Definitely looks promising. Keep us posted and good luck!<div><br></div><div>Vern<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Blake Elias <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:blakeelias@gmail.com">blakeelias@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Right now we're leaning towards the Adventure Bot:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://custobots.com/products/adventure-bot-rs005" target="_blank">http://custobots.com/products/adventure-bot-rs005</a><br>
<br>
It's quite a bit cheaper at $80. Though it doesn't have nearly as<br>
many sensors, they'll still be able to do some cool things. And we<br>
can afford more of them so the kids can work in smaller groups. With<br>
the small amount of time we have to teach, I'm not sure we'd even get<br>
a chance to use the Scribbler's additional capabilities like camera<br>
processing.<br>
<br>
Once they see the basics on the small robot, they'll be able to play a<br>
little bit with the larger ones we build for the competition, which<br>
weigh 120 lbs and have more functions. Those just aren't great<br>
teaching tools in the beginning because they take up more space and we<br>
don't have enough of them for kids to work in groups of 1-3.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Blake Elias<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 1:16 AM, Vern Ceder <<a href="mailto:vceder@gmail.com">vceder@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> Hi Blake,<br>
><br>
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:40 PM, Blake Elias <<a href="mailto:blakeelias@gmail.com">blakeelias@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>><br>
>> My high school competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Every year<br>
>> we have to teach new members basic robotics and programming concepts,<br>
>> to get them excited and prepared for the heat of competition. Those<br>
>> who have the patience stay with it and have a great time, but we<br>
>> always lose a bunch of people partly because the lessons are not very<br>
>> interesting or useful. I believe the solution is to teach with small<br>
>> robots, instead of just writing on the board and doing "hello<br>
>> world"-type programs.<br>
><br>
> That was exactly the same conclusion we came to, although at our school the<br>
> competition uses Vexx components and is designed by local engineers. And<br>
> we've had some success following the approach you suggest.<br>
><br>
>><br>
>> Vern, I was very inspired by your PyCon talk on teaching programming<br>
>> with the Scribbler. I know people have had success with it, it looks<br>
><br>
> I'm glad to hear that, I'm going to give essentially the same talk at ISTE<br>
> on Monday (thanks to the Python Software Foundation board for supporting<br>
> that trip financially!), and I'll report back if I get any interesting<br>
> feedback.<br>
>><br>
>> like a great robot to teach with. For our budget however, getting a<br>
>> bunch of these would be a stretch (I think the scribbler + fluke board<br>
>> combo costs $140 -- is this correct?). You do need the Fluke board<br>
>> unless you want to program it in BASIC Stamp or their GUI, right?<br>
><br>
> You are pretty much right on all counts, except that the Scribbler/Fluke<br>
> combo is more like $180. Depending on numbers it still might be worth it to<br>
> work in teams of 2-4, although that does have its downside. The scribbler<br>
> isn't perfect, but it's pretty darned good for the cost.<br>
> Cheers and good luck (and by all means, keep us posted).<br>
> Vern<br>
>><br>
>> I've seen some cheaper mini-robots but I'm not sure if they're any<br>
>> good. Does anyone have suggestions?<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> Thanks,<br>
>> Blake Elias<br>
>> _______________________________________________<br>
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><br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Vern Ceder<br>
> <a href="mailto:vceder@gmail.com">vceder@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com">vceder@dogsinmotion.com</a><br>
> The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - <a href="http://bit.ly/bRsWDW" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/bRsWDW</a><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Vern Ceder<br><a href="mailto:vceder@gmail.com" target="_blank">vceder@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:vceder@dogsinmotion.com" target="_blank">vceder@dogsinmotion.com</a><br>
The Quick Python Book, 2nd Ed - <a href="http://bit.ly/bRsWDW" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/bRsWDW</a><br><br><br>
</div>