My name is Annie I am a school teacher in
Design and Technology. I
have joined the Fab Academy course this year to update my
skills in digital technology and to specialise in STEaM
projects when returning to school in 6 months. I will be
taking everything I learn back to school with me to share with
our teachers network and the children. I am hoping it will
inspire me and others to get inventive, experiment more and
have fun making almost anything.
Week 1
The Fab Academy is a global educational
program where all students are logged to the same main server.
All work made in Fab Academy can be pushed to the server and
can be pulled back and updated. To make this possible I will
be learning how to use and download Ubuntu and Mercurial.
Mercurial is a free control management tool which helps to
organise an archive. I selected SeaMonkey to create my website
having watched tutorials and used the website
www.w3schools.com for HTML coding support. I would like to add
additional features and spend further time looking at code to
understand it's function but I'm happy to have made a start.
My aims
I
aim to apply as many of the skills I will be learning during
the Fab Academy course and to showcase my understanding of the
units through a simple robotics project that I could make with
the children on my return to school. I would like to include
interactive elements, coding, touch sound and light sensors. I
hope to be able to create an interesting school project
bringing electronics, making and programming together in a fun
experimental way. The project will be open source with easy to
follow templates, and produced at low cost using locally
sourced materials. The
robot will allow children to learn the basic practical skills
of fabrication, electronics and programming but also to
experiment with and personalise their robots, create
characters and stories, design games and be creative. To
promote communication, engineering, innovation and creativity
through inspiring STEaM projects.
A robot
To make a simple
practical robot base with sensors that can be easily
transformed into something more unique at a later stage as my
skills develop. I will record
and simplify the process in clear stages so the robot can be
easily recreated and the project extended according to the
children's ability.
· use
cheap
and easily accessible materials to be sustainable
· easily
personalised and interactive
· used
in games so must be indestructible or easily mended
· can
be programmed and directed from an ipad or phone
· game
extensions
and team challenges
To implement my final project I will need to acquire
the following skills and knowledge
· Research
existing
robotic projects suitable for children aged 11 – 16 yrs and
the STEaM curriculum
· Learn
to
use sketch-up and Rhino to draw up my final project
· Test
and
source materials for the body of the robot
· Learn
how
to programme & investigate interactive elements and
user interfaces
· Research
and
test different sensors
·
Consider the power source and solar power as
an option
First thoughts, sketches and
ideas for robot project
