Title: Sumo Robots Learn to Write:
1Sumo Robots Learn to Write
-
- Andrea C. Sledge, Central Washington University,
Ellensburg, Washington, sledgea_at_cwu.edu - James Hendricks, Southridge High School,
Kennewick, Washington, Hendji.KSDMAIL.KSD1_at_ksd.org
2Project Sumo Robot
3Why?
- a high interest, high technology learning
activity to high school students with career path
interests in science and technology - a high interest, high technology leaning activity
to be disseminated for replication - complex entry level skills and abilities
presently used in the research and development
industry
4- potential popularity of sumo robot competitions
as sports in high school and - an enriched experience for a teacher intern in
the use of educational technology and
interdisciplinary team teaching.
5Who?
- Secondary school teachers in two courses, Senior
Engineering Technology and Language Arts,
designed the curriculum. - Seniors in these two courses
- The teacher intern provided instructional support
and delivery over the course of an academic year.
- The university faculty supervised the teacher
intern and collaboration with the classroom
teachers through bi-monthly visits.
6What do the students do?
- complete a senior project for the Electrical
Engineering course - build mini sumo robots from basic electronic
components - program the robots and
- compete against other schools in mini sumo robot
competitions. - problem solve and troubleshoot to configure and
design sumo robots for peak competitive
performance and - build skills looked for in entry-level electrical
engineers.
7A mini sumo robot is
- a small, autonomous, mobile robot with infrared
sensors located on the bottom of the chassis - capable of traveling across a three-foot diameter
circular arena called a dohyo (black surface
with a 1 white perimeter - built from simple off-the-shelf kits to elaborate
custom-built machines with enormous
microprocessor power and high torque motors
8What happens in a sumo robot match?
- When infrared light from the sumo robot is
reflected from the white line, the sumo robot
receives an input signal. - The robots program will stop its drive wheel
motors, back up, turn around, then travel forward
again across the dohyo. - Random collisions occur between the robot
opponents, which lead to pushing matches. - Eventually, one robot will push its opponent off
the dohyo.
9The PT3 grant funded
- an interactive, computer assisted whiteboard for
lesson presentation and idea development - portable USB-connected hard drives to store and
transfer large volumes of student movie data
between classrooms - basic electronic components for twenty mini sumo
robot circuit fabrications - the manufacture of twenty printed circuit boards
by a commercial supplier and - servomotors for twenty mini sumo robots and
- a video camera.
10The Engineering Technology Classroom
11Students completed a series of integrated
assignments
- detailed and individually written technical
reports - CAD drawings using 3-D parametric modeling
software - electronic schematic and printed circuit board
development using industry standard software - a promotional movie to highlight their product a
web site containing all aspects of their
research and - a tournament between the secondary school
students and engineers interested in robotics.
12.
A panoramic photo of the sumo robot competition.
Photo by Gabe Guillen
13In the Dohyo
14- The competing robots are placed on the arena.
- The designers simultaneously pressed the sumo
robot start buttons at the command of the
referee. (The robots were preprogrammed to start
five seconds after the button was pressed.) - When the robots began to move, music played over
the loud speakers. - The robots started to travel across the 36-inch
diameter, black arena with a white line painted
around the perimeter.
15- The robots eventually collided, and began pushing
each other. Sometimes they got tangled and
appeared to perform a dance. - The referee had the authority to stop and restart
the bout after 15 seconds of non-contact or
entanglement. - Eventually, one robot pushed the other off the
arena.
16- Robots advanced through the tournament chart for
the final battle between two finalists. - The champion was determined after winning two out
of three bouts. A team of secondary students won
the tournament with their mini sumo robot named
Shade.
17Shade, the winning sumo robot. Shade was built
by a team of two students from the Science and
Technology Academy.
18The Language Arts Classroom
19- The Science and Technology Academy is made up
blocked classes with Language Arts and Science. - The Senior Language Arts class played a major
role in the sumo robot project in developing the
documentation of the student-created technology.
20Types of Documentation
- technical writing
- creative writing
- movie making
- hypertext
21Sumo Robots Learned to Write
- a multimedia presentation of research
(information collection, organization, and
analysis) - a parts list that included a technical
description of each item - editing of the Sumo Challenge document for
language mechanics - a lab book documenting the Sumo Robot design
process - four technical reports
- creative writing (short story, poem, jokes)
22- videos (instructional documentary, promotional
music, trash talk) - a sumo robot web site
- a business and marketing plan and public
relations items (name, business cards,
advertising flyer, video) - research reports and creative writing in global
studies, science, math social studies, music
and - multimedia presentations marketing student
engineering skills.
23The Year-Long Teacher Intern the 1st year
- a Language Arts/Drama major
- participation in the Sumo Robot Project through
the academys Language Arts class (one period
daily) - taught or co-taught the integrated assignments
related to technology, such as the technical
writing, poetry and movie creation during the
quarter of her formal student teaching experience
24Screen capture image of an initial web page for
the web site about sumo robots.
