Good Robot Projects For K-5?

bugs2squash writes "Some of the parents of kids at my son's elementary school would like to set up a robotics club for the children. I see that Lego has a new line of robotics bricks called wedo (PDF) and that seems to be the path of least resistance to doing something. But I wanted to ask: What experience do all y'all have of running a robotics club for this age group (5 thru 10 years old) and what factors made it a success (or failure)? Did you use a commercial kit of parts or brew something from scratch? What kind of projects work well with kids this age? I was thinking maybe making robot flowers (yes, I know they'd all rather build robotic sharks with lasers)." (Here's another page about Wedo.)

Comments

Too young

[captaindomon]

I think that age group is too young to build robots on any informative level. I'm sorry, but they just won't "get it". Instead, why don't you buy some working robotic toys and let the kids program them to repeat an action, maybe, or just play with them? Maybe stage a battle with robotic dinosaurs or something? That would be way better for a five year old than actually building a working system.

Re:Too young

[R2.0]

I don't think you quite understand the mind of some young boys. R3.0 has been trying to build Transformers and other devices out of sticks and soda cans, and he's been doing that since he was 4 or 5.

In some kids, the desire to control is far less insistent than the drive to create. (And dismantle/destroy, but that's a topic for another post.

Re:Too young

[VeNoM0619]

I think that age group is too young to build robots on any informative level. I'm sorry, but they just won't "get it".

Just because the No Child Left Behind Act has you underestimating education, doesn't mean anyone is too young to indulge in technology.

Hell, 5-10? I'm sure they already have a decent applications/software background (surfing the web, running programs/games on the computer). Seeing how the linked PDF looked interesting, yet elegantly simple enough for a child (ok, so advertising may not speak truth), I would say it's worth a chance to teach. What's the worst that can happen if it goes over their heads? 1 student learns while 25 don't?

Re:Too young

[geekoid]

Your wrong.
I coach FLL (http://www.usfirst.org/) and see 5 year olds get it.
Once taught basic programming techniques and how to use the IDE(an hour to do both) they're off and going with only a little guidance. Usually when they get stuck no a part I''ll help the break the problem down.
"Hmm you need it to wait? maybe there is a wait od sleep instruction?"
Then they look and find it. after a couple of those they start looking to see if they can find an answer before getting stuck.

Kids are fucking smart...really really smart. They are way under utilized in our society.
You will never be smarter then when you are a kids..more knowledgeable, but never smarter.

"Instead, why don't you buy some working robotic toys and let the kids program them to repeat an action, maybe, or just play with them?"

Becasue:
A) they get bored with that in about 90 seconds.
B) Just becasue kids build robots doesn't mean they don't also play with toys.

Re:Too young

[Anonymous Coward]

It depends... Children go through distinct mental phases where their capacity to analyze things is very different from other stages. Most of these children will still be in the pre-operational stage where they can only follow short chains of cause-effect. The older ones (changes at ~7) will be in the concrete operation stage where they can follow cause-effect chains but can't understand abstract things like `a pointer to a function that returns an array of...' so you should avoid certain things with them.

Personally, I'd give premade robots with a simple programing language (if statements, for loops and maybe functions).

Please note that some children go through these stages faster than other. This page seems to cover the topic decently.

Re:Too young

[Anonymous Coward]

If there's one thing that makes me smile every time I read it, it's someone starting a rebuttal with "Your wrong".

Re:Too young

[mustafap]

>but can't understand abstract things like `a pointer to a function that returns an array of...'

Most of the engineers I work with don't understand that either.

Range of students.

[Albio]

5 year olds and 10 year olds can be quite different. It would not be a good idea to treat all of these kids as the same.

Re:Robots?

[R2.0]

You have it backwards - kids learn about "electric motors, circuits that light up LEDs, gears, pulleys and levers" by building things that use them. Then, While they are building something cool, you teach them the principles behind it.

Re:FIRST JLL

[dubious elise]

Great call on FIRST - I was involved in their high school program for three years and I started a regular FLL program at my K-8 grade school. We had to start including younger students (3rd and 4th grade) than our 5th and 6th graders in the regular program because they were solving the proposed problems too quickly and efficiently. Even if you do not know what to do with the kits or how to write a line of code, FIRST and LEGO provide excellent resources, the latter of which are not limited to the annual games that FIRST develops.

Re:correction needed

[R2.0]

I can understand your frustration. I have a 13 year old daughter who is excellent at math and science, but gets those same signals. I try to support her as best I can (she got an A on her science fair project with my help).

I was more referring to the teaching methods the GPP suggested. While I agree that both boys and girls can excel at math and sciences, the generally learn differently. I can't imagine the "start with the basics" program would work with my son, though it might have worked with my daughter.. Generally, boys and girls learn differently, and not acknowledging that hurts them both.

For very little kids (3-5)

[davevr]

For the low end of that range, it is fun to PLAY robot. Explain the concept that robots only do exactly what you say, and then make some "commands" like "move forward", "turn left", "pick up object" and then work together to try to solve problems, like "how can we get the rubber snake into your sister's bed?". The kid plays the role of the programmer, the CPU, the robot motor (we use toy dump trucks typically for this), and the all-important role of the debugger.