we can make.”
“ ‘Iterations,’ huh? You sure you’re 16?” I ask Matt.
“I picked it up around here. If the robot doesn’t work, you iterate it,” he says, nonchalantly.
FIRST has paid off for Anderson. Of the 30 seniors on past robot teams, more than 76 percent are studying science, technology, engineering or math in college. A new class of freshmen is eager to follow. “We put in a 14-hour day yesterday. Our turnout is great, more than 30 kids. On a Sunday,” Sperry says.
Point made.

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via americanwaymag.com

Way to Go AusTIN Cans.

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Dr. Mariappan Jawaharlal: The Fourth 'R'

2011-04-20T20:06:00.001-07:00

Would you consider any of the following fun to learn?

The formula for the circumference of a circle

Finding the slope of a line

Determining the coefficient of static friction between two materials

Finding the instantaneous velocity of a moving object

Physical meaning behind Newton's laws

Most people consider these as boring things that would only interest a nerd. What if I told you students of all ages from third grade to college are excited about learning hard core science and math? Unbelievable, but true, thanks to robotics. Robotics is an exciting field. It fascinates and engages people of all ages. It is truly a multidisciplinary area which combines mechanical, electrical, electronics and control engineering and computer science. Robotics is being increasingly considered as the Fourth essential "R" after the 3 Rs: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. In this competitive world, STEM education defines the underpinning of an advanced society. U.S. students have been consistently performing low in STEM education and one way to make STEM education engaging and meaningful is to use Robotics as the basic platform because all major STEM concepts can be taught through robotics.

What is interesting is the fact that even though robots are complex machines, today's technology makes it possible for even children to design, build and program robots. Building robots makes learning engaging, fun and meaningful. It provides a highly practical, hands-on experience. It helps to develop much needed critical thinking skills and problem solving strategies. Building robots help to understand abstract concepts in math and science. Robotics gives meaning to formulas and laws that students usually memorize without any understanding.

When working with robotics, students are immersed in the experience. Real learning occurs when learners are immersed in an activity, required to perform, and take corrective actions. Learner engagement, satisfaction, knowledge retention and competency mastery are achieved when students are involved and led through a guided discovery process rather than being "told" how to get the right answers. With robotics students learn difficult STEM concepts without realizing that they are intensively engaged in the learning process. Learning becomes a natural, fun process.

There have been many successful initiatives such as First Lego League, VEX Robotics World Championship and FIRST Robotics in the past decade. In order to make a real difference, robotics should be taught as a subject starting from third grade onwards. National Robotic week is celebrated from April 9-17, 2011. Celebrate this week to inspire students of all ages to pursue careers in STEM areas.

via huffingtonpost.com

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Treat Math and Science stars like Sports Stars

2011-04-20T19:57:00.001-07:00

Let's Treat Our Math and Science Stars Like Sports Stars

Posted: 04/20/11 02:25 PM ET

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Team 254 "The Cheesy Poofs" from Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose, Calif. received the High School Excellence Award at the 2011 VEX Robotics Competition World Championships. Photo credit: Steven Rainwater

Last year the young winners of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) Robotics Championship went to the White House and shook President Obama's hand -- just like the winners of the NCAA basketball tournament do. We should make a practice of giving our math and science stars the same level of recognition we award our sports stars. It could be a key component of attracting students to the sciences and graduating the kind of talented adults companies around the world want to hire.

I saw why this past week at the VEX Robotics Championships in Orlando. Both VEX and FIRST do something you might not expect of a robotics contest: they cultivate teamwork and the kind of social skills that turn smart kids into bona fide leaders. The only difference between robotics stars and sports stars, it turns out, is that the careers of robotics champions don't have a shelf life.

The secret sauce of robotics competitions -- VEX and FIRST are just two of several in the U.S. -- is relevance. The teams are given a real-world goal: to raise money and build a robot of their own design that can go head to head with other teams' robots to complete a series of complicated tasks. It's hands-on, project-based learning, which is precisely the kind of approach that transforms math and science from intimidating subjects to engaging fun.

What's more is that in an increasingly virtual world, robotics contests force kids to work together face to face and develop the kind of communications skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. When companies like Lockheed Martin are weeding through 1,000 resumes for a single opening, it's the candidate who can make presentations to management who gets the job offer.

Kids dream of being sports heroes; organizations like VEX and FIRST are giving them reasons to dream of being science and technology leaders. Competition and recognition might be exactly what kids need to feel that pull to exercise -- their minds.

via huffingtonpost.com

This past weekend, Westlake High School Robotics competed at BEST World Championships at the VEX World Championships. Many of the teams competing there compete in FIRST robotics as well along with us.

Cheesy Poofs, Thunderchickens, AusTIN Cans, Simbotics, LASA, DiscoBots and RoboWranglers are ones that come to mind right off hand. All of these teams have inspired me as an educator and robotics coach. Each of these teams competes on a very high level and have for many years.

I coach high school athletics for 17 years and enjoyed each of those years. Many of these included coaching multiple sports at the middle school as well as junior varsity and varsity levels. As I enjoy watching the Spurs in a playoff basketball game tonight, I watch and listen to the excitement of the fans at the arena. This past weekend at ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, I experienced the same excitement as teams from all over the world competed at the VEX World and BEST World Championships.

Each time I go to a contest, I am amazed at the robots that are present at these contests. Students work along professional coaches (mentors) to evaluate, prototype and build a robot to meet the requirements of the contest.

Students take away more than just participating in a contest. The robot and competition is the hook to get them excited but there is more important aspects to these contests. Students get excited at these contests as an athletic event but they also get to experience the same thrill of excitement and agony of defeat as Wide World of Sports said for so many years on the commercials. The air eventually leaks out of the ball for nearly all athletes, but the students on these teams are in this for life. NO EXPIRATION DATE on their participation in related activities.

Students work together hand in hand with each other to solve the problems with the assistance of professional mentors to guide them along the way. Students learn from professionals how to problem solve and communicate with each other.

As the article says " Competition and recognition might be exactly what kids need to feel that pull to exercise -- their minds."

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Semifinals

2011-04-16T13:43:00.001-07:00

Great day for Chap Robotics. We advanced to the final eight teams out of the 24 who qualified for BEST World Championships. These 24 qualified by winning their local hub and then their regional/state contest. Approximately 800 teams competed this year. Westlake finished in the top 1% of robots in the contest World wide.

We also won third in the Most Robust Robot award.

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Semifinal one

2011-04-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

2112 points by robert and grant.

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Match 6 - last match - great job

2011-04-16T11:39:00.001-07:00

90 packaged, 26 delivered.
Finished preliminaries in fourth place.

Semifinals here we come

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Match 5 - another good round

2011-04-16T11:13:00.001-07:00

79 gadgets packaged , 22 delivered, 1 cone by Claude and Aaron. Pits up in 4th place

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Lunch is over, starting again in 4th place

2011-04-16T10:19:00.001-07:00

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Match 2 and 3 results of Chaps at Best World Champs

2011-04-16T08:45:00.001-07:00

Round 2

74 gadgets packaged, 27 delivered, 2 cones. 1856 points

Round 3

87 gadgets packaged, 30 delivered, 1 cones. 2026 points

Two good rounds in a row. Strategy still working.

Moved to seventh place.

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Match 2 results - 3340 points after 2 matches

2011-04-16T07:08:00.001-07:00

Score 68 gadgets.

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First match results, 2116 points

2011-04-16T06:29:00.001-07:00

Competed in first round of the day. Scored 87 gadgets, 1 cone, 1 egg. Great job by Claude and Grant

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Seth's Blog: How to fail -

2011-04-11T22:24:00.001-07:00

« The free market | Blog Home

How to fail

There are some significant misunderstandings about failure. A common one, similar to one we seem to have about death, is that if you don't plan for it, it won't happen.

All of us fail. Successful people fail often, and, worth noting, learn more from that failure than everyone else.

Two habits that don't help:

Getting good at avoiding blame and casting doubt

Not signing up for visible and important projects

While it may seem like these two choices increase your chances for survival or even promotion, in fact they merely insulate you from worthwhile failures.

I think it's worth noting that my definition of failure does not include being unlucky enough to be involved in a project where random external events kept you from succeeding. That's the cost of showing up, not the definition of failure.

Identifying these random events, of course, is part of the art of doing ever better. Many of the things we'd like to blame as being out of our control are in fact avoidable or can be planned around.

Here are six random ideas that will help you fail better, more often and with an inevitably positive upside:

Whenever possible, take on specific projects.

Make detailed promises about what success looks like and when it will occur.

Engage others in your projects. If you fail, they should be involved and know that they will fail with you.

Be really clear about what the true risks are. Ignore the vivid, unlikely and ultimately non-fatal risks that take so much of our focus away.

Concentrate your energy and will on the elements of the project that you have influence on, ignore external events that you can't avoid or change.

When you fail (and you will) be clear about it, call it by name and outline specifically what you learned so you won't make the same mistake twice. People who blame others for failure will never be good at failing, because they've never done it.

If that list frightened you, you might be getting to the nub of the matter. If that list feels like the sort of thing you'd like your freelancers, employees or even bosses to adopt, then perhaps it's resonating as a plan going forward for you.

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Posted by Seth Godin on April 11, 2011 | Permalink

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via sethgodin.typepad.com

Failure! How many times have I failed.

I have a poster my Aunt Kaki painted me when I was younger. It says "I am not judged by the number of times I fail but by the number of times I succeed and The number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail." I read this poster over and over everyday as I was growing up. Failure is not something we should avoid, it something we need to embrace and prepare for.

As Seth's says above, "We all fail, all of us." I am reminded of a slogan from IDEO team that has the motto of " Fail often to succeed sooner. " Failures leads us to growth if we take the opportunity to evaluate it and learn from it. It was redirect the failure to others, then we have failed at failing since we are not learning to evaluate ourselves and improve.

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Lifelong Kindergarten Design, Play, Share, Learn - Sounds like a great day to me!

