January 12, 2010

Continuing with Scratch

• The older Builders continued working on their Scratch programs and got the chance to test and revise someone else's program.

Building Robots

• The younger Builders began building the robot bodies we will use for the next several meetings.
  

December 1, 2009

Introduction to Scratch

• The older Builders got an introduction to Scratch and began working on their own programs

Building Challenge

• The younger Builders had three design objectives:
• Build a Bridge
• Build Something We Saw on the Field Trip
• Build a New Invention

Check out these bridges!

November 17, 2009 - College of Engineering

The great folks at the MU College of Engineering gave us a great tour of 4 labs/teams:

The Rapid Prototyping lab (I need some of those machines)








The Concrete Canoe Team (who knew you could make concrete that floats?!)





The Formula 1 Team (they started with a wrecked motorcycle--I think Mason was heartbroken)

The Hydrogen Car Team (those panels are super-light but strong enough to stand on--but not by us)

November 3, 2009 - S.N.O.T. Building

There was a lot of curiosity and excitement about the building challenge for this meeting: S.N.O.T. building!! S.N.O.T. stands for "Studs Not On Top." Some Builders had some difficulty getting started--it's hard to break old habits! A few of them tried to stay in the gray by building everything upside-down (technically the studs were NOT on top...until I turned the project upside-down). Once they got rolling, we had a lot of great examples of S.N.O.T. building.

October 20, 2009

Building the Science and Engineering dog

• Part of the Building group began work on the Lego Science and Engineering dog, which will wag its tail and move its mouth when completed.

Building chairs

• Some of the Builders decided to take the challenge of designing chairs for a small stuffed animal. The chairs had to pass the drop test and fit the animal the Builder chose.

That's a lot of animals!

Finalizing the robot

• The Robot Building group continued work on their robot and tested various programs to get the robot to accomplish their objective. When they were done, they demonstrated their invention: The Candy-Flinging Robot!

October 6, 2009

Builders split into small groups and worked on models from the Lego Science and Engineering kit, with a focus on gears and stable structures.


The Robot Building group (Carson, Mason, Evan A., and Koy), revised plans for their robot, built a base for the motor and NXT brick, and devised a simple program to test the function of their design. After drafting a design and building a prototype, we realized that the objective was too complex to be built in the time frame we had available. Although they were disappointed that they had to start over, they quickly came up with a revised plan and built a base for the motor.

Sept 22, 2009

At this meeting, we split into groups based on age and experience. Three of the groups worked in teams to build models from the Lego Science and Engineering kits. These Builders worked on solid construction, choosing the right pieces, and correcting mistakes that may have occurred. The 4^th group started designing a robot using the Lego NXT kit. They will be constructing and programming a candy-delivering robot for Halloween. Before the end of the meeting, each group had a chance to demonstrate and talk about their model. You can see a video of all the groups:

• Towards the end, you might hear me repeatedly calling Carson "Carter," while he and Carter correct me. I apologize to Carson! I seem to have this problem with his name--that I can look right at him, knowing what his name is, and the wrong one comes out of my mouth. He always politely corrects me.