Robotics in Your Classroom—Are You Prepared?

Robotics programs are becoming more and more popular in public schools across the US. As of this article, hundreds of schools are currently reporting that they are running either a class or an after-school program focusing on robots. Even more are exploring the possibilities of adding their own robotics curriculum, and for good reason. Robotics is a rapidly rising industry in and of itself, and studying robotics helps provide students a grounding in technology and computers that is becoming increasingly necessary in the modern world. Teaching students about robots is a responsible move, and helps prepare them for the adult world.

However, upon further research, we at Teq have found a minor issue with many of their programs; they’re incomplete. While having a program at all is a positive step for schools, it’s important that these programs cover multiple aspects of robotics, and approach them from every angle thoroughly. However, many programs will only address robots from a single angle, such as construction for a single task. This can leave students with an incomplete idea of what it’s really like to enter and engage with the robotics industry.

Below, I highlight three concepts that any long-term robotics curriculum should at least touch on. Each topic provides a slightly different approach to robots, but all three build on critical thinking skills necessary to engage with robots (and with computers in general). In addition, I recommend a few useful tools for each topic, including robots and curriculum sources that can be easily adapted.

Concept 1: Building Robots

Often times, building robots is the primary focus for public school robotics programs. Students are provided with a template for a robot, and then they are instructed to build and run a pre-designed program to test whether their build works the way it is intended. While this is a positive step, this kind of building prevents creative thinking and the development of real problem solving skills.

How can we prevent this kind of stagnation? It’s simple—remove the templates. Instead, robotics curricula should provide students with a set of problems or tasks that a robot should be able to handle, and all the materials they need to make a robot that can perform. Students should then be responsible for creating their own template, and building and testing it to make sure it meets the needed criteria.

When carefully and thoughtfully implemented, this topic can help students develop key robotics and engineering skills, such as being able to create or alter a custom design for solving a specific problem. This can force them to think creatively about which task the robot is needed for, rather than following a template or adding pointless extras to their design. In addition, the right robots accompanying this topic can help students develop practical skills in understanding and manipulating the electronics behind the robot.

These kinds of questions are where the Lego Mindstorms Robots shine. With the infinite customizability that comes with Lego, students can think like engineers and make their own working robots. The website does provide a few standard model designs, but more advanced students can take the same pieces and build entirely new robots to perform different tasks. A few examples of such fan robots are even shown on their website (without building instructions):

http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/build-a-robot

http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/gallery

For younger students, a slightly less complex model kit might be necessary. I’ve found that the Hexbug kits provide a fun access point for students who want to focus on the building and engineering aspect. The 4-in-1 kit provides some templates for students who need one to get used to the kit, but pieces from all four robots can be combined and altered to create a custom design. The fact that the autonomous mode is programmed to act like an insect is a lot of fun, too.

http://www.hexbug.com/hexbug-vex-robotics-4-in-1-kit.html

Concept 2: Programming Robots

However, there is more to robots than just building. One of the most critical skills in rapidly-growing STEM fields is programming. Even outside of robotics, jobs are opening in computer programming, app or video game development, website creation and maintenance, and many more areas where knowledge of programming language and logic is crucial. As a result, a robotics curriculum that doesn’t touch on programming is leaving out important knowledge.

When thorough, a grounding in programming immerses robotics students in logic skills, a deeper understanding of the electronics they built in previous units, and may even start teaching them common computer languages that will give them a huge advantage in the future’s job market. In addition, these skills are useful even outside of computer science fields. What adult today doesn’t at least make a passing use of logic at least once?

Adding programming to a curriculum can be tricky, especially if students are entering the class with no prior experience with computers. Fortunately, programming logic can be taught in a variety of ways. Many teachers have developed logic games that students can engage with before even approaching a computer or robot. A link to one of my favorites is below:

http://csunplugged.org/

Computer Science Unplugged is a website dedicated to teaching computer science topics without the need to be in front of a computer. Exploring the website will reveal useful activity templates to download, as well as useful teacher’s guides. One of the activities even mentions a robot—a useful connection to a robotics course!

Teaching programming can also be done with a non-robot computer interface. In a previous blog post titled Teaching Coding (For Teachers who can’t Code) , I recommended websites like Codeacademy and Tynker. Though the platforms aren’t directly useable with a physical robot, they present programming logic and language in engaging, easy-to-understand ways.

Of course, I can never discuss the programming of robots without mentioning the NAO robot. Without a doubt, it’s one of my favorite tools for teaching the programming aspect of robotics due to its easy-to-understand computer interface. In recent outings, I’ve had students as young as five already creating simple programs and responding joyfully when their logic results in a dance or conversation.

A side note: With the NAO being the only pre-built robot mentioned on this blog post, it also provides some interesting engineering questions that buildable robots can’t address the same way. Students programming the NAO will have to contend with the body’s physical limitations, account for physics, and adjust their programming to make sure they can make the tools available to them can perform the task needed without falling over or overheating.

http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/STEM/Create-2.aspx

For schools with a smaller budget, there are other robots that provide a lot of programming function. One of my favorites is iRobot’s Create-2. There’s some customizability, but where it really shines is its ability to program on different levels. You can connect physically to the robot to get started, but the addition of a microcomputer will allow you to program the Create 2 in languages like Python or Scratch.

Concept 3: Troubleshooting and Repairing Robots

Of course, robots don’t always work as planned. During the course of a class, it’s almost certain that a robot will break, or a program will hit a critical error, or some mistake will result in the project failing at just the wrong moment. As a result, a strong robotics curriculum should make an effort to provide every opportunity to teach students what to do in these situations.

A strongly-built robotics unit would include several situations where students are presented with ‘broken’ robots. The malfunctions should vary from problems with the robot’s body (hardware) to critical programming failures (software). These errors can be presented by the teacher, or rise organically from the students building and programming the robots. The important thing is that when they arise, the students have to isolate and attempt to solve the problem themselves instead of contacting the teacher.

Granted, this can be difficult to teach, especially if the teachers have limited experience troubleshooting themselves. As a result, I recommend that before starting the course, the teachers take the time to give themselves a thorough grounding in whatever robots they are planning to use. This includes tasks such as running through the curriculum themselves, locating common errors or failures inherent in their chosen robots, and becoming familiar with the types of errors or failures that cannot or should not be fixed by students (ex. A physically broken joint on a pre-built robot).

It may seem like a lot of trouble to talk about troubleshooting, but it’s more necessary to cover than you’d think.  Students would finish the curriculum with the ability to engage in scientific thinking, and with further practice in the trial-and-error process they were introduced to in previous units. Furthermore, it’s a great confidence booster; students who may have gotten easily discouraged by failure before will know that errors and ‘problems’ are part of the process, and often have little to do with their own skills. Those students will be encouraged to keep trying through multiple failures, and often will find huge rewards in finally solving a particularly troublesome issue.

There currently isn’t any one robotics product that focuses on the repair and troubleshooting of robots. Fortunately, most robot products either come with a short manual on maintenance and common issue troubleshooting, or make such resources available online. Before selecting a robot for your curriculum, make sure to search their website or the internet in general and see what’s available.

To Wrap it Up…

These topics don’t necessarily have to be divided into separate units: many courses we’ve seen introduce all three simultaneously, allowing the skills students are developing to overlap. Other arrangements choose to separate the topics into separate-but-connected classes. The important thing is that when creating a new robotics program, each of these benchmarks is thoroughly addressed, in order to give students the most complete education they can get. With such a thorough grounding, your class will become the envy of robotics teachers everywhere!