Junkbots

The funding for the junkbots project has now come to an end.So what were the outcomes. Figure 1Overall Results Figure 1 shows how the overall score for the whole project. Overall the student were satisfied/ok (around 3) or more than satisfied ( 4 or 5). There seems to be a linkage between the junkbot building exercises and the overall satisfaction ratings. Programming on the whole had slightly lower satisfaction scores but ok scores. Figure 2: Comparison of the overall event scores across the schools. Figure 2 shows scores for the overall project for each school. Overall as mentioned previous the response is very positive (all the results were 89% or higher 3,4, or 5 ratings). There were variations in the level of satisfaction. The school were students were selected the student's based on ability or interest tended to have satisfaction scores that were higher.Does this mean the approaches are more suited to the gifted and talented. Probably not as the satisfaction scores ...

 The second half (programming lego robots) on the junkbots project has been carried out at  Huxlow Science College  on 28th February 2011. At the start of the day most of the students had not previously programmed a robot or (knowingly) a computer. The first task was to get the robot to collect some rubbish and push it over a line and then move back to the another line. All groups programmed the robot to do this and some groups add a sweeper to the front of the robot to push several items at once across the line. The second task was to get the robot to collect the rubbish this time, but without adding any attachments to the front of the robot. Several groups successfully did this, by programming the robot to follow a path that collected the rubbish (drinks cans) and put them behind the line. The third and fourth tasks involved the use of a sensor: -To build the robot that did not move unless there was a can in front of the robot. -To build a robot that went aro...