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Dr. Baxter's slideshow of the day's events on the Robotics Skills Academy google community.
David Seagul of Team Firebird progress on their Rube Goldberg project
& Christian Perez of Team Around the Way.
David Seagul of Team Firebird progress on their Rube Goldberg project
& Christian Perez of Team Around the Way.
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For Week 2,
We had a 2 part agenda really: 1) A presentation by Rebecca Lavenberg and the story of her Journey of a Thousand Miles. http://my-1000-miles.blogspot.com/ and 2) Build Rube Goldberg machines.
Rebecca is a Philly teacher at Russell Byers Charter School, who 3 years ago suffered a terrible accident on the way to work. She now wears a prosthetic left leg. Rebecca spoke with an amazing confidence and zest for life that underscores how she has been able to achieve so much going forward. Building with the end user in mind was the focal point of the presentation. I think the message was to have a purposeful design to meet the needs of the end user – functionality first but also aesthetics. Both are needed to pursue a normal life “which is always hard for an amputee” therefore task analysis must begin with a question of how to accomplish goals rather than if it’s possible. Rollerblading, mountain climbing, and even biking again, Rebecca makes it look easy despite the fact that 40% of normal function and 12 to 14 hours of usage are the best deliverables, she states, of even the most advanced prosthetics.
Having lost some momentum, due to the Jan. 25 snowstorm, less than half of the students showed up. But they were more than ready to brainstorm ideas and innovate. Lunch arrived, pizzas/sodas, just as we introduced the Rube Goldberg challenge. Each group has to produce a complex, overly engineered machine for the very simple task of dropping a marble in a bowl. Surprisingly, it became a “power lunch” as assigned student teams independently produced designs, divided responsibilities, discussed and tested options. No one wanted to begin clean up at 1:30pm (half hour before closing the day’s events) much less leave. Students continued to work until their team had to store their materials and still hung around afterwards troubleshooting ideas and discussing what household items to bring in for next week. I think even Wile E. Coyote, super genius, will be excited to see the completed projects.
Students are uploading pictures of their work to the Robotics Skills Academy google community.
Below is a picture of Team Around the Way’s initial design. A Rube Goldberg Challenge turned out to be a great way to build teams and explore collaborative learning.
Here is a video link of another team test it’s initial ideas.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/101954163125918010347/albums/5975564170126741569/5975564174477917394?sqi=117191550728083655615&sqsi=7f7892ed-0bcc-4f99-bf85-e56aad1feb72