Sphero Trial 4!

Trial 4! Its amazing to think that we have met now three times! Only two of the girls were able to make it but it was still a wonderful meeting. First, I want to talk about Science Saturday that happened a couple weeks ago. It was a community event for people to attend. It was all about hands on science activities. We were able to show off Sphero. We borrowed two more Spheros from the school as well as some iPad's and we had students who came get a chance to paint a streak in a mural (ended up three total) that are now hanging in the Library at the school. We heard comments like "This is SO cool!" and "Can I try?!". Most often, the kids didn't want to give up their turn. It was a huge success and we have three wonderful murals now hanging in the school to commemorate the day. (see the pictures below!)

So, for this meeting the girls wanted to continue with the house project. They continued to work on their program. Last time, they had a hard time getting the program right. So this time around they decided to start with the angles of the house as a starting point. They worked diligently and tested their program A LOT! More times that I can count. They ended up starting their program over, and working on the part that was giving them the issue, first and then adding what they knew worked. It was a success! I LOVED listing to their rich conversations about what happened and what they were going to try next. I was especially intrigued at the math they were preforming seamlessly without even thinking about it. They were looking at angles and speed and time as they were all factors in creating a program that worked for their purpose. They went on to test on the board with paint!

As you can see, it didn't exactly go as planned... They ran it a couple times and got inconsistent results. They couldn't figure out why. So, they wanted to try it on the ground. We did just that and see what happened... 

 

It totally did it correctly! So, they learned that the table we were using was not level and that was causing the program to not run correctly which ultimately made an incomplete picture. (WOAH! How awesome is that?!) See the finished picture below! 

Completed final house!!! 

Then, we had a high school student reach out to us about doing some long exposure photography with Sphero using the lights. THAT WAS WAY COOL. We are waiting for the final pictures from the student which will be posted when we get them. It was awesome to see everyone working together and to see another medium being used to create artwork! 

Finally, the girls got their next challenge from me. I want them to create a flower as wall art for my apartment. They started out with a sketch and from there went into programing. They wanted to start with the middle of the flower. They didn't think Sphero could make a circle... but they played around with the app and found out that they can control the right and left motors to create a circle! It was awesome. They did something they didn't think they could do at first. We ran out of time to do much more than that but they were testing in the hall, and I would bet they are going to make great progress next time! 

The girls are testing out their program. They are using sticky notes to see where Sphero starts and ends to see if it ends up in the same spot. 

Sphero Trial 3

Sphero has gone on a lot of adventures recently!

Most recently the girls have been experimenting with colors and textures. This time when we met we didn't focus on the programing. Rather, we focused on how to make Sphero's trail different patterns. The girls attached:

• Rubber Bands 
• Scrunchies 
• Tinsel 
• Glitter

They attached the different textures to Sphero, rolled him in paint and let him go! They controlled him using the "drive" function of the app. They took turns and created a beautiful mural!

Adding Glitter! 

Sphero "Greg" is covered in tinsel. 

What I loved most about this interaction with the girls and Sphero was the conversations that happened between students. They were actively brainstorming, and talking through problems they encountered and things they wanted to try. It was amazing to see how much they were learning and thinking about what they were doing but that they were also laughing and having fun the whole time. They were constantly smiling and laughing- proof that learning can happen in experiences that are enriching and engaging and FUN!!

Working on the house program. 

We were working and I had posted some pictures to Twitter and we connected with an assistant principal who made a paint request for the girls to try. He wanted them to paint a house. The girls went to work right away. They were excited to have a purpose and a challenge. They went and started to figure out what shapes they needed to create and started testing in the hallway. They had a particularly hard time with the angles but they kept testing it out. They ended up doing 9 trials before we had to leave for the day. They didn't quite get it, and they were frustrated but they were also persistent. After they tried it with paint a few times unsuccessfully they decided they needed to do more test runs in the hallway next time before they used paint again. 

They ended up putting blobs of paint on the paper to try to drive through vs. having Sphero covered in the paint.

Paint by Sphero (Greg) Trial 2 with Students

Well,  to the 17 people who saw the original Trial 2, you will have to remember it forever! I, on accident this week, deleted the whole blog post from trial 2. So, I will attempt to sum it up.

(Check out my student Maddy's account of the day! Click Here. )

My students did in an hour what took me about three or four hours to complete. I had three girls come in after school and explained to them what was going down. We were going to use Sphero to paint pictures essentially. They were quick to name the test subject Greg, and brainstorm what they were going to try to program. Before anything however, I had them experiment and get a feel for how Sphero worked. I had them control him using the drive aspect of the app--playing around with speed, directions, and colors. They also learned how to aim him. (Later they will comment on the importance of aiming Greg so he doesn't roll in the opposite direction and make a big mess!)

