Looking for a project to show the kids

[cpapple123]

Last year my son and I Built and demode the Mindcuber to his then 5th grade class. That started a short after school robotics class I mentored. I'm looking for some Ideas that 5-6 graders would aww at to start interest in doing this again. It would have been great to join the FLL but we don't have enough support and I coach the youth football program when FLL launches. So I will just do as I did last spring and develop my own challenges.

For my class I have
1 LEGO Mindstorms 2.0 Kit
1 LEGO Mindstorms 1.0 kit minus the electronics (Parts Only)
+ large assortment of LEGO Gears
School Has: (At my house)
1 LEGO Mindstorms Education NXT Base Set
1 LEGO Mindstorms Education Resource Set

Soon to come I been hinting to my wife for Christmas some LEGO Technics kits. I'm currently watching the 8043 Motorized Excavator. What would you suggest.

I was working on a 6 axis robot are like I have at work but not going so well. Looks real cool but when I put power to it the gears like to skip. Needs more hardware development.

[hassenplug]

Here's something I like to show kids. They love it.

http://www.teamhassenplug.org/sumo/PSumo.html

I took it to our Jr High robotics club, and they really enjoy it.

Steve

[aswin0]

That is a really cool project

Aswin

[cpapple123]

I really like the Idea of battle bots. Not sure if I would have the resources to purchase your system but my develop my own spin off from this.

Thank you for the really great idea seed

Corey

[tabbycatrobots]

I take my NXT robots into 2nd through 6th grades, and demo them. Here's some of what I do for demos; there
may be some ideas here that you can use.

First, regarding your reference to the 8043 Excavator, it's a great set, both as the main model, and for parts.
I am currently NXT-ifying an 8043. The 8043 is being discontinued so I would look for one soon. As an aside,
Bricklink.com is a great source for gears, connectors, and other parts. And nxtprograms.com is a good site
for building ideas for all ages.

Some background: I'm retired and am a reading volunteer in 3rd grade. Two years ago, while reading a book with
some kids, the discussion led to my bringing my robots, into that room. That led to demos in several other rooms
in that school, and then last year to demos in several other schools. I have declined getting involved in any
of the robot clubs at the schools, because of the time commitment.

For my demo, I start with a basic race car / explorer robot that travels around the Test Pad that comes with
the Mindstorms set. It stops at each colored block, and says the name of the color. I then talk about how the
robot can "read" colors, the way we read letters. I then hold up a card (about 3" x 8") with an E on it, and
ask the kids what they see. They yell E. I flip the card over, and it has Emily on it; I ask the kids what they
see, and they yell Emily. I then show them a name-tag - a small baseplate with 2x2 colored tiles on it. I
have a turtle robot from Daniele Benedettelli's book, several name-tags with the teacher's name and names of
several kids, and a simple structure with just a color sensor and NXT, i.e. "the turtle's reading desk". The
reading desk and the turtle are connected by Bluetooth. As I swipe a name-tag, the program in the reading desk
translates the colored tiles to a name, sends it to the turtle, and the turtle says, "Hello NAME. Please read an
animal book." I have used other phrases to give out homework assignments. For older kids, I talk about how the self
checkout / robot at supermarkets reads the barcode, and looks up the price, and reorders more from the warehouse. I
then talk about how we read traffic signs. I then show my dancing robot. It is a line following robot that reads
colored stickers along a line, like we read traffic signs. At different colors, it reverses direction or spins
around. I also have a bag of robot books that I take. As I pack up my robots, I hand out the books for the kids
to look at. Sometimes, I think the kids are more enthused about the books than my demo; that's okay - I am a
reading volunteer. I've attached my book list.

As I write this, I'm wishing I had videos of my robots. Posting them would be better than my description. If
any of the robots sound useful, I'll try to make a video in the next few weeks, and post it and the
related code. I use NXC for programming.

Here is another idea for a robot club. I have not used these robots for school demos, but did show these
robots at BrickFair 2011. I was creating part of a Formula 1 race. The kids could make robot race cars that
compete with each other, either on the race line or in pit stops. In "Board index<LEGO MINDSTORMS‹Mindstorms Projects",
see Kemmel - Combining Line Following and Formula 1.

Yet, one last thought. Even if you use an more advanced language like NXC, for a robot, the kids
would not need to learn NXC if the program is parameterized. They could build a robot per some
guidelines, then just change a header file, that may specify gear ratios, wheel sizes, turning radius, etc.

Howard

[cpapple123]

Thank you Howard for taking the time here. Your insight is very welcomed. Seems I am traveling the correct road to help my son and his advanced classmates. I have visited many of these sight you mentioned and check out a few books from the library and flipped through the pages of others. It is good to here what has work for others so that I can tailor my style using many of these ideas. Your ideas and practical demos with relationship to everyday things around us are great curriculum points. I'm sure everyone would love to see your robots and why not share with us all. I just can't wait till I need a wagon to drag all my part to school. Currently a 2 wheeled dolly does the trick. My collection is only 8 months old and when I win that power ball tonight will grow exponentially.

At first I used the NXT-G software because it is so simple and my 11 year old boy could follow along, but with my Rockwell Automation PLC and motion control background quickly grew frustrated by its limitations. The past few week I have been familiarizing myself with NXC and once I get a good feel for the syntax I know NXT-G will no longer be an option. (It already is)