We Provide STEM Education for Kids!
Today we built a hammer. This build taught students about friction and force. Depending on the tightness of each gear the friction is different. The students discovered that larger gears had a higher friction than the smaller gears. The force of the hammer was able to push the axle into the gear as well. Next week I would really appreciate it if students would check if each piece was inside their kit to make sure no one will have trouble finding anything.
Today we built the Dragster, a fast car that it shot forward using the energy stored in it’s wheels and “charged up” using an accelerator stand. Many of the students finished on time however a few did not manage to finish. Most of the students loved the Dragster and had a lot of fun testing them in the classroom. Parents ensure the kids pick up all the pieces as we found quite a few pieces on the ground today and had various missing part issues throughout the build.
In this Lesson, students will use the Brick Status Light and Display Block to program their wheeled robot to simulate visual signals for pedestrians, other car drivers, and passengers when reversing. Students will also use the Touch Sensor to simulate forward and reverse gears. Touch Sensor can detect when the sensor’s red button has been pressed or released.
Program 1: Bump and Reverse
There are three different modes of the Touch Sensor, i.e., pressed, released, bumped (Pressed and Released Just Before).
Program 2: Bump, Wait for Reverse Gear
Introduce the use of the button on the EV3 Brick to act as the “reverse” gear.
Today we built a crane/winch system and learned a bit about power and efficiency. The students loved to play with the model so much that they didn’t want to clean up. The topic for next week is the wind turbine. We found a lot of pieces on the floor and we ask that the kids clean up a bit faster and stop losing pieces.
Also for the kids, here’s a picture of the helicopter I mentioned in class today, as you can see it’s lifting a small house.
In this class, we will achieve an autonomous parking. Frist, we construct the Robot Educator base model, which is a basic wheeled robot.
Program 1: Three Point Turn
1. Start the Program
2. Turn the driving base and stop after 1.5 seconds.
3. Turn the driving base left and stop after 1 second.
4. Move the driving base forward for 3 seconds.
Program 2: Parallel Parking
1. Start the Program.
2. Drive forward in a straight line at the desired speed.
3. Wait for 1 second.
4. Reverse motor rotation while turning for 1.5 rotation.
5. Reverse motor rotation while turning the other way for 1.5 rotation.
6. Drive backward in a straight line for 0.5 rotation.
7. Drive forward in a straight line for 1 rotation.
Program 3: Parallel Parking with Simulating Reverse Gear and Reverse Warning lights
1. Start the Program.
2. Drive forward in a straight line at the desired speed.
3. Wait for 1 second.
4. Turn light on (reverse light).
5. Reverse motor rotation while turning for 1.5 rotation.
6. Reverse motor rotation while turning the other way for 1.5 rotation.
7. Drive backward in a straight line for 0.5 rotation.
8. Drive forward in a straight line for 1 rotation.
After finishing each program, make sure to check the following building before sending command to the wheeled robot: Are the wires correctly connected from the motors to ports B and C? Are the wheels correctly installed? Are the wheels rotating freely?
In the second class, we continued talking the main programming blocks in the EV3 software and the hardware communications. The programming blocks include three categories: Action, Flow control, and Sensors. The Action includes all action related blocks such as the motor, motion mode, and sound and light of the brick. The Flow control includes start, delay, loop, and switch blocks. The Sensors include color sensors, ultrasonic sensors, gyroscope sensors, and touch sensors.
The first program we covered was the motor control.
The program starts by a “start” block in the “flow control” category, follows by a “large motor” block in the “action” category, then a “wait” block in the “flow control” category. The differences among three motor control blocks come from the first button, from where we can choose the control mode of the motor. The five control modes are literally intuitive. The second button controls the power input, the number can be both positive and negative, which can make the motor rotate and clockwise contraclockwise. The third one depends on the choice of the first control mode. For example, in the first “large motor” block, we picked “on for rotations”, power to “50”, and “1”. The block controlled the motor to rotate 1 clockwise circle. The “wait” block is nothing but to control the motor to stop for 1 sec.
The second program we did was the touch sensor.
As the last program, it starts by a “start” block in the “flow control” category, follows by a “wait” block in the “flow control” category, then a “sound” block in the “action” category. The “wait” block is very powerful and can be used to control all sensors by choosing from the first button list. The reason we used a “wait” block instead of the “touch sensor” in the “sensor” category is that the program pipeline needs to be paused until the sensor get triggered after a time delay. Due to the fact that the time is not determined until the sensor gets triggered, thus we cannot use set a determined time as same as the first motor control program. The “sound” block was activated when the touch sensor was triggered and gave a sound “Ouch”, which can be picked in the upper right button list.
Today we built the Windmill and learned a little bit on how wind power was used. The kids had fun testing their windmills using using a fan that provided the wind with nearly all of them finishing on time. The topic for next week is the dragster. Please be prepared. Additionally ask the children to clean up a bit better as some parts were found on the floor.
Today in class we built motor cars. Although it was a little out of the student’s comfort zones, the majority of them were still able to complete it. This project helped them with the fundamentals of building with Lego, the parts and the instructions. Next week we built balances which the student’s enjoyed.
Hello Parents,
Today in class we built beam balances. The beam balance teaches students about the simple machine- the lever. In class, we discussed the correlation between length and weight and why one side of the balance dropped. Next week we will be building a hammer. Please complete the homework assignment and the worksheet provided in class.
Today we made the solar car and learn a little bit about light and it’s dual nature as a particle and a wave. The students reacted favourably with most getting their models done on time, some seemed a bit bored by the slightly advanced physics we covered in the lesson.
Please make sure the kids complete their homework of shining a laser into a 5 dollar (or higher) bill.
The topic for next week is a pulley device that works as a winch.
