Robotic Design Studio: Engineering for Everyone Robbie Berg, Dept. of Physics Lyn Turbak, Dept. of Computer Science F) Engineering for everyone. Engineering should be part of a liberal education. Start off with personal story. Connection to Mitchel. show clips of R) 6.270, -> R) BattleBots is one thread, F) rds is our take.

R) typical transmission mode of learning is okay if you want to learn facts; not so great if you want to learn to be creative Talk of frustration in conventional education Not leading to the kind of creative approaches to novel problems needed in the modern world. Tell story of sabbatical, show 6270 clip

Constructivism (Piaget): learning by “constructing your own knowledge” R) In contrast: Constructivism (Piaget); learning by “constructing your own knowledge” Constructionism (Papert): takes Piaget literally; learning by by building and designing personally meaningful artifacts Constructionism (Papert): learning by– literally - building and designing

High Ceiling F) Key design principle for RDS : Welcoming for novices, challenging and inspirational for all. Low Floor

With exhibitions you can’t lose… Multiple paths Personal connections F)

High Ceiling W i d e W a l l s Low Floor R) Important to provide a wide range of entry points. Wide range of talents and interests of students in course and students in a team Low Floor

Robots that tell a story… F)

R) Goal: give our students a versatile toolkit and environment that allows them to build, design and invent things that are personally meaningful; “hard fun”

LEGO Mindstorms F) LEGO is perfect tool; collboration through Media Lab led to Mindstorms; descendent of 6.270. allows kids to build robots for competition. Some disappointments in the way its implemented/marketed (gender for example)

R) Similarly want to Adapt RDS experience for wider audience Duck - pet a duck; here it quack; Birthday cake – blow out the candle, play happy birthday; Up and down – the louder I talk the faster it goes MIT + LEGO ==> MindStorms; robots MIT (with support from LEGO0 -> PICO to create new kit aimed at artistic invention _PIcoCrciket

R) LEGO, Crafts, electronics on “equal footing”

F) Sensors and actuators allow your creations to come alive F) Sensors and actuators allow your creations to come alive. F) Demo duck (same program as car hitting, wall, R) cake, F) movers and shakers..

R) Simple graphical programming language, push very low in age (younger than MINDSTORMS); demo the language, plug workshop, show pickle-o

Impact around the world

Hong Kong again. Of course toy store are filled with toys they are designed by someone else. We want to encourage young people to see themselves as designers and inventors. That’s where the most significant learning takes place.

Iceland, burglar alarm

Iceland- Sun activated Alarm clock “Not for export”

F) Scratch – free online, like PicoBlocks, but building takes place on the screen

R) Bike wheel demo; a construction kit for playing with electronics

A construction kit for building scientific instruments Beyond Black Boxes A construction kit for building scientific instruments R) The LogoChip is used in number of different research projects at Wellesley

Engineering opportunities at Wellesley Olin College Unique and growing opportunities for engineering at Wellesley; Physics and CS arealready good preps for grad work in enginnering; + RDS/electronics/IES MIT

Playful Invention Company Paula Bonta Wellesley College Scott Anderson Collaborators MIT Media Lab Mitchel Resnick Brian Silverman Natalie Rusk Fred Martin Playful Invention Company Paula Bonta Wellesley College Scott Anderson Ruth Chuang Rebecca Lippman

To be continued…. Workshop: Links: Hands-on Robotic Design Studio workshop in Knapp Media Center, Clapp Library - starts in 15 minutes. Links: cs.wellesley.edu/rds (Robotic Design Studio home) picocricket.com scratch.mit.edu