2011-04-08T21:38:00.001-07:00

Innovation in K12 Education: Project Based Learning and Play

creativity in k12 education, design thinking in schools, innovation in k12, project based learning

Mitch Resnik on “Lifelong Kindergarten: Design, Play, Share, Learn” at Stanford. Mitch, in a recent article in Edutopia points out:

If this approach is so well aligned with current societal needs, why do we so rarely support it in classrooms? One reason is that our society and our educational system don’t place enough value on creative thinking.

Another reason is a lack of appropriate media and technologies: Wooden blocks and finger paint are great for learning kindergarten concepts (such as numbers, shapes, sizes, and colors). But as children get older, they want and need to work on more advanced projects and learn more advanced concepts. To do that, they need different types of tools, media, and materials.
This is where I believe digital technologies can play their most important role. If properly designed and used, new technologies can extend the kindergarten approach, allowing “students” of all ages to continue learning in the kindergarten style and, in the process, to keep growing as creative thinkers.

In my research group at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we’ve been developing new technologies specifically to support the kindergarten approach to learning. For example, we’ve collaborated with the Lego Group since 1985 on a collection of robotics construction kits that enable children to imagine and create interactive inventions in the same spirit as kindergartners build towers with blocks.

via compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com

if you have not had a chance to read about Mitch Resnik, give this article a read for a starter and continue to seek out his research and findings.
Students want to use things in class to learn as well as express themselves. To many times, we as teachers think we know what is best for them, but the students coming to us are different. They interact continually, all day and on multiple levels. As teachers, we need to welcome back the days of kindergarten and learn to play again.

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Protei - Open Source Oil Spill Drone Robots

2011-03-30T20:40:00.001-07:00

via sites.google.com

Robotic drones helping cleanup oil spills

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Eythor Bender demos human exoskeletons

2011-03-30T20:31:00.001-07:00

via ted.com

Excellent example of engineering applied to a problem and demonstrated.

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How Differential Gear works (BEST Tutorial)

2011-03-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Great tutorial on how a differential works. This video is from 1930 and is so great in explaining how it works.
Take aways for me:
Video worked even in 1930 - it can work now
Black and white video seems to give you a different perspective
Simple examples provide a very clear explanation
Build on the idea to complete the final example
Show a practical example of the principle

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Get the Scoop on Classroom-robotics | Scoop.it

2011-03-25T21:26:00.001-07:00

Classroom-robotics

“Classroom teacher utilizing robotics and robotics contest to interest students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math”

Created and curated by Norman Morgan

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STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

LJ Create's educational software and equipment solutions for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education.

via scoop.it

My daily Scoop on Classroom Robotics and STEM. Give it a look.

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Student Understanding

2011-03-25T19:32:00.001-07:00

To understand is to discover... A student who achieves a certain knowledge through free investigation and spontaneous effort will later be able to retain it... Jean Piaget, 1973

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Rutgers engineers turn to racetrack to gain skill, get jobs | MyCentralJersey.com | MyCentralJersey.com

2011-03-25T19:14:00.001-07:00

Rutgers engineers turn to racetrack to gain skill, get jobs

7:24 PM, Mar. 25, 2011 |
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Members of the Rutgers Formula Racing Team, (from left) Umur Selek, Omar Ashraf and Derek Horton, work on the team's competition car on the Busch campus. / Jason Towlen/STAFF

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KEN SERRANO
STAFF WRITER

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This is the Rutgers Formula Racing Team's 2010 car.

individual: 12 numChar :2062
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NEW BRUNSWICK — In 2009, the Rutgers Formula Racing Team was broke and running out of time.
The recession had kept many of its sponsors from supporting the team, which each year builds an open wheel, open cockpit racing car to compete with cars built by other engineering students around the world.
Some of those teams enjoy rich sponsorships from major players in the automotive industry that yield upwards of $100,000 a year in funding in the United States. A German team once netted $250,000.
The Rutgers team receives about $8,000 in fees from engineering students, $4,000 from the engineering school to compete in two events and some cash and free services donated by private companies, such as Sunoco and Sport Honda Powerhouse of Metuchen. The total budget including the donated services is between $20,000 and $25,000.
But the donations fell so low two years ago that the students had to dig deep. Team members came up with $10,000 from their own pockets, team members and the team's staff adviser said.
It paid off. Rutgers came in third in design that year out of about 120 teams from around the world, a huge podium finish given the relatively low amount of financing the team sees.
Abhir Adhate, a senior this year and the team's technical lead, used a credit card to come up with $1,000 in 2009, he said.
But for Adhate, the money was an investment.
He received an internship with Pratt & Whitney that year, based largely on his work on the car. The Connecticut company designs, manufactures and services aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines.

via mycentraljersey.com

Students in colleges and universities have been participating in activities such as these for decades. For 20 years now, FIRST robotics has been providing an equivalent challenge and opportunity to high school students. Programs such as these need to be integrated into more high school and middle school programs.

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Mentors, Students - Professional coaches for students for FREE!!!!!!

2011-03-23T21:44:00.001-07:00

Waving the Flag for Engineers Everywhere

March/22/2011 at 12:03 pm

As an engineer for GM, Dave Verbrugge has been involved in getting some exciting technology on the road like the active air shutter that is now used on the Chevrolet Cruze ECO model to enable it to get 42 mpg highway. In addition to a management degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he also has engineering degrees from Calvin College, the University of Michigan and Purdue University. But just because he’s an accomplished engineer doesn’t mean he walks around with a pocket protector and a too-short tie. When you see him at the Michigan FIRST Robotics Competition events, he’s usually in the middle of the field, stalking and talking, pointing his finger, jogging from one end to the other and waving team flags. All the time he’s firing up the spectators who have crowded into the gyms to see high school students pit their robots against one another.

Dave with two members of his FIRST Robotics team in 1997

Dave got involved with FIRST Robotics Competition back in 1997. He mentored the students on Team #67 which includes the Huron Valley (Michigan) school district. FIRST was launched in 1992 by inventor Dean Kamen who wanted to get more students interested in careers in science and technology. Dave was among the first GM engineers to step up and volunteer his time to help the students. Now 15 years into his commitment he’s still doing it and you can hear the pride in his voice as he says, “We’ve had a number of students go on to engineering careers up to Michigan Tech, Kettering (University,) University of Michigan and a number of them now are GM engineers.”

via facesofgm.com

Students are fortunate to have mentors such as Dave Verbrugge to volunteer time for teams such as HOT.

As a high school basketball coach, I never had one professional basketball coach spend a day at practice with my students, give them their personal email address or phone number. I currently have professional coaches for my robotics team -- they are called mentors, yes that is right mentors. They mentor the students at Westlake High School in our robotics contests such as BEST, FIRST Technical Challenge, FIRST Robotics Challenge, FIRST LEGO League and Texas Computers Educators Robotics Challenges.
These individuals spend time with the students as they prepare for the contest. They come into the shop after they have worked a full day at their full time job to help the students with projects related to the contest robots such as designing, prototyping and building of robots. In addition some of the mentors work with the students in areas such as programming, website design, marketing, photography, fund raising, outreach and time/project management. The students learn from professionals how to approach and solve problems. The answers to problems and questions are not read from a book but many times come from careful evaluation and planning to come up with a solution.

Thank you to my mentors and the investment they make each and every day. The impact is so profound and far reaching. Individuals such as Dave mentioned above are changing our students on a daily basis. In the troubled times of education systems these days, we need more shining stars such as Dave. The mentors for my team are Scott McMahon, Linda McMahon, Joe Hershberger, Michael Watson, Tim Ousley, Miguel DeLeon, Bob Witowski, Joyce Witowski, Rebecca Phillips, Laura Dutton, John Pflueger, George Celniker, Tim Jordan and Dona Jordan.

If you have mentors such as these, be thankful and give them a special handshake, hug or little appreciation the next time you see them. If you are interested in how to become involved, please email me at coach.norm@gmail.com.

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Casting Gears from Epoxy/BEST robot update/Film Shoot

2011-03-23T20:49:00.001-07:00

We starting experimenting with making gears from 5 Minutes Epoxy since that is a KOP material for BEST Robotics. We made a mold of the gear with a Freeman mold kit. We sprayed the mold with PAM before we placed the Epoxy in the gear mold. The Epoxy was mixed very well trying to keep the air bubbles at a minimum in the mix. We poured the Epoxy into the mold and let it cure overnight. The gear popped right out of the mold with no problems.

We had to do some work to clean the cast gear up but it seems to be a good, useable gear. We will make another one to use on the pincher for the frisbee (gizmo seal). See the slideshow below for the mold, gear and new gear from this process.

Discussion continue on the design of the gizmo gatherer, the final design of the pincher for the frisbee and the arm standoffs for the arm. The data port reader is ready to be installed on the robot with the wiring on Thursday.

We will have a film crew at the school on Thursday interviewing Keren Rempe, Garrett Witowski, Jonny Dahm and myself as well as doing some filming of LEGO/National Instruments Products in the classroom.

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Sidenotes and Robotics Happenings for FRC 2468 - Team Appreciate

2011-03-22T21:22:00.001-07:00

Here are a few updates for FRC 2468 Team Appreciate (oh by the way, it all started here)

We will have a film crew at Westlake High School on Thursday for National Instruments and LEGO products in the classroom video
The team was featured in some video footage at San Antonio Regional - http://austin.ynn.com/content/276979/camm--learning-by-robotic-competition
Saturday, March 26th - Barton Creek Mall - Robotics Demonstration with DaVinci Mobile heart surgery robot
We are donating a two hour LEGO birthday party to Forrest Trail for a silent auction
We are organizing a potential robotics conference at BEST World Championships
We received notification from National Instruments of a $2000 grant we will be receiving
Our BEST robotics team has been invited to participate at the Texas Capital Building in May as part of a robotics demonstration for State Legislatures
Garrett Witowski is nearing completion of his Eagle Scout project - a 1/2 day Robotics workshop for elementary/middle school age students
Our storage building was completed by the Maintenance Department from Eanes ISD.

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Post Spring Break and BEST Robotics Update - 25 days until drive practice in Florida!

