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Tag / RoboSlam
Learning to Teach Bot-Building
Please check out my newest RoboSlam post:
http://roboslam.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/learning-to-teach-bot-building/
Emma and Ryan with a their working robot.
Starting with Circuitry
RoboSlam starts with an introduction to the overall robot-building process and then delves into assembling the electronic components (i.e., building the circuitry). The photos below track the progress of several groups of participants in the “Engineering Your Future” event held the week of May 13-17 at DIT.
These photos were all taken by DIT’s current Fulbright Scholar in Engineering Education, Dr. Shannon Chance. Participants are welcome to download them and share them with others. Shannon will post images of the rest of the week in the days to come….
RoboSlam–Extended Version
Yesterday the students who built robots with the crew coordinated by Drs. Ted Burke and Damon Berry headed over to DIT’s Bolton Street location to learn about mechanical, industrial, and product design. Thanks to Kevin Delaney, Ger Reilly, Susan O’Shaughnessy and crew for a fascinating day! I’ll be posting lots more photos of RoboSlam in the days to come. It’s been such fun!
Refining the electronics…
…and tweaking placement of the sensors.
Creating bodies…
…and making sure they fit the chassis and electronic components.
Group-Based Learning in Action
I’m becoming a bigger and bigger believer in collaborative learning! Last semester I did lot of research about how engineering professors (i.e., lecturers) here at Dublin Institute of Technology worked together to develop new ways of teaching electrical engineers. I was amazed to discover how incredibly much they learned by working together.
Such impressive knowledge gain is the premise behind Project-Based Learning and other group-based learning formats.
Orla and Shannon in the throws of course planning.
My day today was filled with meetings about collaborative research and teaching projects.
With the help of five different tech guys, I got SPSS up and running so that I will be able to help analyze data on that Mike Murphy and I collected from engineering and engineering technology students. We asked them what they saw themselves doing in the future, how well prepared they feel to start work, and what kinds of things they’ve focused their efforts on over the past few years.
After lunch I met with Orla Hanratty of DIT’s Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre (LTTC) and introduced her to Brian Bowe. She’ll be co-teaching a course (i.e., module) with us in May. We aim to increase the usage and visibility of Problem-Based Learning at DIT by teaching more teachers to use Problem-Based Learning in their own classrooms.
And now, tonight, I’ve been working on a proposal for funding with Ted Burke and Damon Berry. It’s an opportunity that the college’s head of research, Marek Rebow, told me about yesterday and it has to be completed immediately.
I rallied the troops. Ted drafted some text. Then Damon and I were adding our own contributions to it using Google Docs. It was so strange… Damon and me editing the same document at the same time. It turned into a bit of an academic chat session. We tossed ideas back and forth, discussing budget, objectives, and ways to improve what we’ve already got in place.
We’ll do more of that tomorrow, when the three of us meet to hash this out… and have some fun learning in the process.
RoboSlam website that we hope to tweak.
Ted Burke advising me on robot design at the recent RoboSlam.
Damon Berry and John McGrory learning together.
Ready to Oink at the RoboSlam
Dave Dorran working with students at the mid-semester trials for RoboSumo, March 2012. (Photo by Shannon Chance.)
Regarding my prior RoboSumo blog, Ted did read it and he wrote back:
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for writing about RoboSumo on your blog – that was a very pleasant surprise!!
As you anticipated, I do have an updated list of people currently tutoring on RoboSumo:
- David Dorran
- Richard Hayes
- Ted Burke
- John McGrory
Although Damon Berry isn’t currently tutoring on the module, he remains closely involved in the broader DIT RoboSumo enterprise. For example, he and I travelled to Galway with the DIT student team on Saturday 19th January to take part in the National Intervarsity RoboSumo competition. And of course, Damon and I are still developing our “RoboSlam” begginers’ workshop for promoting engineering/programming/robotics, which we will hopefully be running again soon within DIT with an assorted cohort of guinea pigs (engineers, teachers, non-engineers, regular people, etc). Expect a call.
Ted
Dr. Ted Burke
School of Electrical Engineering Systems
Dublin Institute of Technology
Kevin St.
Dublin 8
Ireland
School of Electrical Engineering Systems
Dublin Institute of Technology
Kevin St.
Dublin 8
Ireland
Richard Hayes leading the 2012 RoboSumo trials. (Photo by Shannon Chance, March 2012.)
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To which I replied:
Oink, oink! I’m ready!
I’ll update the blog shortly….
Shannon
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But alas, Ted is always a stickler for details. I think he must be a brilliant engineer because he’s creative as well. Anyway, Ted said:
…On a minor point of information, I have it on good authority that guinea pigs chut, chubble, wheeeek and rumble but they don’t oink. Evidently, before we can meaningfully assess the strengths and weaknesses of our workshop, we’ll have to familiarise all our subjects with the basic vocabulary they’ll be using! Ted
_______________
_______________
Me:
Oh. But, architects oink!
Did you think I was a pig????
😉
Damon Berry advising a student at RoboSumo. (Photo by Shannon Chance, March 2012.)
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Ted:
LOLzers. Of course – how silly of me!
Ireland by Chance 