Workshop Description: Dr. Mutchler will deliver a workshop in which K-2 teachers will learn how to program robots, and how to teach robotics programming to their K-6 students.  Teachers will work in groups to do all their programming on a concrete robot-like iRobot’s Root robot. 

Programming will be in a block (graphical, iconic) language like Scratch or Blockly.

n  Category 2, for teachers of grades 5 to 12:  Programming will be in a text-based language like Python or C.

n  Category 3, for teachers of grades 11 to 12 (as well as for college students):  Programming will be in ROS 2, the gold standard of languages/paradigms/environments for robotics programming.

Each workshop will include the following learning objectives.  After the workshop, the K-12 teachers will be able to:

n  Explain what characteristics define a robot.

n  Give examples of effectors (devices that make robots move) and sensors (devices that gather information about their surrounding environment)) that are commonly used in robotics.

n  Explain how those effectors and sensors are used in applications like autonomous cars.

n  Program robots like iRobot’s Root and Create robots to sense their environment and, in response to the sensor readings, to move and spin, display patterns of lights, play music and speak sentences.

n  Apply programming concepts like the following to programming robots:

o   Sequencing.

o   Function calls.

o   Input from sensors and the human operators of the robots.

o   Output to the human operators in the form of text, lights, music and spoken language.

o   Iterative behavior (loops), using both FOR and WHILE statements.

o   Event-driven programming, including the wait-for-event pattern.

o   Conditional behavior, especially behavior conditional on sensor readings.

o   Variables and assignment.

o   Arithmetic and logical expressions.

n  Program the robots to do intelligent, autonomous behaviors like line-following and obstacle avoidance.

n  Experience a rich set of activities in which their robots are applied to various aspects of the K-2 curriculum, including meeting the standards K-2.PA.1 through K-2.PA.6 and K-2.DL.1 through K-2.DL.2.

n  And most importantly, the teachers will learn how to teach all of the above to their students.

Teachers will use a block (graphical, iconic) language like Scratch or Blockly, but specific to the robots.  Each teacher will have a robot-like iRobot’s Root robot, which they will bring home with them after the workshop.  Additionally, each group of 2-3 teachers will bring home a set of 8 additional robots for their students to use (in groups of 3 or 4 – two programming the robot, and one or two operating it).  Lessons will iterate through concepts, each applied to the teacher’s robots, like this:

n  Introduce a robotics programming concept with examples.

n  Then apply that concept hands-on to their robot.

n  Introduce a follow-up robotics programming concept with more examples.

n  Then apply that concept hands-on to their robot.

n  And so forth.

Toward the end of the workshop, teachers will learn the beginnings of how to transition to a text-based robotics programming language.