2011-03-22T20:52:00.001-07:00

FIRST Robotics season is over for us. We had a great time at The Alamo Regional Inaugural Regional in San Antonio. We placed 20th out of 60 teams and won the Engineering Excellence Award. We were chosen for the number 8 alliance selection by Rookie Team 3847. FRC Team 647 completed the alliance. We played against Bomb Squad (FRC 16), Robowranglers (FRC 148) and Rookie team 3841 - Brandie Bronc Bots. We lost in two straight matches but we went down fighting to the end of the two matches.

Our robot was named in honor of Liz Brocklehurst who succumbed to her battle with cancer one week before the San Antonio Regional.

We won the Engineering Excellence award for our Game piece manipulator. It was a lifter made from 80/20 aluminum extrusion. It can lift the arm 10 feet in the air. The shoulder joint is mounted on the lifter and is able to move approximately 160 degrees of motion depending on the location of the lifter. It runs off a CIM motor with #25 chain and sprocket. The tube for the wrist mount is made of aluminum that was machined with Tim Ousley's CNC utilizing CAD done by the students on the team. The wrist works on a differential system of bevel gears, belts and pulleys. The wrist was capable of moving up and down as well as rotating left and right. The pincher is a controlled with pneumatics. The plate of the pincher or whale tail as it was called in the contest, is made of carbon fiber custom designed and made by the team. The drive team of Robert Kuykendall and Grant Agatston did a great job along with human player David Weiser of competing in the contest with very little drive practice prior to the event.

The team also worked hard to assist other teams in getting ready to compete in the Regional. Students helped with programming, wiring, pneumatics and general work on robots through out the three days of the tournament.

A film crew was there to shoot footage of our team in action for National Instruments and LEGO. They will be in our class this coming Thursday to shoot follow up footage with the team as well.

We participate in SXSW with our robot and three of our mentors on a panel discussion about FIRST robotics and mentoring. Our FTC robot as well as "LIZ" were demonstrated at the event as well.

BEST Robotics

We are now preparing for BEST robotics World Championships in Orlando Florida. The contest will be April 14 - 17 at ESPN Sports Center Village.

The scoring for the contest change with the ECO that was released on March 4th. Gadgets are still worth the same values but gizmos increased in value for delivery and sealing as well as gizmos packages increased in value. Gizmos and packages doubled in point value. We have chosen as a team to go for the dual production points in the contest.

We have brainstormed over the past two days of to methods for doing so. We have decided on a three pronged approach to handling each of the gizmo production pieces. We will have a wire gimbal for handling the cones, a "tennis ball" pick up device for the gizmos and a pincher for the seal on the packages. All of these will be on the end of an arm that pivots above the gadget container on the robot. The data port reader has been redesigned as well with wire for the data connection points rather than the plumbers tape. The reed switches will play a very instrumental part in this strategy. The programmers have been doing some experimenting with the strength of field of the magnets on the sensors. We hope to have an autonomous routine to assist with the successful detection and gathering of the proper gizmos.

Yesterday, we laid up a silicone mold of a VEX gear. Today, we popped the gear out of the mold. We cleaned up the mold and got it ready for the epoxy. We used the 5 minute epoxy in the Kit of Parts to fill the mold of the gear. We will take it out of the mold on Wednesday.

We have a goal of 100 gadgets packaged, return a waste of two gadgets, score at least one gizmo sealed gizmo package with 3 gizmos. This results in a score of 2800 points. We feel we can do this consistently and possibly get a higher score in a few rounds. Consistency along with no waste will be the name of the game. An additional 20 gadgets delivered will result in 240 additional points, and If we can package these, it will result in 360 points for a grand total of 3160.

So design is:

Two motors for drive system

One motor for opening/closing of the gadget door with microswitches at the top and bottom to control the motors

One servo for MRT hooks - this servo will also server as a signaling device for defective gadget color as well as possible identification of magnetic properties

One servo for Data Port Reader

One servo for gizmo manipulator (tennis ball pickup device)

One servo for gizmo package seal - this device will be a two bar linkage with the custom made gears from the epoxy.

The countdown has begun for the final push. 25 days until drive practice in Florida. We hope to be driving a completed robot in less than a week.

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After Spring Break Update

2011-03-21T14:53:00.001-07:00

The team has returned from Spring Break and now gearing up for BEST Championships.

We had a great time at the Alamo Regional Contest in FIRST. We placed 20th out of 60 teams and won the Engineering Excellence award. We were delighted to be chosen as part of the 8th alliance. We were defeated by the eventual champions of 16, 148 and 3481.

Norman Morgan

Robotics I and II

Room 149 - NGC

512.732.9280 ext. 33459

Team 2468 - Who do you Appreciate?

www.chaprobotics.com

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Big bright moon in League City, Texas

2011-03-18T17:50:00.001-07:00

It is so bright it begins to hurt your eyes when looking at it.

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Lego contests put minority students on a mission

2011-03-17T15:25:00.001-07:00

By Kevin Sieff
Sunday, March 13, 2011; 11:55 PM

From a classroom in Anacostia, Brittany Robinson, 14, is programming a robot to perform open heart surgery. She's focused, squinting at the small machine, weighing in periodically on the intricacies of computer science and engineering.

Never mind that the robot and the heart are made of Legos.

Her team at KIPP DC: AIM Academy, a charter school, is part of a burgeoning program that uses the children's toys to make engineering more exciting and accessible to students in elementary, middle and high school - an effort that has experienced success in its first years.

At Washington area Lego robotics competitions, Brittany's team is one of a small but growing number of predominantly African American groups. Although most of the Virginia/DC First Lego League's 3,500 entrants and 437 teams are from the suburbs, the Symbiotic Titans are one of a few teams from east of the Anacostia River. Maryland also has a First Lego League.

For many on the D.C. team, robotics has been a revelation.

"I knew the basics of what engineers do, but I didn't know all the things that go with robotics," Brittany said. "I didn't know what it takes to complete a mission."

via washingtonpost.com

FIRST LEGO League continues to motivate as well as reward students who are involved. This article is a great example of the influence the contest has on students.

In the article, Brittany Robinson, age 14, states she knew the basics of engineers jobs but did not know all the things associated with Robotics.

I just think it is go great to hear students articulate what the contest has exposed to them to.

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FRC 233: THE PINK TEAM Builds SWAT Robot | Kenneth Wong's Virtual Desktop

2011-03-17T13:01:00.001-07:00

FRC 233: THE PINK TEAM Builds SWAT Robot

PDBot, a SWAT robot designed and built by FIRST Robotic Competition students from The Pink Team for their local police department.

PDBot as it was built (left); PDBot as conceptualized in PTC's Pro/ENGINEER (now rebranded as Creo Elements/Pro).

When Detective Christopher Cochie from Rockledge Police Department, Florida, first approached FIRST Robotic Competition (FRC) Team 233 to help build a robot for his SWAT team, he had something fairly simple in mind, like a remote-controlled miniature car with a camera mounded on the hood. The team took his ideas, added some of their own, and came back to him instead with a state-of-the-art robot that could climb up steps, trudge through mud, toss a phone, launch flash bangs, and do much more.

Its creators, a group of students from FRC Team 233, were well-versed in the mechanics of robotics, thanks to the competitions they’d participated in. Given the chance to help their local police officers, they jumped at the opportunity, enlisting the help of their teacher and FIRST mentor Marian Passmore and their FIRST sponsor NASA. (Team members were mostly from the Cocoa Beach area, roughly 15 miles away from Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.)

via deskeng.com

Another FRC team working their magic in their neighborhood. FRC Team 233, The Pink Team (http://www.thepinkteam.org/) built a SWAT robot for the Police Department in Rockledge, Florida.

Read the entire article at the link above.

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DraftSight, FRC Team 2468, Chap Robotics, Mentor Tim Ousley

2011-03-16T16:40:00.001-07:00

"We load the drawing up in DraftSight, clean it up and then export it to a 2.5-D CAM package and generate the code to build the parts."

In the fall BEST competition, the team needed a custom wheel called an "omniwheel" to enable better robot stability without constricting freedom of motion. In a fast-moving competition, the only thing worse than a clumsy drive system is an unstable robot. A complex omniwheel could fix both problems, but most teams won’t attempt to make one because of its complexity. Undeterred, one of Ousley’s students designed a single omniwheel made from 18 custom parts. He was able to draw it in DraftSight, then cut it from Lexan using the CNC on a weekend afternoon.

"It is a little tricky to build this kind of stuff, but DraftSight makes it easier," said Ousley. "DraftSight is the perfect tool for quick 2D part design. It’s easy to learn, easy to teach, and has an easy path to CAM. Plus it’s free, which means no barriers for use by our school."

It worked. After winning a local competition, Ousley’s Westlake High School robotics team competed at the Texas BEST Robotics Competition at the University of North Texas’s Coliseum in Denton, Texas. Against 47 other teams from Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, they finished eighth. They also won second place in the Founders Award for Creative Design, which goes to the team that makes the best use of the engineering process in consideration of offensive and defensive capabilities in machine design.

At this spring’s FIRST Robotics Competition, you can bet they’ll be refining the CAD/CAM capabilities they adopted in the fall. Those robots are north of 100 pounds, use vision-enabled real-time embedded computers and are built from aluminum, carbon fiber, steel and sweat.

"Our newfound ability to design, fabricate and modify complex components during the short build season is an intense learning experience disguised as a competitive advantage," said Ousley.

The Westlake High Chap Robotics team is sponsored by National Instruments, Texas Instruments, Pixels & Verbs and others. Mentors like Ousley volunteer time to work with teams after school. While the mentors provide guidance and make sure everybody is safe, the students do most of the work.

Both the BEST and FRC contents involve more than designing, building and operating a robot. They also include building and running a website, marketing, public outreach to younger students, communications, fundraising and teamwork - "intense teamwork," added Ousley.

YouTube video of an omniwheel robot

Wikipedia on omniwheels video showing a BEST competition

Source:
Tim Ousley

tim.ousley(at)ni.com Tim Ousley | Senior Engineer | Wireless DAQ R&D | National Instruments 512-683-6671

via 3ds.com

Dessault Systemes featured an article about the mentorship of Tim Ousley, National Instruments with our team utilizing DraftSight to design our Omni Wheels for our BEST robotics competition robot for Total Recall.

