Lego Clubs

[kolamum]

I hope this is the right board to put this on.. We run a non-robotic Lego Club & have for the past 2 years. However, as the kids are getting older I'm seriously considering switching to robotic.. We own the basic Ev3 & WeDo so I'd be able to meet a varying age level of children, but I only own basics..

I'm looking for information {feel free to send me a message or leave info here} for non competitive FLL "type" teams. Basically, I'm not interested in being a part of FLL, rather I'm interested in providing the children with challenges during club meetings that can be solved.. I know the FLL type challenges are sold via some of the educational Lego Sites {in my geographical location} & am curious if I could make that work..

What about non FLL challenges?

What about a robotics club in general?

I'm open to ideas as I think this through..

[Carrousel]

I use Dr. E challenges sometimes for my kids and for my co op class. https://dreschallenges.com

 

There's also robo camp curriculum packs, currently at hsbc. I haven't used those yet but considering it. https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/robocamp/?source=HSBC-2015-11-10&utm_source=Offer+Emails&utm_campaign=HSBC-2015-11-10&utm_medium=email

 

Also look into ev3lessons.com, and th Valk, Bendetelli, and no starch press books. Check no starch though because some of the print ad black and white but the e-book is color (strongly preferred).

 

Valk: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593275331?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

Bendetelli:

http://www.amazon.com/The-LEGO-MINDSTORMS-EV3-Laboratory/dp/1593275331/ref=dp_rm_title_1

 

Damian Kee (uses education version):

http://www.amazon.com/Classroom-Activities-Busy-Teacher-EV3/dp/1491253169/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447450702&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Damian+Kee

[athomeontheprairie]

I used this site for challenge ideas:http://www.drgraeme.net/DrGraeme-free-NXT-G-tutorials/ChV4.htm

 

In my state, 2 (maybe 3) of the state universities have a robotic competition in the spring that is not fll. I take kids to those competitions, instead of fll.

 

I LOVE my robotics club. If you search around here there are many past threads with great advice

[kolamum]

The nearest place running a robotic club is over an hour away from us, so that's not really an option for us..

I'll peek at the links though! :)

 

[athomeontheprairie]

The nearest place running a robotic club is over an hour away from us, so that's not really an option for us..

 

I'll peek at the links though! :)

 

 

There's none near us either, that's why I started our own. And the university's that have competition are 1.5, 3, and 4.5 hours away respectively. But competition is so much fun! And a great end to their hard work, and since it's a one time trip, I'm okay with the distance.

 

I completely understand not wanting to join a team an hour and a half away.

[hadera]

I run a LEGO Robotics club at my children's school. I started out with JrFll and ended up not using because the format didn't work for us.  We only use WEDO right now. You have gotten some great suggestions. Here is a another website that I found helpful:http://www.legoengineering.com/get-started/

I bought this book:http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Robotics-Sustaining-Engineering-Instincts/dp/1493524194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447466630&sr=8-1&keywords=elementary+robotics&pebp=1447466638105&perid=09ZMEWVJKPPHMWPV1A81

The book is more helpful if you plan to have a more structured class with particular goals in mind. I found it helpful but you could definitely get by just using free sites on line. The no starch press books are also great.

 

[kolamum]

There's none near us either, that's why I started our own. And the university's that have competition are 1.5, 3, and 4.5 hours away respectively. But competition is so much fun! And a great end to their hard work, and since it's a one time trip, I'm okay with the distance.

 

I completely understand not wanting to join a team an hour and a half away.

 

For us the competing FLL team {only one in our state} is 3.5 hours away & to complete in the big "deal" at the end of the year we'd have to fly or get on the boat to get off the island. Soo.. But I do get what you mean about the "big pay off"..

 

Right now I'm toying with ideas. We have 4 families who've come to Lego Club with only 2 of those being regular {monthly} members. The other 2 were hit or miss. I'm thinking with the kids getting older now {my eldest is 15} that a robotic club & learning to work in a team atmosphere & bounce ideas off each other would be great.

