We had some more lessons in Programming. We learned about the move block.
That was fun to see the reaction on the kids faces as they controlled their first robot. The next class they got to control the movements of a NXT (child) with the use of a dolly to get to the designated spot. That was a whole lot of fun because if the command was invalid, you couldn't move. It is a great way to internalize how to program.
We had a few lessons around the Angry Bird theme. The first lesson was to program and control the robot to crash into the Pigs. Basically we had to program a series of commands to get to the Pigs fortress. We also built Catapults and shot off the birds to land on the Pigs fortress. We had to learn that we needed to be real quiet or else the Catapult would accidentally fire.
In Social Skills during this time we learned about one person talking at a time. If the child wanted to say something while I was talking, they had to press the sound command on the Laminated NXT.
During Spring Break a couple of kids were lucky to go to LegoLand in Florida and the new Lego Discovery Center in Atlanta, GA.
When we got home from Spring Break we had an Easter Egg Hunt with our NXT's and then got to do a real Easter Egg Hunt in the Museum. That was a lot of fun. This is what our robots looked like:
This robot came from http://www.nxtprograms.com/claw_car/index.html
This site is a great resource to building different kinds of robots. I feel that they will be able to think of more options building a robot for FLL if they are exposed to many different designs.
Sci-Quest has been so accommodating and we are very grateful for them.
We also learned about gears. We have been doing a couple lessons on building with gears. I let the kids go into the Sci-Quest Museum to find objects that used gears. I think we found almost around 25 gear combinations including Pulleys. The kids got to take home a handout of different gear combinations that were illustrated.
We weaved our social skills lesson around the gears talking about conversations. Conversations need to mesh like gears do and flow slowly. The Green Zone illustrates this in the picture below.
We practiced our skills playing Lego Games which have been very popular. As we get towards the end of the year it will be harder and harder to capture their attention due to the excitement of the end of the school year.
We still have lots to learn. It is hard to capture the kids attention but when we do, you know it. They have a great time. When they are too excited we have a harder time. You have to find the middle ground and accommodate all the kids who are on different levels.
Next things to think about is, "Do we want to form a non-profit?" so we can pay someone to do the social skills? We would also like to earn dollars so we can buy at least one kit per child, and one resource parts kit per child. I have supplemented the legos with ones I have brought from home. Well, this is just something to think on because there is a lot involved in forming a non-profit. I don't know if I am ready for that.