We will be competing at the BEST Championships in Orlando Florida on April 14-17, 2011.

Students are so lucky to be able to have mentors such as Tim working with them. Tim with the aid of one of Team 2468's students completed a CNC over the summer and early Fall. Tim worked with the students to utilize DraftSight to design the parts for the Omni Wheels. The students used Tim's CNC to manufacture the parts for the wheels. We need more schools to take part in such programs as well as mentors such as Tim and companies like Desssault Systemes. Contests such as FIRST and BEST allow students to work on real world problems; propose and test solutions; identify setbacks, successes and failures; and learn from professionals utilizing industry standards and practices.

Thank you to Tim, National Instruments and Dessault Systemes for allowing my team to participate.

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SXSW Robot Art Lessons

2011-03-14T10:48:00.001-07:00

SXSW - Robot Art Lessons

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SXSW Panel Discussion: FIRST Robotics: Technically You're Changing the World

2011-03-14T07:20:00.001-07:00

SXSW Interactive Panel Discussion FIRST Robotics: Mentor Panel Discussion

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Leadership quote

2011-02-03T07:11:00.001-08:00

"A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself."

-- Joel A. Barker

I received this quote today in my email. Who have you followed that took you to a place that you never conceived was possible? Are you willing to be the leader to take others to such a place? Norman Norman Morgan
Robotics I and II
Room 149 - NGC
512.732.9280 ext. 33459
Team 2468 - Who do you Appreciate? www.chaprobotics.com

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Kickoff Eve for FIRST Robotics Contest

2011-01-08T00:03:00.001-08:00

It is the night before FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff. It seems like not to long ago I was getting to attend my first ever Kickoff in San Antonio in 2008. It was the first year of our robotics program at Westlake High School. We have since grown in numbers of students as well as mentors involved with the program. I am expecting to see 60+ students involved with the FRC program up from our original 5 students for the first year. The first year was 33 Seniors, 1 Junior and 1 Freshman. This year we not only have the FRC team but we also have a FTC team who have been preparing all year for their contest. Our team consists of students from all four grade levels, students from Robotics I, II and III as well as students who are not in any of the robotics classes. We had two engineers who mentored the team and one non-engineering mentor. This year we will have 9 engineers and three non engineer mentors. The students and I are so fortunate to have the support from the mentors we have. Today Scott McMahon and Joe Hershberger presented at the Kickoff Workshops on CAN control with the Jaguar.

In addition to FRC Kickoff tomorrow, we will also be participating in TCEA LEGO Robotics Contest at New Braunfels. We will have four teams of two participating in the contest. Each of the groups has gotten to do some work with LabVIEW which will prove to be beneficial in the upcoming FRC season. This will be the first year we have programmers with experience.

We are currently scheduled to participate in San Antonio in the inaugural Alamo Regional Competition and patiently waiting on the waitlist for Dallas Regional.

I look forward to the new contest and new season. It is always exciting to see the animation and game demonstration as well as get the Kit of Parts. Heres to another successful year of FIRST Robotics Contest.

Go Team 2 - 4 - 6 - 8 !!! Who do you appreciate?

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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First Lego League Competition | kvue.com | KVUE News | Austin, TX | Breaking News

2010-11-14T08:40:00.001-08:00

First Lego League Competition

by KVUE News

kvue.com

Posted on November 13, 2010 at 4:56 PM

Updated yesterday at 6:15 PM

It's decision day for many Central Texas students. They have spent months designing and programing robots to make precision movements. This weekend marks the annual First Lego League qualifying competition. It will determine which teams will move forward to the next round. The goal is to get students excited about science, technology, engineering and math.

"We have engineers and mentors that come in and work with the kids after school. so they get to work personal with an engineer in the fields that maybe they're interesting in pursing as a career in the future," said robotics teacher Norman Morgan.

Students ages 9 to 14 are able to take part in this program. In addition to building the Lego robot, they are also required to complete a research project. This year the topic was biomedical engineering.

via kvue.com

Westlake High School hosted a Central Texas FLL qualifier on Saturday, November 13 for 31 area teams. Our tournament was the largest FLL qualifier in the area.

We had a great group of judges and referees for the tournament. Team 2468 parents and team members volunteered in a variety of locations and positions. Our FTC team set up their course and demonstrated "Get Over It".
Team 2468 had our "Breakaway" robot as well. Teams were amazed to watch the mecanum wheels work on the robot.
All in all it was a great day for the team.
KVUE News was there as seen above.
TeamX from Hill Country Middle school took the top of the tournament for the day. They also had the highest score of the day at the tournament.

We will be hosting the Central Texas FLL Championships on January 15th at Westlake High School.

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Total recall first waste for us

2010-10-23T14:12:00.001-07:00

We are now still in first but we had a waste gadget. Score is 1900 -currently for us.

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Total recall semifinal round

2010-10-23T13:42:00.001-07:00

1344 points for our first round of semifinals. We were the only team to go without a six sigma in the pilot production.

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Total Recall - Round 4

2010-10-23T11:33:00.001-07:00

We have completed 4 rounds so far.

We packaged 52 gadgets and delivered an additional 56 were delivered.

That was a score of 1608 for that round. We are in first place with a score of 6072.

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Total recall team dancing and scores after three rounds

2010-10-23T11:12:00.001-07:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Total recall first two rounds

2010-10-23T11:10:00.001-07:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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First round of TOTAL RECALL

2010-10-23T09:21:00.001-07:00

Second Round - Total score of 1716 - 61 packaged, 50 delivered.

Total Score of two rounds is 3240.

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First round of TOTAL RECALL

2010-10-23T08:19:00.001-07:00

First round was a 1526. Excellent rn for us.

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Total Recall - Drive practice - Bob Bullock State Museum

2010-10-17T08:54:00.001-07:00

Today we had drive practice. It was good to see all the other teams there. Many more teams seemed to have working and functional robots on Drive practice today.

We had the opportunity to get on the field 7 or 8 times today. Each time we were there for about 12 - 15 minutes. We had eight different drivers today. Each of them had a big learning curve when driving the robot. We started the day trying to read the data port, move the MRT, deliver gadgets and return the waster to the material recall center. We then decided to try and move as many gadgets as possible without regard to read the data port. The second strategy was more effective since it took so long to align to the data port.

Gadgets packaged	Gadgets Delivered but not packaged
35	61
56	17
38	88
55	9
56	53
62	55
90	0
30	56
40	76
60	50

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Total Recall - Drive practice is tomorrow and today's deliverables

2010-10-15T21:41:00.001-07:00

Today, we had deliverables of team essay, website and Youtube video. The webteam worked throughout the day on to complete the site. Justin, Keren, Michael Watson and Linda McMahon worked late into the evening to get it complete. The team essay and YouTube video was submitted late in the afternoon. The link to the YouTube is

David finished the MRT hooks during 2nd period today. The hooks worked very well in controlling the MRT around the shop. They may have to be adjusted slightly. The servos still vibrate quite a bit as we turn the robot on or move the servos. Jonny came in and worked on the programming to tweak a few things. The programming team has done a very good job of programming while not always having access to the robot. Jonny got to test the data port reader on the and it worked. The data read is communicated with the positioning of the MRT hooks. The door works although we may need to speed up the speed on the door closing. . The MRT hooks work. It is great to see it begin to come together. Students put a wheelie bar under the robot to help with the tipping of the robot when it is loaded or begins to accelerate. Grey and David worked on the rollers for the omni wheel. A few of the students worked on tweaking the design of the arm grabber. Currently we have some issues with the golf ball getting stuck in the slot of the bucket.

David and Aaron did some practice driving during 8th period. They were successful at loading and carrying over 80 gadgets but they also accidentally dumped a bucket full of balls. The robot was able to carry a large load of gadgets as well as control the MRT at the same time although we will not be performing this task in the contest.

Drive Practice will be held at Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Michelle worked on the Engineering notebook and printed it out. We have a second checkpoint on it at Drive practice.

Below is a video of the gadget grabber demonstrated by Sean and pictures of the omni wheels in progress.

Download now or watch on posterous

VIDEO0027.3gp (4822 KB)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Total Recal - Coming to the end of week 5

2010-10-14T21:56:00.001-07:00

We are on the eve of a deadline for some deliverables for the contest. The website and youtube video are due on Friday. We have drive practice at Bob Bullock State Museum on Saturday staring at 9:00 am and continuing until 3:00 pm.

The website team was very excited with the progress they made tonight. Jack took a computer home to continue to update and clean up the website. He and Keren are going to meet in my classroom at 8 on Friday morning to do some final checking for grammar, punctuation, etc.

The display team received materials from Mr. Jordan and other mentors tonight. Linda and Rebecca worked with the display team on the breakdown of what needs to be done and accomplished over the next few days. They have made a diorama of the display to help visualize the final product.

The robot team worked on a variety of parts this evening. Projects included:

mechanical stop for the door at the top of the left slide
plastic cover for the microswith at the bottom
battery mount made of lexan
epoxied two zipties together for a more sturdy and rigid connection between the door and the pulley
New MRT hooks were made out of 1/4" material, drilled and mounted - we discovered the Data port reader gave virtually no room for error in driving to connect to the MRT.
Data Port was completed and mounted but had to be remounted one inch over to allow more access for the MRT
Bucket was ziptied to the robot deck
All bolts have shortened on the standoffs, motor mounts, motors and door
Angle pieces of clear lexan were made for the MRT hooks to assist in controlling the MRT. The black foam rubber was added to the angle pieces for additional control of the MRT. These pieces need to be slotted and mounted still.
The MRT will set against the Data Port and be held in place with the servo hooks.
The arm/grabber made great progress tonight.
The last Igus flange bearing was mounted for the motor shaft and axle
The motor/shaft coupler was begun. David M worked on one with the drill press but then David W. worked on with the mill. It has been cut, and drilled for the two different shafts and set screws but needs to be tapped still
Bucket was cut out and bent last night
Square angle piece was mounted to the front of the arm
Pulley was slotted for the string
Arm was mounted on the pulley but not with the axle through the arm. The arm sets on top of the axle.
Servo mount tabs were cut, drilled, tapped and mounted on the arm
Aluminum extension was cut, drilled and mounted on the servo horn with 4/40 machine screws
The extension was bent and then taped to the bucket for demonstration. It works but the golf ball does get stuck in the apparatus sometimes.
We will have to put another wooden pulley on the opposite side of the arm for balance
Jack worked on sanding the rollers for the Omni wheel using a 4/40 machine screw, the drill press and some sandpaper. He got two of them sanded down. We will look at using it as a support under the bucket for when we are loaded. This will prevent us from dumping the gadgets on the floor.
Jonny came by to work on programming but did not have much time since he had a concert tonight. He did confirm that we have a dead servo.

