2/27/2018 and 3/1/2018. This week in the iNEST maker club, the girls put the finishing touches on their Hummingbird robotics projects. Dr. Oliver brought to the school some 3d-printed mechanisms for the girls to try out with their servos, and Mrs. Dupree worked with some of the club members to 3d-print some cardboard-punches that also hold Hummingbird servos in place on cardboard constructions. Some of the girls helped out in the club this week by making posters for Thursday's student showcase at the state technology conference, NC-TIES. Thanks to everyone who helped the club get ready for this event, packing up robots and electrical supplies, scheduling bus transportation, and chaperoning the event. The girls who attended NC-TIES on Thursday did a great job representing the club and school, speaking with several teachers and many of their peer students about their work with Hummingbird. Check out the pics below! We attracted a big crowd and lots of interest in Hummingbird projects! After the showcase, the girls enjoyed walking through the vendor exhibit area and checking out some of the latest educational technologies on the market such as virtual reality headsets, promethean table top screens, and further robotics platforms like ozobots. Great job everyone!
2/20/2018. As some of the girls were finishing up with their first Hummingbird robotics projects, this week the maker club kicked off with a short video showing different types of mechanisms that can be incorporated into future projects. Dr. Oliver shared a handout showing different kinds of Hummingbird projects other students have created to inspire the girls to try building a different type of robot (e.g., animate an animal, animate a famous work of art, animate a sports figure with relevant motion like throwing a baseball, animate a character from a popular book, make a game that incorporates motion like randomly moving hands that try to keep a ping pong ball from entering a basket, and more). Next week, the three groups that will be attending and sharing their finished Hummingbird projects at the NC-TIES state technology conference will spend some time making posters for the showcase.
2/13/2018. This week in iNEST, several teams demonstrated their developing Hummingbird robots with moving sensors/motors and blinking LEDs, triggered by sound and distance sensors. The girls will add finishing touches to their robots over the next couple of weeks, and extension activities have been distributed for teams that are finishing their robots early, including adding virtual elements in Scratch to accompany the physical robot, and incorporating a robot into a Scratch game by working with Scratch variables. In two weeks on March 1st, a couple of teams will be demonstrating their robots at a student showcase held at the state technology conference, NC-TIES. Also happening this week in iNEST, Mrs. Dupree finished collecting permission slips for the club's spring, overnight field trip to the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington DC. We're pleased that more than 20 club members will be traveling to the festival this year. 2/6/2018. This week in the iNEST maker club, the girls continued working on their Hummingbird robotics projects, with most groups getting into Scratch coding to make their wired sensors and effectors function. Students understand which Hummingbird blocks they need to communicate with given physical parts (LEDs, servos, distance sensor, etc.), but many are also learning they need to use control blocks to sequence a set of events (if-then-else), and to wrap a set of events in a forever blocks to keep the sensors "looking" for an action (e.g., a hand getting closer or farther away from a distance sensor). It is exciting to see the girls beginning to understand these basics of coding that can be applied widely in many other applications.
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Purpose:Dr. Oliver's weekly update of activities in the iNEST Maker Club. Archives
April 2019
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