Written by goIT STEM Facilitator, Carlos Matallana

Nov 3 - 1 Nov 3 - 3Due to the success of our summer implementation of Tata Consultancy Service’s goIT curriculum, in partnership with Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Project Exploration has decided to extend this robotics-based curriculum to an after-school, year-round program! We are excited for our students at Frederick Funston Elementary School to experience this great computer science program!

We usually associate robots with human-like machines that belong to futuristic or science fiction movies and books. To start off program on October 7th, teens described the most recent robot (or an approximation) they saw working on a defined task. Some of their guesses included “an excavator,” “an elevator,” and “a computer.” Some hesitated to accept a “computer” as a robot. ‘That’s the brain,” some said, but others believed that a computer is a robot. This created the perfect opportunity to define radical differences between hardware and software and their interaction when accomplishing defined tasks.

Assembled in groups of three, the first timed-challenge is for teens to build their lego robots following a strict guideline so the robot works accordingly. The “Hackers” team won this second week challenge.
During the third week of program, professionals from Tata Consultancy Services, Arif Rahman Nov 3 - 2and Pam Rodrigues, visited us and shared the endless possibilities of having a career on Science and Technology, the importance of diversity in these careers, and the social and economical advantages for young people in this growing industry. The students were excited to learn about all the possibilities and have a chance to ask Arif and Pam about their own background and what specifically they do in the computer science field.Nov 3 - 4

By the fourth week of program, on October 28th, groups were programming the robot using the existing option in the robot’s brain, not using the computer directly. Groups programmed the robots using the computer to move backward and forward, rotate, and stop when needed. Angles rotation, positive and negative number values, and more conceptual topics such as speed, programming patterns, and spatial logic came to play in these exercises.

We are looking forward to see what else the students are able to program their robots to do! Until then!

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