Scribbler 4 hour workshop details
Remember to take good pictures. Examples can be found here: http://coweb.cc.gatech.edu/ice-gt/2242.
Ages: high school (maybe middle school as well)
Equipment: Scribbler robot and a laptop for each robot (with Bluetooth dongle). We usually pair up the students.
Materials:
Batteries (6 AA for each)
White poster board (at least 1 per scribbler)
Markers (at least 1 per scribbler)
Resources:
http://wiki.roboteducation.org/Introduction_to_Computer_Science_via_Robots
http://garfieldcs.com/pscsta/PythonScribblers/index.html
Before the Workshop:
Put in fresh batteries.
Login to the computers and get the wireless connection to the robots working (this is the hardest part of working with the Scribblers so leave extra time for this)
Before each workshop
During the Workshop:
During each workshop
10 min Introductions. Explain that the scribbler robots are used in our CS1 course for majors in computer science at Georgia Tech. Microsoft paid for the development of a course using the robots in the hopes of making CS1 more interesting.
10 min Pre-surveys (make sure they actually submit these)
10 min Show a movie created by the classes that use the Scribblers ipre-Packman.wmv. You can also show them pictures from the class at http://www.flickr.com/groups/roboteducation-showcase
10 min Show the students how to connect to the robot and make the robot go forward, backward, and turn
10 min Let the students try this out with the robots on the floor (no marker in yet)
10 min Show the students how to create a function (like drawASquare)
45 min Let the students create their own functions and draw on the poster board with the robots. Some ideas are: draw a letter from your name, Draw a simple house. Take pictures of the finished drawings with the kids who programed the robots to do the drawing.
15 min Show how to use a loop and how to create a simple dance by combining functions.
45 min Let the students create their own dance and video tape the dances.
15 min Show the students how to take a picture with the color camera and how to create a function to manipulate the data in the picture.
45 min Let the students work on picture manipulations. Take a picture with the students and the manipulated picture.
15 min Do the post surveys
If they are doing lunch as well during the workshop cut back on the time for the picture manipulation.
After each workshop
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