Building and Programming Robots: Part 2

The Robot Challenge: Part 2 --

My kids and I decided to learn how to build and program robots this summer.

None of that virtual stuff for the 13 year old. She wants to build a living, breathing robot that moves through real, not cyberspace. And, since dealing with the physical world is an interesting thing for kids to learn to do, I did not object.

Planning ???

Well, it's clear that having lessons plans would have been a good idea.

But, just getting started would be fun too.

So, we decided to start by building the machines described in the Klutz Lego Crazy Action Contraptions book.

I did have in mind a few goals for this first experiment.

The primary goal was to have fun.
Learn the importance of following a sequence of instructions step by step. (A program is a sequence of instructions. If they can't follow a series of instructions, how can they learn to create an organized series of instructions?) These kids know a bit about following instructions because we do a fair amount of cooking and baking. Can't pour that liquified chocolate into the brownies until after it's melted, can we? But it's a little different with mechanical devices.
Learn about step-wise refinement. That is, we try something. If it works, great, we move on. If it doesn't work, we stop and re-work it, then test again until it works.
Get familiar with the tools. The book comes with certain pieces that don't come with regular Legos. We would need to learn to understand the words in the book and to understand what the various tools are used for (gears, axles, connectors of various kinds, etc.)