They decided to make a rectangle! They were then exposed to the first time, the Lightning Lab App. I showed them the three modes of using the app, and then let them go. All three of them had been previously exposed to Scratch so they knew how the drag-and-drop interface worked. They started going, and problem solving!

They went out in the hall to test their programs several times before we finally started using the paint. Today was mainly focused on learning the programing platform and the particularities that come with using Sphero.

For example, they noticed that he slid rather than stopped before performing the next action in their program. They decided to add stops to their program because of this. They also noticed that he (Greg) was harder to control if he was moving faster, but if he moved too slow he would wobble.

Today was a great learning curve day. The girls were laughing, and smiling but they were also having to problem solve, learn a completely new system, and thing critically and intentionally about what they wanted to happen and how to achieve that. (Check out the pictures and videos below that document the day!)

The students are testing out their program here! 

Rolling Greg in the paint.

                                                                                 

   

The final product!

The student's program.

Next, I hope to experiment more with textures, and colors. The girls got the programing stuff down pat for the most part. But now, I want them to be able to explore the art aspect of this project. How can we make meaningful art with colors and textures? I have a few ideas on how to manipulate the trail that Sphero leaves, but I will have to see what the girls think too! 

We also have an event coming up called Science Saturday. I hope the girls will be able to come and show off what they have learned and done. I am thinking they might be able to set something up where other students come up, and are able to create a stroke on the painting, sign it, and then we will donate it to the schools in the district. 

We will see what happens! Check out my student Maddy's account of the day! Click Here. 

Paint by Sphero Trial 1

I am about to begin my ArtReach project: paint by Sphero! Unfortunately, the students I want to work with are on Christmas Vacation. So, I am about to start on my own and then hopefully can connect with my students later on. I am exploring how I can use the Spheros to teach programming and also create artwork at the same time. They should be working in tandem together. I foresee a few challenges. They are as follows:

• Being able to control the robot to move precisely (accuracy)
• Being able to repeat results over and over again 
• Keeping the robot (and paint) on the paper/table

I am about to begin and will come back with pictures/videos and thoughts after my first trial run! 

During Trial Run: 

Sphero died on me... so while I am waiting for him to charge I am looking into the apps I downloaded to try this project with. The first app is called Lightning Lab. It appears that there are three ways to program: drawing, block, or text. The difficulty in programing increases from using your finger to draw a path for the robot to follow to using a block system much like Scratch, to finally using just text. I intended the purpose of this project to be to teach students programing through art and to capture the interest of more girls in the process because they are traditionally under represented in this area. However, I can see already that the purpose can also be just to create art the Sphero is merely a medium to do it, like a new kind of paint brush. The 'draw' feature of this app really allows the artist(s) to focus on the picture rather than the coding while the other two options focus more on the programing aspect.
                                                             

The other app I will look into using is the Sphero App. So far, I haven't done much research into the App. I want to focus in on the first one and then explore this app more. I think I will overall be able to do more with the Lightning Lab app. 

I have started to actually program and I have found that I really need to consider speed. I was doing a few dry runs and the Sphero would kind of skid to a stop because it was going to fast. There are a lot of variables to consider but I think by doing dry runs I can tinker with it enough to get it just right.

UPDATE: Speed is a variable that needs to be explored carefully. However, by adding stops in between commands for speed you can minimize the amount of skidding the robot does before executing the next command.
                                                     

For my first program I will be trying to make a star using the block system in the Lightning Lab App. I think there will be difficulty in getting the angles just right but the beauty of programing like this is that there is always room for adjustment. I, and eventually my students, will be able to test, adjust, and retest our programs multiple times to get it just right. We will be able to experiment and create something completely new.

UPDATE: The star may have been overambitious of me to start with. I tried using the draw and the programing blocks but kept running into problems. I went back into the app and started one of their modules. Perhaps for some people/students, depending on their experiences, could look at the app and program it without any tutorials. I have found out I am not one of those people and learned a lot in the few modules I completed. I am interested to see what happens when my students are exposed to the app, and what we are trying to do. Nonetheless, I was able to program my Sphero to make a square! It seems like a small feat, but I learned how to prevent skidding--adding stops in between commands. I also learned:

• How to add sounds-- (I added sounds at every turn)
• How to add color, and color changes to Sphero during a program 
• Learned how to use a loop, and what works best when trying to use a loop 

    

  Program for making a square. 

     

 

                       Program for making a square using a loop-- adding color and sound as well. 

The next step is to bring this project to my students and see what they do. I intend for them to create a blog as well-- almost like an engineering notebook. 

This is what my set up looks like: Cardboard box with tall walls (so Sphero doesn't jump out) and a large sheet of paper. I roll Sphero in the paint, and start the program!