C-3PO

Reflection #1:

I really enjoyed learning about Robotics today. I found it very useful to do the 5 step programming, however, naturally I found myself wanting to be able to do more than just the five steps. I really enjoyed the sensors and understanding how to use those, I think the light sensor was the most tempermental as far as getting it to work. The sound sensor was easy to use once our sensor worked.

I think what went well was the go at it attitude we were all able to have by the way the lessons were presented to us.

 What is challenging for me at this point, is where I am coming into Robotics from. I have two years of teaching science in 7th grade experience, and then the past two years have only taught math...I am currently switching grade levels and will be teaching 6th grade math and science and still do not quite see "big picture" of how it works to teach robotics in a way that goes along with the curriculum. For example, I would like to see next steps of how to incorporate standards in the NC Common Core for middle school science objectives in order to know how Robotics works specifically in a science class. Maybe see some specific "mini-lessons" of what you would use in your science class with 6th and 7th graders and give some information for the various grade levels in the robotics based upon your expertise of where there are natural connections to use Lego or Robotic materials to go along with the objectives that there is no budge room on being taught.

Reflection #2: The Senses and Sensors lesson on Independent and Dependent Variable was exactly dead on what I am wanting more information on. I also found it very valuable to discuss with Mr. Himburg how often he incorporates the use of Robotics into his lessons and am still very curious on where in the curriculum for middle grades (6th, 7th and 8th grades) where the content creates the natural fit for the use of robotics just through the experiences Mr. Himburg has seen. I think the "Try It" activities were easy to use and found myself much more comfortable with the use of the robotics after completing the 5 step function programming before.

To answer the second question of is there any activities I can think of where I could use a robot such as SuRRy in the manner presented, I am still not sure, since I have never taught 6th grade science, and have taught science, but not within the last two years. However, I can say that through the idea of mini-experiment/discovery lessons to help the students have a better gauge of a specific type of content, such as Independent and Dependent Variable, I would definitely feel comfortable in doing a lesson of that sort and even an exact lesson such as IV and DV as we practiced. I also could see how this would be a really neat way to continue to practice the Scientific Method.

Using the specific lesson we went through to go through the Venn Diagram on TPACK was extremely helpful to me, as I was able to see where each of the three parts overlapped and see how they all come together in the end. Also the middle where the Pedagogy, Technology, and Content are all together was what I found really connecting and I found that I already ask myself the same type questions of validity for the components of TPACK, I think TPACK just gives my brain a more comprehensive, organized way of making sure the lesson is set up for the optimal learning experiment.



Reflec tion #3:
 * Briefly explain your experiment and what the results were - We created an experiment where we tested/trial ran three times each four different diameter pairs of wheels in order to see their correlation with speed (i.e., Distance over time) Through testing each of the trial runs we were able to see that the bigger the diameter of the wheels, there was an increase in speed, which disproved our hypothesis.
 * Create a link to your final lab report in Google Docs ---> [|Final Lab Report]
 * Include your answers from these two questions previously answered about TPACK
 * Does the technology most effectively allow students to learn the given content and skill objectives? yes, using the robot provided a quick, instantaneous, hands on way to show the correlation of speed to wheel diameter, as well as using the spreadsheet through Google gave a quick and easy way to organize data and to then create a graph of the information.
 * Is the technology a "best fit" for the pedagogy within the lesson? Why? Why not? Yes, I think that the technology was a nice fit within the lesson due to the instantaneous feedback it allowed students to have in showing them the correlation of wheel diameter and speed. Also, see comments above for why or why not further answers!
 * Is the technology a "best fit" for the pedagogy within the lesson? Why? Why not? Yes, I think that the technology was a nice fit within the lesson due to the instantaneous feedback it allowed students to have in showing them the correlation of wheel diameter and speed. Also, see comments above for why or why not further answers!
 * Is the technology a "best fit" for the pedagogy within the lesson? Why? Why not? Yes, I think that the technology was a nice fit within the lesson due to the instantaneous feedback it allowed students to have in showing them the correlation of wheel diameter and speed. Also, see comments above for why or why not further answers!

 Reflection 4 - Robotic Surgery  Reflection 5 - View It Value
 * Briefly explain the robotic arm activity - Through using the robotic arm, we were able to create simulations as if we were performing general surgeries, i.e., creating the exact movements that would be performed in general surgery, bladder cancer, and then Coronary Bypass.
 * Create a link our Robotic Arm Research Prezi Link --> [|Robotic Arm Research Prezi]
 * Using TPACK, discuss the following
 * Does the technology most effectively allow students to learn the given content and skill objectives? I think that there is an importance that there is a discussion of the concepts and the correlation of the simulation to the real life scenerios and with this the technology does effectively allow students to learn given the content and skill objectives, it may also be nice to have a video or some sort of real life path shown for students of the different surgeries, or at least the initial one to help students.
 * Is the technology a "best fit" for the pedagogy within the lesson? Why? Why not? I think the combination of the pedagogy and the technology once again creates room for discussion, as well as the simulation/real life experience, also through the idea of kinestic learning, students are "doing" to learn instead of just "hearing about"
 * Does the technology most effectively allow students to learn the given content and skill objectives? I think that there is an importance that there is a discussion of the concepts and the correlation of the simulation to the real life scenerios and with this the technology does effectively allow students to learn given the content and skill objectives, it may also be nice to have a video or some sort of real life path shown for students of the different surgeries, or at least the initial one to help students.
 * Is the technology a "best fit" for the pedagogy within the lesson? Why? Why not? I think the combination of the pedagogy and the technology once again creates room for discussion, as well as the simulation/real life experience, also through the idea of kinestic learning, students are "doing" to learn instead of just "hearing about"
 * Summarize the activities and the sensor values recorded - In the activities completed with the different sensor values we found that when with sound their was a direct correlation with the amount of noise the sound sensor detected to the percent of which they sensed. The louder the voice, the more noise detected. With the Light sensor we noticed there was a correlation between the shades of grey and the sensor of light (the lighter the more detection there was, and it continued to decrease, however with the color palette, there was no correlation of any sort. Then with the ultrasonic sensor there we were able to get a range from 6cm to 60cm and when measuring the 50cm away, we saw that it was correct in SuRRy's measurement. When testing rotations we found that with each increase in 50cm it seemed that the rotations went up by about three rotations a piece.
 * Discuss some of the activities that you designed for use in your classroom. - As discussed earlier above in my previous reflections, I am still quite unfamiliar with curriculum that I am moving into, however, I do see connections with being able to discuss concepts and then have students do quick experiments/trials to discover concepts. Also, I think for having students go through the process of the scientific method the robotics would be very helpful.
 * Discuss some of the activities that you designed for use in your classroom. - As discussed earlier above in my previous reflections, I am still quite unfamiliar with curriculum that I am moving into, however, I do see connections with being able to discuss concepts and then have students do quick experiments/trials to discover concepts. Also, I think for having students go through the process of the scientific method the robotics would be very helpful.