25The University Faculty Member 1st year
- liaised with the participating teachers
- provided expertise in content area literacy
(reading and writing to learn). - supervised of the teacher intern before and
during the student teaching term - The faculty member observed the teacher intern
every two weeks, on average. - She was videotaped on a regular basis in the
Language Arts class.
26STEPS
- Supervision of the teacher intern
- This software was used in the direct and
video-taped observations of the intern. - Behaviors were recorded as timed or tallied data.
- The software generated reports describing
duration, frequency and sequence of behaviors. - These data and related reports became one of the
bases for feedback to the interns.
27The Collaboration Anomalies Challenges
28- The faculty members discipline was Literacy
Education, with expertise in reading and writing
in content fields. - The year-long intern was a Drama and English
Language Arts major -- no Technology Education
pre-service teachers could participate, given
their course schedules. - The project was designed and scheduled for
implementation prior to the high school joining
the grant.
29- Inquiry learning was one of the instructional
frameworks common to the Science and Technology
Academy classes. - Science and Technology Academy teachers were
well-versed in engineering and/or instructional
technologies, with instructional technology
already a part of their curriculum design. - The distance between the university and the
project site
30Outcomes
- Curriculum Redesign Institutionalization of
Technology Use - The students in the Science and Technology
Academy had a pre-existing interest in and
comfort with technology.
31Advanced Technology Courtesy of PT3
- In the Engineering Technology class, students
learned - software programming
- designing and using printed circuit boards
- creating circuit schematics with Protel DXP
- editing code for microprocessors
32- creating technical drawings with SolidWorks and
AutoCad - creating animation movies with SolidWorks, Flash,
Maya or other software - creating video short films related to the sumo
robot design or performance and - designing web sites which incorporated the
ProtelDXP schematic and circuit board designs,
SolidWorks animations, and AutoCad and Rhino
drawings.
33In Senior Language Arts, students
- enhanced their word processing and research
skills - created QuickTime movies as part of the
Senior-to-Senior and college applications
projects.
34The secondary teachers
- gained access to additional technology resources
- enhanced technologies that were part of their
existing teaching practice microprocessor
circuits for the sumo robots and provided small
format videotaping equipment used for course
video projects
35New Teacher Technology Enhancement
- The year-long intern participated in the Sumo
Robot project through the Science and Technology
Academy Senior English/Language Arts class
(students designed the robots). - She learned, in support of the senior projects in
the English course and the technical writing of
the Sumo Robot project design and competition - how to use small format videotaping equipment
- how to create QuickTime movies
- The PT3 grant purchased a laptop computer for her
use during the course of her participation in the
grant.
36Faculty Technology Enhancement
- The faculty member learned
- STEPS, the observational software used as part of
the supervision of the teacher intern - how to use small format videotaping equipment
- The PT3 grant provided a laptop computer on which
this software resided. - An additional research project is planned using
the STEPS software to record and analyze tutor
behaviors in pre- and in-service literacy
courses. She learned
37Second-Year Accomplishments and Problems
38At Southridge High School
- The Sophomore Engineering Technology class was
the new context for the design of sumo robots. - Students and staff continued to use the
educational technology acquired with PT3 funding
on a daily basis. - The PT3 project work gathered momentum with
technology design updates and more dissemination
resulting in more students and teachers involved
from other schools. - Some seniors involved in the first year of
Project Sumo Robot and for the Engineering
Technology teacher had summer internships in
industry.
39At the University
- No PT3 teacher intern involved in Project Sumo
Robot - Efforts to link university courses with the
Science and Technology Academy - The university faculty member spoke to the
Science and Technology Academy teachers to
identify learning activities for which they
wanted development support. - The idea was that secondary teaching majors, as
part of their course requirements for a reading
in content fields course, would design activities
that addressed these activities.
40- Sophomore and Senior Language Arts teachers
identified several potential projects. (Only one
of these related directly to Science and
Technology The Perfect School, a
collaboration between the Drafting and Sophomore
Language Arts classes.). - As part of the requirements of the pre-service
reading course, student teams designed
Problem-Based Leaning (PBL) units.
41- Students were grouped by content areas that
related to each of the teacher-identified
projects and were assigned to a quarter-long
project. They included aforementioned The
Perfect School, college selection investigation,
independent study of novels, conditioning
programs for cheer squads, and enrichment English
programs for gifted students. - At the end of the quarter, these PBL units were
submitted to the teachers for their review and
feedback.
42Conclusions
- Sumo robots learned to write as they learned
to move. - High school engineering technology students
learned design skills that were relevant to
industry. - High school engineering students used writing for
multiple career-related purposes.
43- Technology supported the acquisition of both sets
of knowledge, skills, and abilities in authentic
contexts. - The strategy of just-in-time technology training
provided a teacher intern with competencies to
carry into her own classroom, and provided the
university faculty with a methodology to enhance
supervision of preservice and inservice teachers
in tutoring and classroom contexts.