Last school year in Ontario all the classes were on line and clubs and sports teams just weren't happening. The team at CKSS, Sparbotics, Team 4992 continued to meet on line through the fall of 2021 and spring of 2022. Team members entered 3 FIRST Robotics virtual challenges under the Inifinite Recharge at Home banner. 20 team members also took home a desktop robot kit I designed around the ESP32 chip. The students learned some basic i/o skills (much like the Arduino) and then explored the Wifi capabilities following a set of instructions and meeting online with questions and observations. The school year culminated with the Mission to Mars challenge which asked the students to move a lego "cargo" brick between 2 stations.
High School students had great difficulty with the online learning environment. Students learn best by doing and the "doing" needs to be in an environment they are accustomed to. They work best with their peers at solving problems and asking questions. They liked working on the Infinite Recharge at Home challenges together but many lost enthusiasm with the ESP32 because they were working alone, unable to see each other and see the other robots. The ESP32 challenges would have worked better in an immersive virtual environment with VR glasses or cameras showing the students, their screens and their hands working on the robots. I can't imagine getting to place where that could happen given the amount of technology required and the privacy concerns it would raise.