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Total Recall - Day 29 and Parent meeting

2010-10-13T04:32:00.001-07:00

Good work day in the shop for the team.

I discussed with the Robotics II classes about the importance of posting to Basecamp on a daily basis so we could see/track progress. This is so important for other subteams who need information about the robot build but are not there each day or in the shop the entire time. I also discussed the lack of students at the work sessions on Saturday and Monday evening and the fact that this class was no different from any other extracurricular class in regards to team meetings/work times. They should show up to meetings when called even if they are on weekends and school holidays such as Monday.

Progress on the robot included:

Red deck had large wheels and caster mounted
Large silver wheels had hubs and tread mounted
Bolts were cut for the motor mounts, caster and wheels
Began painting the bucket blue
The bucket was cut to fit on the new deck
Reinstalled the door support and slides
Microswitches were soldered and installed on the slides. The slide had to be drilled and tapped for a 2/56 machine screws.
The corner Lexan pieces were drilled for access holes for mounting. They were also heated and bent at the top so that a gadget could not get stuck on top of it.
Jonny tested the code on the door. It was very successful with the wooden door in place but not so with the Lexan door. See the attached video. Two videos are attached. The first one shows 60 gadgets being released. The second shows 180 golfballs being released. Notice in the second one that so of the golfballs release but then they get jammed. Jonny has worked a drive code to help with this scenario but has yet to test it.
Fingers for data port were filed and sanded on the lexan piece
Grant worked on laying out the drill pattern for the fingers to be mounted to the wire assembly
Standoffs had a section that was not very strong, so we inserted wood wedges into the locations and glued them in place. The excess was trimmed off with the bandsaw.
Standoffs were installed using the right angle brackets
Servo mount holes were cut out in the standoffs
The arm motor was mounted to the right standoff
Tim Ousley came by to visit with the team and do some video of the omni wheels.
Grey sanded the lexan circles down so they would insert into the PVC pipe. He then expoxied 2 lexan circles into each piece of PVC pipe.
Joe worked with Grey on cutting the outer plates for the omni wheels. He got one small axle cut. The wheel looks good. It shows great prospect.
David M cut three arms from plywood and glued them together for the actual arm piece.
Brocklebolts were made for the pulley arms
Aluminum disks were drilled for the motor/axle arm for the pulley
Igus flange bearings were mounted with 4/40 machines screws that were cut off

We have some issues to work out that include weight balance since the door motor is located at the back end hanging over the back of the robot. We will lighten the deck in the back beyond the wheels. Jack B. suggested we use a wheelie bar or wheel to keep us from tipping over. The bucket will have to cutout on the grabber side so the standoffs do not stick over the end of the robot. Scott McMahon asked many different groups/students about their work projects. He asked questions for clarification as well as to make sure the students were aware of not only what they were doing but why as well. This is a usual daily activity for him in the shop.

The BEST award team met in regards to the notebook, display and notebook. Michael Watson spent some time with the Web team. He communicated the importance of posting on Basecamp projects that have been done as well as the need to get all files on Basecamp so others have access to it.

Joyce and Linda held a parent meeting to discuss WESTA and answer any questions about the team up to this point. I visited with the parents for a few minutes about our past, our current progress in BEST, plans for the Spring and our future. Funding continues to be a major hurdle we must be concerned with.

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VIDEO0027.3gp (4822 KB)

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Total Recall - Day 29

2010-10-11T21:49:00.001-07:00

The students did not have school today so we had a small group come in today. Although the group was small, progress was made on the robot.

Robot progress tonight:

Door zip tie was attached
Door frame mount was cut down to size and routered for weight reduction
Painted the new wheels silver
Painted the deck red with two coats of paint
Drilled new wheels for the hubs
Corner lexan inserts for the bucket. This also replaced the support plywood as well as the washers inside the bucket.
Jonny used the mill to shave the ends down on the slide which will have the microswitches on it. He used the drill press to drill for the 2/56 machines screws. He got two holes drilled for the top microswitch.
David M worked on the arm
Claude updated the CAD drawings for the door motor and mount
Jonny and Scott soldered the leads on the door motor
Daniel C cut on the fingers for the data port from the 1/4" lexan
Grey and David brought in the outer panels for the omni wheels they completed at Tim Ousley's house on Sunday.

Michelle, Achi and Keren worked on the BEST award tonight. Lauren came in after band to work on the display with Linda. Linda and I discussed the layout of the display and how we could possibly save some money by not buying so much cloth.

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WHS Staff Development, Carolyn Foote, WEB 2.0

2010-10-11T08:42:00.001-07:00

Carolyn Foote - October 11 Presentation on Web 2.0

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Westlake High Skype Training

2010-10-11T07:19:00.001-07:00

Skype training for Westlake High School

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Total Recall - 4 weeks today

2010-10-09T20:18:00.001-07:00

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VIDEO0023.3gp (3590 KB)

We had to compete with ACL, SAT test and Westlake Marching Festival today for shop workers, but we made very good progress today.

Work competed today included the following:

Grey completed the new wheels, although one blank was cut from the wrong size so he had to make a third wheel
New door mount board so we will have room to mount the door motor
Door pulley pieces drilled for mounting to each other
Motor hub for small motor was completed
Motor mount block was cut, drilled and mounted on the new door mount board
Door was reassembled and remounted to the robot.
Door motor mounted with pulley completed (spindles were drilled for attachment to each other as well as attachment to the hub)
Zip tie was attached to the spindle
The attached video shows the motor mounted to the bucket but we will have to work on center of gravity since the door assembly has loaded up the weight on that end outside the large wheels. This will create some concern for drivers to be aware of.
Grant completed the data port reader (sanded the fingers and attached the fingers to the base piece with the springs and wire loops)
Jonny tested the data port reader (this design was first intended to be on a swivel but had to be modified because it was not consistent)
The decision was made to mount the data port reader permanently to the deck - this proved to be very consistent as long as the driver continues to drive forward into the data port
Jonny made the decision to change the button required to read the data port so it would be easier to do
Jonny mounted the Cortex on the side of the bucket
David, Sean B., Claude and Chris worked on the final design of the gadget grabber.
David cut the board mount for the front of the grabber
Sean B worked on the standoffs for the grabber. He got the motor hole drilled, all the shafts holes and mounted the Igus flange bearings

Discussions were held about what projects need to be completed on Monday. They included microswitches for the door, mounting the zip tie to the door, grabber completion including pulley and shaft system. Painting of the robot was also discussed.

The display team met with Linda and Rebecca to make some final decisions. They also looked at the PVC frame and cloth from lasts years display. Late in the afternoon, Linda and Rebecca went shopping and searching for display materials.

David W., David M., and Grey are going over to Tim Ousley's house on Sunday afternoon to work on the omni wheels design.

Scott McMahon received a strange call from a team in Denton. The Texas Academy of Math and Science called asking him about how to make an arm as well as some programming help. They did not realize that Scott lived in Austin. Scott worked with Sean B to make a few videos explaining how our arm worked on our robot from last year. Scott visited with Sean about how we would share these videos as well as some programming help to this team over this next week.

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Total Recall - Day 28 and another Surprise visit from a Superintendent

2010-10-09T19:37:00.001-07:00

Today was not an after school work day but progress was made on the robot design as well as the BEST notebook and display.

David worked on the servo mounts only to realize that if we mount them to the deck, they will be to low to attach to the MRT. We also cannot mount them on the bucket door end because we could not grab the MRT on the narrow side. Discussion then moved to mounting them on the grabber standoffs. The servos will be mounted in the plywood standoffs with the hooks on the outside of each standoff.

During the Robotics II periods, we continued to work on same pieces that were not quite completed on Thursday night. Walker and Grant worked on the Data port reader. They trimmed the fingers some more and cut excess off the ends of the finger board. They also began work on attaching the two pieces of the data port reader.

Work began on laying out the cut out patterns on the new size wheels. The wheel blanks were cut out. Grey came in after school to complete the marking of one of the wheel patterns. He got the 3" pattern cutout very easily. When he was cutting out the 1 1/2" pattern, the blank split on one side. He tried another hole by drilling half way thru and then turning the blank over. This was successful. Grey decided he would complete the blanks on Saturday morning.

During the football game on Friday night, I received a call from Linda Rawlings. At first, I was very concerned about her calling me at the game. I answered and she asked if I could met her at the shop in a few minutes. My mind was racing with thoughts about what was wrong with the shop or what complaint she had received. She said she had visitors from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. I went to the shop to meet with Linda, Ellen Balthazar and the visitors. I game them the same documents the visitors received on Thursday. It was very interesting to me that the visitors from Thursday and Friday questioned the size of the shop and the facilities.

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Total Recall - Day 27 and Visitors from Superintendent's Consortium

2010-10-09T19:01:00.001-07:00

Today was a very good day in the shop.

It started out with a group of visiting Superintendents from a Consortium of Successful school which Dr. Wellman participates in. I had a chance to visit with them for a few minutes about our program and the importance/impact of robotics in the school. They each received a a FIRST robotics pamphlet, a Chap Robotics team pamphlet and a document I prepared for them stressing the importance of our program. The document is attached.