 

We are the only family in the club who has an Ev3 set, so I'm not sure how this would all unfold, kwim? My original idea was that if I purchased the materials used for an FLL team & we used those then just the one Ev3 might be enough for what we were doing, maybe I'm off my base though.

 

I also have 2 different sets of WeDo for the younger crew so the links {above} for the challenges for that will be AWESOME. All though I suspect that we'll only have 1-3 younger sibblings who'd care about the WeDo where as most will want in on the bigger stuff. 

 

For our "regular" members {meaning those who actually come each month without fail} we'd have 4 kids who are old enough for the Ev3 set, another family was much more regular last year & that would add in anywhere from 2-3 children all old enough for Ev3. I can't really afford another Ev3 set because they run $700 where we live. The FLL kits run $250 {brand new} & then if you don't have the educational software {which we don't at the moment} we'd need to splurge on another $150..

 

We generally have one final meeting planned for December & then we break over January & February. We're looking at possibly breaking for December too based on the business that is summer & end of year silly season..

[kolamum]

I run a LEGO Robotics club at my children's school. I started out with JrFll and ended up not using because the format didn't work for us.  We only use WEDO right now. You have gotten some great suggestions. Here is a another website that I found helpful:http://www.legoengineering.com/get-started/

I bought this book:http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Robotics-Sustaining-Engineering-Instincts/dp/1493524194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447466630&sr=8-1&keywords=elementary+robotics&pebp=1447466638105&perid=09ZMEWVJKPPHMWPV1A81

The book is more helpful if you plan to have a more structured class with particular goals in mind. I found it helpful but you could definitely get by just using free sites on line. The no starch press books are also great.

 

So can you talk me through how you run a meeting with robotics? How many sets do you feel the need to have? Do you have specific goals for each meeting? Do you meet more often then once a month?

 

Here's what we currently do with a normal {non-robotic} club:

 

Each month we have a simple theme, which is written on the white board by our entrance to the Lego Room. We also list ideas under it for those who often need a little inspiration. I also distribute books around the room based on the theme & lego idea books to peruse as needed. This is also a room of toys so little ones are free to do whatever.

 

Everyone grabs a base from the base basket upon arrival & digs in. We have a huge lego table everyone gathers around & builds. I tend to build something & when I hear children calling out for a piece they can't find I stop & look for it so that they can keep on building. We have another table where everyone puts their finished project. I keep a basket of paper slips & pencils there so people can label their creation with a caption or name & their own name as parents love to snap photos. 

 

It generally takes about 40 minutes for the builds to happen, with some people being quicker & some being slower. When I see more kids not building then building {generally I have one lagger who's my own & very detail oriented} I loudly say that if everyone is done & we put away the loose lego we'll go downstairs for snacks. This is usually when parents get up & ooh & ahh over the creations. We've had some really amazing things built & some others that have had us all guessing. ;)

 

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How long will a robotic class take? Even on the WeDo level it helps me build on ideas.. I'm excited by the idea of this, but I'm hesitant to say much to my kids until I've really had time to think it out..

[hadera]

So can you talk me through how you run a meeting with robotics? How many sets do you feel the need to have? Do you have specific goals for each meeting? Do you meet more often then once a month?

 

Our meetings are once a week and run in sessions. Right now I am at the end of a 6week session with 7 kids.  For sets It is best to have a set per pair of kids. If money is an issue you can run Regular LEGOs and robotics at the same time rotating the kids each week/month or during that meeting. We had a larger group this past spring I had the 3 groups rotating through LEGO, Technic and Robotics. I had 2 other parents helping who did the technic and regular Legos. I did all the lesson plans and met with the kids doing robotics. So each week a kid was doing a different sort of LEGOs. In just Legos we focused on creative building, Technic, simple machines and other engineering and Robotics more simple machines and programming. This was a 14 week session. At the end of the session the groups were split into four teams and had to create something using all of the different types of LEGOs. I think I gave 3 weeks for the challenge build. So basically they get to use everything they have learned to create something. Also, each team is broken down into smaller groups so that some kids are in charge of each area.

