I'm Bored

Yesterday was our fourth meeting of the Robotic Dudes.

We jumped right into trying to perform a basic task. Part of the challenge is to pick up a piece with a ring-shaped handle and bring it back to the home base. In order to keep it simple but get them programming, I gave them a modified challenge using that Lego piece from the challenge kit. I put two notebooks on the ground about 4 feet apart. They had to make the robot pick up the piece off the one notebook, turn around, and drop it on the other one.

There are enough laptops in the STEM Lab, which which is the room where we meet, for everyone to work on their own. I just explained their task, pointed each one of them toward a computer, and I went over and sat in the corner to watch. Their first task was to modify our existing robot to give it something it could pick up the piece with. It already had an arm, but it was more for dragging something on the ground than for picking something up off the ground. They modified the arm to put a small hook on it. Then they had to start working on the programming. I had to kick them out of the box of Lego parts, as they kept wanting to mess around and build things that had nothing to do with the robot.

They eventually all started working on the computers, although a couple of them were just going through all the different built in sounds the robot can make instead of actually working on the task at hand. One of those included one of our robotic experts, who does have experience both in Legos and in other programming environments. His favorite line so far is, "I'm bored." The first couple weeks were painful for him, I think, as we were getting to know each other, setting up some rules, talking about what we would be doing, and learning how the programming environment works. He just wanted to get in and start programming. I don't know that we're looking at an Asperger's diagnosis, but he's definitely more interested in interacting with technology than with other people. Of course a lot of kids these days match that description. Part of First Lego League is teamwork, though, so we have to spend some time on it.

Most of the boys had a laptop to work with, although a few were working together on one or goofing around. They were fighting over who got to connect their Bluetooth to the robot and try out their program, which is a good thing. We had several who tried to drive way too far and just kept going after hitting the piece they were supposed to pick up. We had one who picked up the piece but ended up flinging it up in the air since they raised the arm too fast. One actually picked it up and drove off with it, but went off at a weird angle and didn't end up dropping it on the other notebook. They were getting closer each time as they took turns running their programs and then tweaking them. This might have been the first meeting where I wasn't ready to kick them all out when time was up. We could have stayed another hour to tweak programs and keep trying to accomplish the task.

Something that will make this easier in the future will be when we start using loops and sensors to move around instead of just trying to guess how far to make it drive. Plus, I think building a different kind of arm to pick up the piece will work better.

I really tried to stay mostly hands off and let them try things. I would give them some ideas or hints to help them figure out what they did wrong. At one point when some of the boys were messing around building things that had nothing to do with our robot, before I took away the box of extra parts, one of the boys asked if he could just watch a video (unrelated to robotics) since no one was doing anything. I took away the spare parts, but I also challenged him to step up and be a leader and get his team focused on the task at hand. The only way for me to stay sane and for them to really come together as a team is for me to give them something to do and then back off and let them organize and make it happen.

At one point, someone that looked like a college student came into the STEM Lab and sat down to watch. She took some notes for maybe 10 minutes and then left, without saying anything. There are a lot of college kids that work in the after school club, so I don't know if she was part of that (or if she thought we were part of that). When she was there, we were testing out our programs and learning some things together about how to fix the mistakes they had made in their programs, so much better than some times she could have shown up in previous sessions when they were jumping off tables (both literally and figuratively).

We have a ways to go, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.