The robotics team began during the class day. Second period David worked on the servo mounts. Claude, Grey and Bryce came in during their lunch (which they do nearly every day, by the way) to work on SolidWORKS drawings of various parts and assemblies of the robot. Lauren and I researched videos on the internet about marble tracks and marble contraptions.

During 6th and 7th periods, we worked on a variety of parts of the robot including: new size deck, motor mounts for the small motors, plywood support strap for the inside of the bucket and pieces for the arm. Very few of these projects were completed so they continued after school. Projects that were completed before the night was over were:

Back door will raise and lower - it seems to work very well at this point
Pulley for the door were cut from Lexan and Plywood
Door motor mount was cut, drilled and bent
New bucket was cut to fit on the deck
Support struts were glued into place for the ramp inside the deck
Tinned loop wires for the data port
Springs for data port held in place with tinned wires and wood screws
Data port fingers were cut, filed and sanded
Data port fingers were drilled so that they would fit over the springs and wires
Grey worked with Miguel on SolidWORKS Cosmos stress analysis on the wheel design so we can lighten the wheels
Layout/drawings began on the standoffs for the arm
Arm designs were refined and contemplated
Sheet metal was cut for the front of gadget grabber
One piece of the wooden arm was cut
Jonny worked on reading the data port and was successful in telling what the port was stating

Work continues on the BEST award, display and website. I am concerned about the display. This group seems to be moving slower than I would like. They seem to think that it will get done. Michelle and Grant have some designs for the T-shirt revolving around the Willie Wonka "Nerds" theme.

Before we left the shop for the evening, the team tested the bucket door releasing 80 gadgets into the manual processing center. The results were very exciting. They also tested more gadgets but we had some difficulty with some getting stuck in the corners and getting lodged and not coming out.

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Why Robotics.docx (17447 KB)

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Total Recall - Day 22

2010-10-06T18:02:00.001-07:00

Today was a very productive day during the school day and right after school before I had to leave.

Progress today before I left was:

Bucket was released from clamps
Connor and Iain got the motor cutouts on the bucket
Proof of concept of the sliding door was made and evaluated. It was made of 1/4" plywood, Igus slide rails, Igus slides and a piece of cardboard. The door had rubber bands attached at the bottom to assist in the door returning to the down position.
Robert and Josh got the bucket door reinforcement was cut from 1/4" plywood and the door was cut from the piece
Josh got the door cut from 1/4" plywood
The slides for the door were cut from the Igus slide rails
Jack got the ramp located in the bucket was trimmed down to size to fit into the bucket
Several students worked on the supporting struts for the ramp were used cardboard in a tic,tac, toe formation under the ramp. It was cut at an angle to support the ramp.
Aaron and Kendall worked on the spindle for the door. The motor mount will effect the size of the spindle. We would like to
Walker and Grant worked on the Data port reader using springs from the clothes pin, a 1" X 4" wood plank. They are working on a prototype for the data port reader. It seems to be a good concept and could possibly a workable solution.
Jonny and Robert began to work on code for the small motor to raise and lower the door along with microswitches located at the top and bottom to cut the motor off.
Karen posted a questionnaire on Basecamp for each team member to till out.
The BEST Award team worked on compiling more data.
Sean and David were going beginning to work on servo mounts and small motor mounts after school.
Claude and Grey worked on SolidWorks designs of the ball grabber and arm.
Grey was working on the SolidWorks for the door of the bucket.
Sean was working on the ball sorter for the display.

We discussed the design of the door motor mount, small spindle and the apparatus for raising and lower the door. A discussion also revolved around extending the chassis 1" in the front where the balls come out of the bucket as well as extending 1" longer in the front.

Grey, Bryce, Claude and I discussed lightening the wheels. This will reduce the inertial mass of the wheels.

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Total Recall - Day 22

2010-10-05T20:49:00.001-07:00

The shop was very busy tonight with lots of students. Many of the students present work and move forward in their progress while some others continue to seek out their position on the team.

David, Claude and David met to discuss some of the decisions of the weekend drive practice and team meeting. Decisions include:

an arm operated with a motor for up and down control, a servo grabber control
servos mounted on the corners for control of the MRT
sliding door on the bucket controlled by a small motor and a pulley on the motor shaft
bucket will be two inches taller
use the golf ball/lazy susan caster
data port reader will communicate through the servos

Several designs were discussed in how to make the data port reader interface with the data port. Lots of discussion around aluminum strips, clothes pins and the piano wire rolled into a wire spring.

Karen and Michael visited about the structure of the website. One focus of their discussion was on a biography feature of each teammate to possibly be included.

Michael and I visited about his work with the Anderson team on Monday night. We discussed the possibility of a student from our team going over to work with their programming team on the coming Saturday.

Jonny and Tim worked on reading the data port interface. Although we do not have the apparatus ready for the robot, Jonny has successfully demonstrated how to read the data and communicate it with a dial feature powered by a servo. I had to rain on his parade and inform him you could not utilize paint or decorations in conjunction with the dial for communications purposes.

Chris and Milo completed marking and cutting the layout of the new bucket. David and Sean glued the bucket and clamped before leaving for the night. David worked on the design for the servo mounts for the MRT.

The FTC team continues to work on their design each day.

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Total Recall - Week 4 Begins

2010-10-05T20:32:00.001-07:00

I was sick today and did not attend the meeting or school today. In robotics II, students who were present at the Drive practice gave reports on how our robot performed, times we recorded, evaluation of our time line and observations of other teams robots. In the evening meeting, Scott gave a presentation on motors.

With less than 3 week until the contest day, I hope the students realize the sense of urgency to get things done.

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Total Recall - Day 21

2010-10-05T20:25:00.001-07:00

Drive practice at Roger Beasley Volvo in Georgetown, Texas was today. We learned that our time line was on target. We definitely need to work on the manipulator to control the MRT. It took 40 seconds to load 60 golf balls. Our caster design with the lazy susan and golf ball worked very well.

The design of the robot will change to include the following: an arm with the servo claw, a door that will raise straight up with the power of a small motor, two servos with hooks to manipulate the MRT. The bucket will be made 2 inches taller but be made of one layer of cardboard but will still remain in the one square foot print.

The design notebook was turned in for the original checkpoint. We received very positive feedback on the progress and the general state of the notebook. We have high hopes for the design notebook this year.

Before the team left drive practice, the team sought out a meeting place to discuss the days proceedings.

Several of the students along with Scott, Linda and Tim went back to the shop to work on designs. Upon return to the shop, they worked on designs and ideas from the day of drive practice.

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Total Recall - Day 20

2010-10-05T20:05:00.001-07:00

Tonight we worked on the bucket for the gadgets. It is now complete with all sides three layers thick and the door is hinged. The ramp was installed as well. We continue to work on the design of release mechanism for the gadgets. The arm design has been put on the back burner until after drive practice as well as the omni wheels. The data port reader still remains to be finalized in the design.

The BEST award team continues to work on the design notebook and the display. They had made great progress and will have something good to present on Saturday at Drive Practice. The display will revolve around Willie Wonka. Sean and Lauren continued to work with the NXT brick and the color sensor. They have been successful at getting the sensor to distinguish between yellow, black and white balls. They are also working on a sorting technique for eggs as well.

Drive practice is Saturday at Roger Beasley with an initial check on the Engineering Notebook.

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Total Recall - Day 19

2010-09-29T21:05:00.001-07:00

Major Milestone today: We have a driving robot. Large wheels, golf ball and lazy susan caster, deck and programming. Success.

The programming incudes: forward and backward, point turn, swing turn, change in speed and change in orientation of the robot's forward direction.

Timed on the tile floor: 10 feet in 5.5 seconds with 7 pounds and 6 ounces.

Turns very well on the tile floor but still needs to be tested on the carpet.

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Total Recall - Day 18

2010-09-29T19:21:00.001-07:00

We continue to struggle with the design of the entire robot. We understand the major strategy of our robot but have not fleshed out the fine details of the designs. David M and I visited at length with Scott over lack of communications within the team. The build team is working but not always in the same direction and often not on the same page. For example, today some students sought out the dimensions of the chassis for the robot. They communicated with some of the CAD team and got dimensions for the deck. They cut the deck to 18" x 20" and then routered the edge of the board. This process took most of 6th and 7th period with the learning process of using the circular saw and the router. After school, it was communicated that it was the wrong size. It should have been 16" x 18" instead. This brought up a discussion of what and where are the dimensions of the robot and all assemblies. On top of this, team members continue to ask me each day "What do I need to work on?". We need the student leaders to step up, communicate and assign the assemblies of the robot.

Kendall and Aaron finished the golf ball-lazy susan caster. It is still in prototype mode but will prove beneficial for testing and evaluation. The caster will be mounted on the back of the robot chassis. The omni wheels designs continue to be worked in SolidWorks. Grey and David are very close in finalizing the design. Tim Ousley continues to do some testing on the CNC mill.

David W. finished drilling, bending and filing the motor mounts for the large wheels. The hubs are so much better than we have made in the past. The vertical mill has proven to be very beneficial in the manufacturing of the hubs. David got the large wheels and front caster mounted on the deck. He will work to get it all wired up on Wednesday in the class period. Hopefully we will have a driving chassis on Wednesday.

Non engineering teams continue to work in small groups on their individual projects. Michael Watson came in tonight to work with the Website team. He says that all of the students are all experienced in HTML. They are making progress in content creation at this time.

The BEST Award team has continued to work on the notebook, display and documentation.

Basecamp is beginning to be used more and more by the team. We will see if it the use continues over the course of the season. It provides a nucleus for all of our documentation and communications to reside, be shared and begin from.

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Total Recall - Day 17

2010-09-28T04:58:00.001-07:00

We had our weekly team meeting tonight. Students began coming into the shop after school but the team meeting was not until 6:30. Work was done in the following areas: front wheel caster, bucket for gadgets, painting golf balls, website, community team, display and more CAD.

Several students continue to complete lessons in SolidWorks. The use of the printed lessons in the "CAD bible" has proven to be very beneficial. This provides a method for the students to work at their own pace through the lessons and learn the software. Grey has continued to show great interest in the use of the program. He has been taking a SolidWorks computer home in the evenings to work on the design of the omniwheels. Claude has a robot design with drive wheels, bucket and arm completed.

