Hey there Jollyville Parents, Students and Teachers. I am very excited to announce that we hosted our first NXT Robotics Club meeting this past Monday, September 19th. With a total of 17 fifth graders, we have the perfect size group to partner up and work on our problem solving skills through building and programming robots.
The goal of the robotics club is to give students the opportunity to collaborate and creatively solve real-world problems using fun and innovative technology. The NXT Robotics kits include a variety of moveable pieces, light, sound, touch and ultrasonic sensors and a programmable "brick" to be used as the body of the robot.
At our first meeting, we discussed our expectations and gave the students the chance to talk about what they already knew about robotics and what they hoped to accomplish during their ten week membership. We showed them some model robots that had been built over the summer and talked about the importance of perseverance and patience in problem solving.
To give the students an idea about what it feels like to program a robot, we took them online to play a game called Light-Bot. Light-Bot allows students to give directions to a virtual robot so that it will perform a simple task; walk in a predetermined path and light up blue squares. It seemed simple enough. As the robot is successful, the students move on to more complex levels where they eventually have to create repeating functions to insert into their program. Many of the students discovered that it was very important to frequently test their program as they added more and more steps.
Overall, it was a fun and successful meeting. Next week, students will receive their team assignments and start building a basic robot using directions included in the NXT kits. See below for some videos of our fifth graders programming and explaining their Light-Bots.