How it all started
Growing up, I had a lot of Lego. I had the old style Lego which I believe is still the best. By old style, I mean just collections of standard bricks, not the theme-based bricks that kids sometimes find difficult to use in their own creations. Creativity is king and when the building plans are too specific, the king is deposed.
Naturally, there were no Lego robotics kits when I was a kid. I first stumbled upon some kits in an international school in Singapore (not the one I currently work in). The kits were under a table in the ICT lab, were covered in dust, and clearly had not been used in some years. Opening them up, I was intrigued by what I found. I was also dismayed to find one yellow brick still had batteries in it; the batteries had leaked and the brick never worked again. Nevertheless, the rest were ok. There were thousands of dollars in that collection.
I proceeded to play with a kit, get some information on the internet and in books and took an online course. Then, I started to offer an after school club based on robotics. The after school clubs, in two different schools, have always been very popular. At least with the boys; I've had few girls.
My thinking about how to get more girls involved, in fact, how to more students involved overall, is largely reflected by a paper called New Pathways into Robotics. Two key points - offering robotics after school means that not all students get to benefit from it. There is self selection involved. Second, the actual activities need to be inviting to a cross section of students. To this end, I have introduced robotics into Pre-Primary (five year olds), grade two (seven year olds) and middle school (various grades) so that all students in those grades are exposed to educational robotics.
And, I continue my exploration into the pedagogical use of robotics by focussing on it in my doctoral studies.
Naturally, there were no Lego robotics kits when I was a kid. I first stumbled upon some kits in an international school in Singapore (not the one I currently work in). The kits were under a table in the ICT lab, were covered in dust, and clearly had not been used in some years. Opening them up, I was intrigued by what I found. I was also dismayed to find one yellow brick still had batteries in it; the batteries had leaked and the brick never worked again. Nevertheless, the rest were ok. There were thousands of dollars in that collection.
I proceeded to play with a kit, get some information on the internet and in books and took an online course. Then, I started to offer an after school club based on robotics. The after school clubs, in two different schools, have always been very popular. At least with the boys; I've had few girls.
My thinking about how to get more girls involved, in fact, how to more students involved overall, is largely reflected by a paper called New Pathways into Robotics. Two key points - offering robotics after school means that not all students get to benefit from it. There is self selection involved. Second, the actual activities need to be inviting to a cross section of students. To this end, I have introduced robotics into Pre-Primary (five year olds), grade two (seven year olds) and middle school (various grades) so that all students in those grades are exposed to educational robotics.
And, I continue my exploration into the pedagogical use of robotics by focussing on it in my doctoral studies.