Sean and Lauren work on the design of the display, more specifically the golden egg apparatus and marble sorter. Sean has completed a bill of materials for the display.

At the team meeting, David presented Basecamp to the team. It is our project management software for team. Basecamp had donated the service to the team to implement. Jonny had populated his programming team information in the program, so David used this as an example for the team to see. Michelle and Karen spoke to the team about the importance of daily updates on progress and goals for each subteam. Leaders are responsible for making sure these updates occur.

Joe, Michael and Rebecca were able to make the meeting tonight along with Scott and Linda. We had 43 students in attendance for the meeting and a few others who came in to work after school but could not stay for the meeting. Next week Scott will be presenting Sensors for FIRST Robotics.

Drive practice is less than 5 days away but no driving robot at this point. The team is close to putting the drive base together though. Drive wheels and hubs are completed, while we continue to work on the chassis, motor mounts and front wheel caster. Hopefully we will get those completed on Tuesday.

We received notification from National Instruments that our LabVIEW for Education has been FEDEX'ed to us. It is a classroom install of 25 seats for the team and class. We will move to LabVIEW in Robotics I very soon. In addition, I continue to see how we can resolve the SolidWorks software issues.

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Total Recall - Week two wrapup

2010-09-26T20:09:00.001-07:00

We have completed two weeks of the build season at this point. We have made progress with the team structure and students working under student leadership. The groups seem to be working but need redirection from time to time.

Student leadership and decision making has been an aspect we have not had the past few years. We had a few students who were willing to take on leadership roles as well as lead a small group in some decision making. The mentors have all agreed we feel it is very important to have more student leadership and decision making on the team. At times, the team works very within these confines but we still seem to be figuring out how to make it work as well as staying within that system. Many times, students have approached one of the mentors to ask a question about a team decision only to be told, find the student lead who is responsible for that and visit with them.

On Saturday, we had students working on the following groups: shop/robot, programming, CAD, website, media, video, BEST award, photography, outreach and the FTC team. Lots of students working in the shop, three different groups in the classroom and three groups in the hallway.

Joyce Witowski visited with several of the group leaders on Saturday about project management and communications. Joyce arranged for us to get Basecamp for the team to manage projects this year. Basecamp is the leading web-based project management and collaboration tool. David has sent out invitations to team members to set up accounts. He will do a presentation for the team on Monday night about how Basecamp works and how it will be implemented on the team.

The team has continued to struggle with what are the final dimensions and decisions on the robot. On Saturday, time was spent on aspects that were discussed but never finalized. This created a situation where we had to take time out of the day to discuss and make the decisions so that all the robot team was on the same page. We have two different groups who are working front wheel designs for the robot. One of the design is a omniwheel, while the other design is a remodel of our golf ball caster mounted on the lazy susan. Tim Ousley came by on Saturday to see the progress of the team. He worked with a few kids on using the mill. He also took some scrap lexan home to experiment with his CNC. We are planning on a few of the students going to his house to help mill the parts for the omni wheels. Rear wheel size was determined to be 10" for the robot. Wheel hubs are done, wheels are done with rubber tread, now we need the motor mounts completed so we can get the robot platform running around.

Jonny and the programming team have prototyped code for all the aspects of the robot. They are awaiting the completion of the chassis for deployment and execution of the code.

The media team worked on several different aspects on Saturday. Austin and his group worked on ideas and storyboards for the Youtube Video submission while the website team worked on web structure, content creation and programming options.

The BEST award team looked over winning notebooks from last year. They focused on aspects that were present in all the notebooks as well as features that stood out in each notebook. The discussion also revolved around possible themes for the display. The display has discussed having a mechanical/robotic portion of the display this year.

Mark Dutton came to visit with the team on Saturday. He is attending Texas A&M. It was good to see him in the shop visiting with the team. He just came in and went to work with the team just like he had been involved with the team from the first day of school this year. We visited about his classes and looked at two of his books from his classes. His design workbook has lessons very similar to what we are working with the robotics I students currently. Mark mentioned it was very apparent to him the students in his classes who have had the opportunity to work on teams or projects prior to enrolling at Texas A&M.

On a side note, after discussions with the CATE Department Head, Pat Betzner, we will have more funding available for the team from the Carl Perkins Grant. This news allows us to reevaluate the regionals we will attend in the Spring for FIRST. Team leaders have decided we will attempt to attend two regionals this year: San Antonio and Dallas. San Antonio is a first week regional and a Bag and Tag event as well. This means we will bring our robot to San Antonio with us rather than have it shipped. We will ship it to Dallas which is a week four event.

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TCEA LEGO Robotics Training - Third and Final Day

2010-09-22T05:47:00.001-07:00

Today we will have our third and final day of training here in Austin. Notes from the day will be displayed below. If you are watching live, please tell us hello, where you are from and a little something about you. I am also interested in how you found the blog. Please share with the group. Several people in the class are interested in how to develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN). Most of the teachers in attendance here will be participating in a robotics contest for the first time, so drop them a line in the blog for any resources you think they could use in regards to LEGO contest, team management, lessons, resources and encouragement.

I received an interesting quote today in my email, so I thought I would share.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

- John Quincy Adams

Made me think a little and wonder if you ever thought about it.

Who do you inspire?
How do you get inspire?

Who inspires you?

TCEA LEGO Robotics Training - Third and FInal Day

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Total Recall - Day 11

2010-09-21T21:18:00.001-07:00

Students broke up into small groups in the shop to begin work on the robot. Claude took the CAD team and made assignments to work on. Six different students were working on CAD models of robot parts and or systems. David showed several students how to use the mill while working on his wheel hubs for the large robot wheels. David M. worked on casters/wheels/skids for the front of the robot with a few other students. Several students worked on laying out the course dimensions on the carpet. A large group of student use the GST to test how long it takes for Gadgets to travel down. They were testing in different quantities. The MRT was completed and ready for testing. Jonny and Robert continued to work on programming in RobotC. They have made great progress in the programming of the different features of the robot. Dustin and Brett were in the shop today working on the website and content for it.

The FTC team continues to work on their design while the BEST team works at the same time.

Today we received good news from Linda McMahon that our corporation for Westlake & Eanes Science & Technology Association came through today. We still have work to do on the 501 (c) 3 non profit paperwork though. It is great to see this happening and most of the thanks goes to Linda for all of her hard work and guidance.

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Untitled

2010-09-21T06:44:00.001-07:00

Day two training

The notes for the day will be below in the blog. If you are watching it live, please comment or share any resources so we know who is watching. Your comments will be approved

TCEA LEGO Robotics Training Day 2

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TCEA LEGO Robotics Training

2010-09-21T05:41:00.001-07:00

Day 1 of the three day workshop was very informative and interesting. We each received our LEGO Education kit and laptop. Each of us had to organize our kits, build our first robot (DomaBot) and begin to play in the LabVIEW environment. We learned and saved several basic drive programs. Drive forward, drive backward, point turn, swingturn and loops were the main topics.

The workshop was very well organized and run by the three presenters: Betty Justus, Peggy Reimers and Kathy Holberg. Each of them demonstrated and worked with all of the teachers. We each were given two task at the end of the day: work on "The Square" contest and our air conditioner interface drawing.

The software did not seem as daunting as I had believed it would be. The fact that I have used Mindstorms definitely helped me in utilizing the software. I am looking forward to Day two.

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Total Recall - Day 10

2010-09-21T05:33:00.001-07:00

Week two began with a smaller group of the team meeting. It was rather disappointing to see the turnout we had at the meeting, but the meeting was successful none the less.

We began the process with where are we and what do we need to get done. Sean and David reported on the progress of the robot design so far starting with an update on the progress from Saturday. Designs of the robot were written down and discussed for each individual system. We have chosen to focus on one game specifically. This simplifies our strategy as well as our robot. The robot will include two majors systems on the robot. Demonstrations of these systems were given to the class with cardboard and/or paper prototypes. Questions revolved around specific details which clarified the design and its purpose.

System one was decided to be multi functional. This system will model a previous apparatus we have implemented in the past. This system will be utilized in controlling the MRT, manipulating game pieces as well as Data Port communications.

System two will be a utilized to control games pieces from the GST. This system will undergo some refinement from the cardboard prototype. These refinements will include location on the robot, release mechanism, elevation from the floor and material consideration.

David presented team structure to the team on the Whiteboard. Team leads and sub team leads were identified. Team members also identified what teams they wanted to work on. After this presentation, Sean gave the group some tasks that needed to be completed by each team. CAD of the robot systems is high on the priority at this time. Some of the parts of the robot can go forward at this time. Game field production can also begin on Tuesday.

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TCEA Robotics Workshop

2010-09-20T06:45:00.001-07:00

TCEA LEGO Robotics Workshop

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Total Recall - Day 7 -- One week down, 5 weeks to go!

2010-09-18T15:57:00.001-07:00

One week has gone by since Kickoff for Total Recall. Progress continued not only on the robot design but in regards to some other areas as well. We had students working on many different aspects of the contest today but still have many things to be nailed down at this point. Progress was made in the following areas: programming, robot piece design, game field pieces made, website, Solidworks and robot construction.

Programming

Jonny and Robert worked with Scott. The team worked on a debounce feature which could implemented with the data port reading and relay of information. Jonny did a very good job in working with and explaining to Robert what they were attempting to do. Student mentorship is so important I believe in the success of our program. Jonny also visited with design teams in regards to how programming would be involved with their designs.

Robot Design

Students divided up into groups to work on systems of the robot. We started out with the day with four different groups focusing on one specific aspect of the robot. Each group worked on cardboard prototypes that were to 1:1 scale. Several different iterations of each design were worked on and evaluated by each individual group. Presentations were made at the end of the day by each group. They demonstrated their prototypes to the team. Team members offered feedback about the designs for clarification as well as ways to possibly improve the design. Progress was made in eliminating some designs but final decisions still need to be made on several of the features.

