Lego NXT-G Robotics Training at the National Robotics Engineering Center Trip

Hello friends,

I have been in the lovely city of Pittsburgh this week at the National Robotics Engineering Center learning how to mold student minds with the Lego NXT-G robotics and software. Programming anything was quite new to me, but leaving now with this new information makes me feel much more comfortable teaching it in my classroom. I not only know how to program these tiny technical machines, but also know how to troubleshoot and identify misconceptions in student programming. Now, the only obstacle to overcome is the incoming EV3 models that are being shipped to my classroom on August 1st. I have been working with the model before that and using a wonderfully detailed and easy to understand video trainer that is not yet available for the EV3. I think the EV3s will be used for my students who are already familiar with the NXT-G and are ready to move on to a bit more difficult robot.

The programming of these robots was much easier than I anticipated. I thought that I would be working with a text-based programming, but was quite thankful when it was a visual language (for those of you who don't know, it uses pictures). It made understanding the background of what the robot was being asked to do a lot easier than I originally anticipated. I expected it to be more like ALICE, Python, or Scratch.

As far as what I learned and used with the NXT-G robotics, I learned to use several different sensors when working with the robot (sound, ultrasonic, light, and touch sensors), programmed in duration times, used switches and loops to help the robot make continual decisions until I asked it to stop, worked with reactions to thresholds, etc. I learned more in the four and a half days that I was in Pittsburgh than I think that I would have in doing the software independently for a few courses. By taking this, it caused me to have way less headaches this year and cause me to be able to do more teaching with my students than teaching myself as we go.

Thankfully, while I was in Pittsburgh, I met several great people who I now call good friends. We took several "adventures" as we called them, including getting lost after dinner and having to call for a pick-up, going to a brewery inside an old Catholic church, meeting a therapy rabbit in training (it was on a leash and knew basic commands!), going to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, eating a hot dog at the famous "O" restaurant, going on a ducky tour, having dinner at Bucca de Beppo with great friends, etc. It will definitely be a trip to remember.

I will post pictures in a while, but for now, it is time to board my flight home! Talk soon!

Robotics Training with Carnegie Mellon University

Hi, everyone!

I realized that this post and the last one have been the first ones I have done since April! OOPS! So much for one a week! :) I will try harder!

As I mentioned in the last post, I am now teaching robotics and that I know NOTHING! So, this week I am taking a training course for teachers in Pittsburgh, PA at the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University to learn how to work with and program the Lego Mindstorm NXT-G robotics kit. Today was Day 1 and I have already learned more about these robots than I thought possible. There are sensor attachments, multiple types of turns, etc.  I've programmed robots to navigate multiple mazes using different commands and sensors. My, oh my, am I on a REAL steep learning curve! It has been an adventure. I am also not the only mid-twenties person in the room! (I will admit that this was a fear of mine!) I am so excited that I am not the only "youngin'" in this training! I've paired up with another gal who is also in her second year of teaching so us "young bucks" can stick together!

Tomorrow, we take a tour of the facility. It is a high security facility, so I am not allowed to take any pictures. :( Sorry, guys! I get a disk of photos I'm allowed to show at the end of the week. There are project going for places like John Deere, Cat, the military, Toro, etc. so we have to be given badges to even get in to the facility.

I'll try to keep you updated on my adventure! Have a great week! :)

P.S. Favorite quote of the day "Teachers fix understandings, not robots!" or "Teachers fix understandings, not robots!" It can be read two ways and mean two different things! :)

Introductory Robotics Unit

Hey everyone!

As some of you may know, I have accepted the position in my school district to teach 3rd-6th grade gifted education. With that position, I have been given the task to teach robotics. As many of you know, I know nothing about programming or robotics or anything other than robots are children's toys. I am quickly learning that there is so much more to robotics than meets the eye. We work with Lego Mindstorms NXT-G robots in our program.

Since I am now teaching gifted, I am required to take the necessary courses to receive my gifted education certification. Certification for gifted goes K-12 so it does have a broad range in which to work with. This summer I took an online Gifted Curriculum course through Mizzou and absolutely loved it! As the final project of the course, we were asked to write a unit with five lessons, an overview, assessment, etc. Of course, knowing me, I overdid it, as always. I worked on creating a unit for my students to introduce them to robotics. I created a unit for 3-5th graders based on the Common Core with 8 lessons, parent letters, a schedule, etc. I would like to share that with you. There is a link below to send you to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store to purchase the unit.

Introductory Robotics Unit

It is 21 pages of materials. It has the links to all of the resources of items that were not explicitly written into the unit. I loved putting this together and plan on using it next year with my 3rd-6th students. The standards are written through 5th but many of the standards are similar through 6th. If you do get a chance to look through it, please do and leave me comments or suggestions! I would love to hear from you!

Until next time!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Hey Everyone!

Long time, no chat! I have been busy working up some materials for my own Teachers Pay Teachers Store! I posted materials two days ago and I have already made a sale! Yay! It is amazing! Keep up with my store and see what you can use in your own classrooms!

So far, here is what I have posted:

• Planet Research Project with iPads
• Graphing Math Battleship (FREE!)
• Reading Counts Points Slips and Points Schedule
• OPTIC - Graph Reading Strategy

Here is the link: Ashley Jevorutsky TPT Store!

Let me know what you think! :)

Delectably, Delicious Writing

Hello friends!

This week's post is about some descriptive writing that I did with my fifth graders. They wrote some awesome pieces after brainstorming on Popplet, writing their rough drafts in Notabilty, having their writing edited within Notability, making corrections, and then submitting them to our Posterous page for final grading.

Here are the apps we used:

                          

Once the kids had finished their work, I used this writing to make a new hallway display. I made the Hershey Kisses for their writing from poster board wrapped in tin foil. The Kisses tags are made from tissue paper and blue markers. It made for such a cute display! 

 

I am also including my grading rubric that I used for this assignment, in case you were to "borrow" it. Keep on sharing!

Hope you have enjoyed this new addition to my blog!  I will be posting soon!

Body Organs App

We have been doing a body systems unit in Science and I was very limited in my classroom resources. I was extremely grateful for the Body Organs App for the iPad. I had the students play around on this app for about 30 minutes to explore the different systems and organs. It reads the information to them and has detailed descriptions and fun facts of all of the organs and systems. They used their headphones to listen to the app, so the room was very quiet. Overall, they really enjoyed it and were very engaged by the different cool facts. I would recommend this to someone working with fifth grade for sure! ;)

The icon looks like this.             Here is a screenshot of one of the pages.

Polygon Alphabet Follow Up

Hey everyone!

I realize I am posting a ton right now, but that is because I haven't done it in two weeks. I am playing crazy amounts of catch up. Remember how I mentioned our Polygon Alphabet project? I said that I would post pictures of some completed work when they were done, too, right? Well, they are complete! They have done a great job! Look for yourself! :)