Spartan Robotics team all time best

I spent all day Monday and Tuesday this week supervising a 4 student robotics team at the Ontario Skills competition in Waterloo. This was the culmination of 8 months of work after school helping the students design and build their entry. You can see some of the action on YouTube. The RC robots needed to pick up wooden blocks and place them onto the rolling target, the higher up the more points earned.

Competing in this event taught the students more than they will ever learn in a regular course. Every year, after months of after school meetings full of trials, plans, building and testing I begin to despair in March. It never looks like the robot will be ready, that the team is together, that the robot will fast enough or strong enough to last through even a county trial. I start muttering "never again." But every year now for the last 4 years the students have pulled it off and had their entry ready. Sometimes we are working on it on the Saturday before the first county competition! The students organize into a team, each assigned tasks to do. The equipment is tested, parts, tools and batteries are packed into boxes, and for the last two years we've made it to the Ontario level at Waterloo. The growth and learning that happens during this brief interval is phenomenal to watch. Engineering, troubleshooting, planning, observation and tactics come pouring out making me proud of the students and, maybe, open to doing it again next year. Then, playing against a machine that is far bigger, faster and better engineered the team pulls off a win and I go "Yes!", pumping the air and thinking of course, of course we're going at it again next year. Competing at this level reaffirms my faith that I teach the best students in the world.

How did the team do? On Monday the robot broke down and we went home in last place, 19 out of 19. The top 16 teams would continue to the finals on Tuesday afternoon. The team very confidently rebuilt their robot and returned Tuesday morning to fight back into 15th place. On Tuesday afternoon they never gave up despite a deteriorating gripper function and continued to win 50% of the time allowing them to finish in 7th spot.
Here is some video shot with a smart phone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xwMO6mb9EE&feature=youtu.be

Who will be our 21rst century heroes?

I took four senior programming students to the ECOO Regional programming competition up at York University on Saturday. 54 teams of 4. Over 200 bright, competent, young people. I know my students are going on to Engineering, Computer Studies and the like in University. I imagine most of the students in that room will do likewise. I thought, "Here was a room full of students with a plan, going forward into decades where they will never want for work. They've made the right choice to learn about the stuff the next few decades will be made of. The right stuff."

Think about it. After WW2 our heroes were the brave young men who flew to the limits of our atmosphere and then beyond to the moon. Remember the movie? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(film). Who are our 21rst century heroes? I would argue that they are Microsofts' Bill Gates, Apples' Steve Jobs, Googles' Larry Page and Serjey Brin, Facebooks' founder Mark Zuckerberg and so on. These are the people our students aspire to be like, to use their talent to hit the right moment to take the world by storm with the next big app.

And here I was in a room full of just the people who will do it, will become our next heroes. This was it. The real brain trust that would bring wealth and prosperity to our nation in the years to come. Some one among them would be the next Gates or Zuckerberg.  14 of the 54 teams will go on to the Ontario round. 30 of the teams went home with a certificate of appreciation and an experience they will remember for a long time. And all of them should know that they will be our next heroes.

Druiven's Arduino electronics starter kit

This is the basic electronics kit I order from Abra. It allows grade 10 and 11 students to complete many different labs and challenges with the Arduino.

Kit Part	pt#	quantity	price	sub
push button	PBS-150	1	0.69	0.69
5mm LED, clear		2	0.11	0.22
Bicolor 3 mm LED		1	0.49	0.49
resistor	R1/4 390	3	0.05	0.15
resistor	R1/4 1 k	2	0.05	0.1
resistor	R1/4 10 K	2	0.05	0.1
Variable R	91AR10K	1	1.29	1.29
Red bar display	MV57164	1	1.39	1.39
SIP resistor	4610X-101-391	1	0.59	0.59
Photo resistor	Photo300	1	0.99	0.99

TOTAL 6.01

The Move Craig Kielburger Secondary School part 1

Work on the new school is proceeding apace. Dan and I had our first look at what will be our new digs on Feb 1. The 2 rooms pictured here replace the V135 Robotics lab facility at Drury. 1107 will be a Computer Lab and 1108 will be a Technology Lab with workbenches and CNC machines.

Calling V135 "Robotics" was a spontaneous gesture so I'm thinking about the name for 1108. The idea of something like a "Hacker Space" appeals to me but may sound too geeky.

Will the Tech. Design lab be the new Library?

We have been building the resources available to our students in our Tech. Design (Robotics) lab this year. Earlier this fall an old CNC lathe (last used 15 years ago) went out to be refurbished. We anticipate its return shortly. In the mean time an old vinyl cutter caught the eye of our students. They make original vector graphics produced by tracing original or bitmap artwork in Corel Draw. The old cutter has been replaced by a new model that is faster and more accurate on small details. Along with a heat press the students will be able to produce custom t-shirts. The students also use a CNC router and a Desktop CNC mill to complete design projects.


As I think about the robotics lab in our new school, Craig Kielburger Secondary, I've been thinking about how neat it would be to add a 3D printer to the mix. That's why this weeks Spark episode really grabbed my attention. Have a listen. Maybe 'Hacker Space' would make a better name for shop?
.... I wonder!

ACSE Arduino Presentation notes

Slide Notes
1 Cover
2 Why Arduino? Demise of OOPic made me look around and start comparing.
Aside OOPic Raptor currently under development.
3 Chart side by side comparison.
- all similar
- all basic von neuman, single step ALU
- some pipelining and more modern characteristics but basically all one instruction per clock tick
- Arduino development board (currently UNO) price very competitive
- sparked international interest due to open source nature
4 Why Microcontrollers are a great fit with curriculum and broad-based philosophy
- can teach basic electronics
- can teach interfacing
- can teach robotics
- opportunity for students to explore and design projects
5 Why Arduino? - cheap, robust, open source,
- started Microcontroller Investigation thread on blog in June 2010
- spent time at home playing and learning
- OOpic and electronics experience helped me
- have introduced OOPic into OISE AQ courses with excellent results
- all candidates able to expand their knowledge and skills using this platform
6 7 8 On line community: Make, Instructables, Arduino.cc
- grade 12 students able to take ideas and projects and apply in the classroom
- examples of Arduino daughter boards manufactered in class
9 Open source, exciting range of 3rd party developers
- 2 examples: 1 driving LCD another driving the Pong game
10 Getting started - plug it in, Load the driver - in drivers folder
- may be difficult depending on admin. restrictions on computer
- Mac, PC or Linux
11 Start the software
- work through learning and playground ideas
- try blink, fading and LED bar graph (if you have one)
- many youTube videos
12 C, J all the same
13 Main Arduino.cc page organization



14 Learning example - uses Fritzing
15 Fritzing.org for great graphics software to go along with Arduino and breadboards
- free software - produces jpg. files like slide 14
16 - a line follower robot built during the 2 week AQ this summer
- one built by Igor Kourinnyi on display
17 - novices able to complete stepper motor driver
- improved confidence and understanding
18 - sources for Hardware:
- Creatron Inc, 255 College St. Toronto, creatroninc.com
- Robotshop.ca
- Abra
- CanaKit
- Deal Extreme (rev 1 with a different USB to serial chip)

What does "Tech Savy" mean to you?

Lots of stuff worth considering in this CBC Spark episode. Sure Junior can type 120 wpm on a smart phone but can he do an effective search for material for his essay?