Palmer Trinity School

PER SPEC T I V E S Students Embrace Building the Future Written by D A N I E L M U T T E R , Communications Coordinator Students can look forward to an exciting new course being offered at Palmer Trinity School this fall. Under the direction of Frank Hernandez and Academic Computing Chair Bill Stanard, the newly offered Robotic Programming course will give students a chance to learn how to build, program, and control their very own robots! After students became comfortable with basic programming, they learned how to control movement using the robot's infrared, touch, light, and ultra sonic (distance) sensors. "It's sort-of a big moment for them when they suddenly realize: oh I can program this to go forward until it touches a wall, stop, back up, turn slightly to the right, and then go forward again," said Mr. Stanard. Robotic Programming first took shape as an extension of the Android Programming class. In Android Programming, students learn how to use App Inventor, a program-development tool that allows users to create mobile applications and games for their smart phones. "When I was first approached to put together the robotics class, I thought it would be a great idea because we can also use App Inventor to accommodate the LEGO robots," said Mr. Stanard. The course concluded with an opportunity for students to apply their newly learned programming skills to an all-robot soccer tournament. Mr. Stanard set up a "soccer field" in the middle of the classroom, and students used Android smart phones to control their robot "players". Students enjoyed cheering on their teammates as they attempted to control their robot to push a ball into the opponent's goal. Halfway through spring semester, Mr. Stanard and Mr. Hernandez divided their Android Programming students into groups and distributed LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics kits. Before assembling their robots, students were expected to first separate and organize all of the pieces. "It's incredibly important that the kids actually build the robots themselves," said Mr. Stanard. "We want to get them to learn by touching; because nowadays, they spend their entire lives at a virtual level." Over the summer, Mr. Stanard spent a week training at the Robotics Academy, located in the prestigious Carnegie Melon Robotics Institute. The class provides advanced training for instructors looking to teach LEGO MINDSTORMS robotic programming to their students. "The program was a wonderful experience and I look forward to sharing what I learned with this year's Robotic Programming students!" Once assembled, students learned how to program their robots to follow simple driving directions. App Inventor employs an easy drag and drop interface, allowing users to put together different commands or pieces of code. Students can, for example, choose a block of code to make the robot go forward and then another to make it turn left. As they worked through App Inventor, students learned to read and adapt these units of code in order to fine-tune their robot's movements. "As a code writer, 80% of what you do is revision," said Mr. Stanard, "I'm expecting it's going to take you a week to figure out how to learn a certain unit, but think about all the learning you're going to do during that week!" 20 www.palmertrinity.org During the 2013-2014 school year, PTS students can choose to take Android Programming, Robotics Programming, or both. Android Programming will teach students how to use their smartphones like a remote in order to control the robot's movements. Robotics programming, on the other hand, will go one step further by teaching students how to program the robots to make movements on their own. Much like scientists programming the Mars Rover, students will have to create programs for the robot that allow it to move autonomously with the use of sensors. "The great thing about this course is that it will teach kids how to be selfreliant problem solvers, skills that will be useful in any career."

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