Organizational Hints

This is an open forum for hints or tips on how to use Robotics in the classroom. If you have any additions or suggestions, please send them to me and I'll include them.

• Place all the equipment for each group in the top of the cardboard box used for photocopier paper or the trays they use to sell pop-cans. They can store their projects when not in use.
• Leave the RCX units attached to the robots. Make sure all the other items can be removed and accounted for at the end of the day.
• The lights only work certain ways. If your program seems to be working but the lights aren't, try rotating them 90 degrees on the plug.
• Take pictures with a digital camera and use that to review what the group did the last day to help them plan out the work they want to do this day.
• Use the administrative tool to change the automatic time-off to 3 minutes to preserve battery life.
• Use the adiministrative tool to unlock programs 1 and 2 if needed.
• We had grade 2 to grade 5 students programming right away at the programmer 4 level with all the standard tools (not the stastistical tools that can be added in).
• We had a computer for each group; however, one computer sat idle most of the time and one computer was heavily used only toward the end of the projects when everyone was programming.