Game Field

Lauren and Michelle worked on the MRT construction while Sean R worked on the MPC. Each group will complete their piece construction on Monday. Tim Jordan worked on the calculations of the Scanning Tube since some of the dimensions do not seem to be correct. The official Q and A has stated that an updated copy of the dimensions will be available soon. The pipe and fitting were purchased for the Scanning tube to be manufactured.

Website

The website team met with Linda and Rebecca today to begin to work on the structure of the site. They discussed the evaluation rubric for the contest as well as did some work on looking at some other designs. Assignments were decided upon to begin the initial creation of content for the site.

SolidWorks and Robot Construction

Several students worked on SolidWorks of robot parts as well as working on tutorials. Manuel worked with Grey on the SolidWorks File of the large motor. They were were working on the beginning of the motor mount. David demonstrated making a drawing, printing, cutting and milling a block.

Good progress was made for the first week of Total Recall. A few of the systems are in the process of refinement while others still remain to be worked out.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Total Recall -- Day 5

2010-09-18T14:58:00.001-07:00

The team continued to work on designs of the robot. Teams worked in small groups. Each team worked on the entire robot. Supper was donated by Chipotle for the entire team. Student leaders left around 5:15 to pick up supper. They did not return until nearly 6:30 due to problems with the order not being ready. This left team to work within their small groups without much direct instruction and/or redirection by student leadership. The design groups seemed to have lost focus on the purpose of the activity. After the meal, teams presented their designs. Many of the designs were vague in many aspects while focusing very much on one or two aspects.

Lessons learned included

Student leadership must be present to help with direction of the team
The entire team should not be involved in the design of the robot
Students are struggling with the concept of designing the robot to meet all the criteria in the scoring strategy
I should work more on student leadership skills and expectations
The numbers of the program will require restructuring in the future
Student leadership structure should already be in place with subteams identified
In addition, students should know what subteam they are working under

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Total Recall - Day 6

2010-09-18T07:06:00.001-07:00

This day proved to be a little frustrating but progress was made on the design. Discussions of strategy have moved into designs but most of the designs still prove to be incomplete. Many of the small groups have focused on one or two features of the robot rather than the whole robot. Groups began to make prototypes of pieces with cardstock, tape and staples. Several groups had to be refocused on a number of occasions due to getting off task. Most of these behaviors were just seemingly random conversations that led away from the task at hand. Some groups chose to utilize materials in the shop to do some testing to see how the game pieces acted in certain situations while others just made assumptions on how the pieces would interact with the robot. A few students applied some basic physics to make some calculations to assist in designing and evaluating their design.

Team structure was discussed between David and several of the mentors. He has continued to try and place individuals in sub team leadership roles. The structure is coming together. He also moved from group to group to ask questions about their designs and to help keep them focused on the process of designing.

Jonny worked with Scott on the RobotC installation. Sometimes this proves difficulty due to the school computer have DeepFreeze on them. This software resets the image of the computer each time it is turned off to an original state. The software must be turned off so we can install software and sometimes it interferes with how the software interacts with the programming interface. Scott worked with Jonny on the controls and interface as well as the software on the computer.

In the presentations from the small design groups, many teams focused on one of two aspects of the game. Both of those aspects proved to be third or fourth in priority for our scoring strategy. Team discussion at the end of the evening revolved around what was done for priority one and two. If we could not do priority one, we could not score a single point in the contest. If priority two could not be accomplished, the scoring strategy becomes much less effective by making the jobs of all three workers in the system much more difficult and task oriented.

The team will not work on Friday, although the robotics II students will meet in class. Discussion in class will revolve around Saturday's activities and the evaluation of Thursday nights progress and setbacks.

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Total Recall -- Day 3

2010-09-15T20:55:00.001-07:00

Wow, what a day in the shop for Westlake Robotics. It started in the class with discussion of the new possible strategy. The assignment for the day was to discuss the three possible strategies we felt were available. The classes were divided up into three groups. Each group was to evaluate a specific strategy. The evaluation included a timeline, expected score with the strategy, how easy it would be to build a robot for this strategy, how easy would it be to drive as a driver, pros and cons of the overall strategy and any other key notes or ideas.

School was out and the madness began. It seemed as if the room were going to explode with the number of students that came into the room. In addition to the students coming to work on the BEST contest, the FTC team came up to work on their contest as well.

Groups broke up into the three independent strategies to continue the evaluation and discussion of the strategies. We had groups in the shop, the classroom and in the halls. Excitement was in the air as the groups begin to form and discuss their strategy. Each grouped use the game Excel Spreadsheet to assist in score prediction.

The entire group was brought back together in the classroom. Students were in chairs, on table tops and the floor while the presentations were given. Each group gave a presentation which included a timeline on the whiteboard, expected score as well as an explanation of the difficulty of building the robot and learning to drive it. After each group had presented, the entire group asked questions in regards to the presentations of each strategy. The group began to discuss and list Pros and Cons of each strategy on the board with each point being discussed.

The team worked until supper arrived. Parents delivered the meal for the 50 or so people who were present.

After the meal, the team decided upon the one strategy we would pursue with our robot. It was fairly easy to come to a decision based on the presentations of the evaluations provided by the teams. The remaining students broke up into design groups to begin to develop ideas for the robot to perform the strategy.

At the end of the meeting, a group of the student team leads discussed leadership positions with the team. The team will be divided into three sub teams: Robot, Media and Community. Each of these teams will have a leader who will place leadership positions under them for each additional sub-team.

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Total Recall -- Day 3

2010-09-15T19:40:00.001-07:00

The team did not meet officially today due to Open House at Westlake HIgh School, but students chose to meet and discuss the contest. I had students coming into the classroom starting at the beginning of 8th period and it continued up until Open House began at 6:30. One group of 10 students stayed in the shop to discuss, debate, brainstorm and theorize about the contest. If was great for the parents and the high school administration to witness the students choosing to work on their own for the contest and the team. The group in the shop was composed of students that represented all types of students on the team:

First year Robotics I students from this year with no experience on the team or in robotics
Robotics II students - the contest is an extension of the class and a required participation
Ex Robotics II who are not enrolled in any robotics class this year but are very active in leadership roles, one of which is the first four year student in our program
Robotics III students - students who are enrolled in ISM with mentorship from mentors on our robotics team
Non Robotics class students who have chosen to participate on the team

These students primarily spent time discussing strategy and potential designs to fit each strategy. The discussion included drawings on the windows with erasable markers to demonstrate ideas to each other.

No decisions were made in regards to strategy or design of the robot but respect was earned by some of those individuals with student team leads. It was also very apparent to the parents that the students was engaged in the process and very motivated as individuals.

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Total Recall - Day 2

2010-09-12T21:10:00.001-07:00

We met this afternoon since we will not be able to meet on Monday night. Monday night is Open House for Westlake High School. David and Lauren ran the meeting and discussions. David made a small presentation to the group concerning team structure, student leadership and purpose of the meeting for the day.

The group discussed any questions they had on the games rules and descriptions. It was hard to keep the team focused on the task at hand. Several times, someone would bring up a design feature or description of the robot. Lots of discussions of rules interpretations and definitions. Definitions of game pieces and the field have seemed hard to keep clear at this point. The group focused on a strategy and what we would attempt in each round along with a time line. The formula for the scoring was discussed at length to explain the importance of each portion of it. It became very clear using the scoring sheet what we felt was best for us to attempt in each round.

Grant proposed a scoring strategy with a time line. Discussions arose over how long it would take for each part of the round. I volunteered to be the robot for demonstration purposes for Grant and the team. The team designated landmarks in the classroom that represented the course. Grant gave me instructions to perform that represented actions of his scoring strategy. The time was recorded for each me to complete each action. After each action, discussion ensued about the time taken and how effective our robot would be in performing the action. Students from last year team had good input on the time it would take based on observations of last year's robot in the contest. Shelby recorded the actions and the predicted times for each action. The team discussed how the score would change according to different scenarios as well as the order of the steps of the robot actions. The scenario gave the team the ability to evaluate the game and contest in a visual way as well as comparing it to the time in the round. The actions of the robot strategy were decided upon. David and Lauren led the team in the Robot Will, Robot Might and Robot Will not activity.

Students were given the task to begin to work on designs that fit the strategy of the robot. These designs should be done in small groups rather than as an individual. The designs should also include the motors, servos, methods of performing each task, etc.

David is going to write up the Robot Strategy the team decided upon and share it in Google Docs with the team. David closed the meeting with having a small meeting with students who are interested in working in team leadership positions.

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2010 BEST Robotics Contest Kickoff - Total Recall

2010-09-12T20:27:00.001-07:00

The countdown has begun. Day one Today was the beginning of the BEST Robotics Kickoff for 2010. Total Recall is name of the game this year. The kickoff was held at Pfluegerville Connally High School. The kickoff consisted of workshops, game reveal and kit of parts pickup. Scott McMahon, our lead Mentor, delivered a workshop on RobotC for VEX. We had the largest number of students in attendance Westlake has ever had. The event last nearly all day since the workshops were 2 hours long. The game was setup all day for teams to look at. There was lots of speculation. This year represents the 10th anniversary for Capital BEST. Capital BEST was responsible for designing the game this year.

Teams took a break for lunch and returned for Kit of Parts Pickup and Inventory. Lots of changes this year in store for the BEST Contest. The control system is the VEX Cortex Microcontroller and VEXnet Joystick. Teams will be able to program with EacyC or RobotC as well as use MathLAB Simulink. Teams also received the SolidWorks for 5 months along with InspirTech SolidWorks curriculum software. In addition to the VEX control system, the Kit of parts also has some changes. Our kit has new motors, motor interface connectors and numbers of servos.

The game was revealed after a short video explaining the contest and a guest speaker. Teams were introduced to the game concepts in the video and then moved to the filed for the demonstration as well as Q and A.

Our team loaded our materials up and headed back to the shop for discussion. Each member of the team received a packet of rules for the Game as well as the Generic rules. We spent time reading over the rules, discussing the rules and definitions. The game has a large number of terms to keep straight and learn. David and Sean lead the meeting with the students. Sean reiterated the fact that reading the rules is so very important.

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