It is so easy to go in lots of different directions with LEGO in terms of learning. I think it is very helpful to be clear about what your goals are. Do you want the kids to just have a good time and explore? Is it important that they work together(this can be a real challenge but is great learning)as a team? Do you want to focus on engineering process? Creativity? Simple machines?  Obviously,  you can have lots of goals.  If you are planning on meeting just once a month for 40min  I would keep it simple. So for WEDO I would have them start by building the WEDO creations that come with the software if you have it. They would then program them and with any time left I would let them experiment with trying to change the creation. Once they have some of this more guided experience I would give them some challenges with out instructions. You could also do more open ended type challenges such as, Build something that has a working pulley.

 

So the group that I have now are mostly kids who have done LEGO club with me in the past. Most of them had some Robotics experience. We started out reviewing the parts and what they do. We then built one the ROBOcamp builds( I did the free trial). We did a build  that the only requirement was to have a working gear that moves something. We spent part of one class exploring scratch the programming site. We used scratch to program our creations during the next session. They then took some pieces home ( Technic) and created something. The end challenge is for them to take what they build at home and combine it with another persons build to create something new. This also needs to have working gears and can be programmed on scratch or WEDO.

 

 

 

 

 

How long will a robotic class take? Even on the WeDo level it helps me build on ideas.. I'm excited by the idea of this, but I'm hesitant to say much to my kids until I've really had time to think it out..

 

 

 

 

We meet once a week for an hour and 15 minutes.

 

I hope that was helpful. I think some of the biggest challenges are having the kids work together and working with different abilities. I would also say talking to the kids in such a way that is guiding but not giving solutions can be a challenge.  But LEGOs are so much fun! If I didn't answer something or anything was unclear let me know.

[athomeontheprairie]

So can you talk me through how you run a meeting with robotics? How many sets do you feel the need to have? Do you have specific goals for each meeting? Do you meet more often then once a month?

 

I run a robotics program (EV3's). My ideal is 2 kids per robot, but occasionally I have 3 on one. Three is fine, if your kids work well together, I've had teams work really well together and others that struggle.  I run a 7 week session that meets for one hour once a week. I do have specific goals for each meeting. There is something I want them to learn about (building, moving straight, using a loop or switch, learning how a particular sensor works, etc.) and so I have a challenge that will require their use of that knowledge.

 

How long will a robotic class take? Even on the WeDo level it helps me build on ideas.. I'm excited by the idea of this, but I'm hesitant to say much to my kids until I've really had time to think it out..

 

We meet for an hour. One hour is all my kids (4th-8th graders) can handle IF they are really struggling with the programming or building. I do allow interested kids to work for an additional hour if they are still really into it, but that has only happened a handful of times.  But usually, after an hour they're done.

 

I'm so glad I did this. There is NOTHING like this available to anyone in our community (that's no quite true, one of the three schools has them available to the gifted students, all 5 of them).  It is a LOT of money. It took me a lot of time at the beginning, to set up-but I didn't know anything at all about robotics or programming prior to starting.

 

 

[daijobu]

I'm so glad I did this. There is NOTHING like this available to anyone in our community 

 

No kidding!  I would love to have someone do this for us.  I hope those other parents are grateful for what you contribute.  

[kolamum]

So are you getting your ideas from the books & websites previously listed? I'm feeling inspired here.. but the lack of robotic sets might be an issue.. I'm thinking we'd need 2 more sets, possibly 3, but that would cost me nearly $1000.. 

[hadera]

Are you going to charge for the Club?

 

[kolamum]

Are you going to charge for the Club?

 

I was hoping not to. While we have high number of children if everyone comes we only have 2 families who come regularly. Not sure if we'll be inviting any new families or not.. I've been debating charging, but I'm wondering how I'd feel to pay, but not have anything to bring home in the end, kwim? Plus, while people are happy to "donate" in my area they only donate a dollar or two for things..

 

ETA: We have 4 kids who come regardless; we have another 3-4 who come on a less reliable basis, but I do wonder if it was robotics if they'd be more regular?! I dunno, hubby wondered if they were working in teams if it would make a difference.. maybe.. Much to consider here, but either way in order to move forward I may need to obtain another robot & we only have one level so we don't have the extra "add on" sets you can obtain..