Bots Gearing Up
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday! That’s right, this Saturday is Bots 4 Tots’s first workshop of the summer, hosted jointly by Bots 4 Tots and 826CHI’s The Boring Store! At 1PM on Saturday the 16th, five children will be coming to the Robot City Workshop to build their own robots! Since this is our first workshop, Don and I took a moment this week to assemble the kits ourselves so that we can best aid the kids when/if they need a little guidance. See us at work after the jump!
The inaugural bot was a ton of fun to put together! We have no doubt that the kids will love it, and through assembling it, gain an awareness of the integral mechanics of toys like it. From testing the PC board, motor and sensor to securing the final screw, it’s great fun and a wonderful starting point to get kids ages 10-15 interested in further projects!
We are looking forward to such fascinating questions as “What in the heck is this?!”. Seriously, Don and I are giddy with excitement for a participant to ask us what a capacitor (“this thing”) or a resistor (“that thing”) is this weekend, or to ask about the plus and minus signs next to the black and red wires. But don’t get me wrong, we’re not going to try and teach every child in attendance everything about electronics in one sitting. We are going to introduce the concept behind the sensor, the PC board, the motor and the power source before we begin building, of course, but we want them to determine the pace of learning beyond that. We will be happy to talk the kids’ ears off if they are interested and want to know more than just the basics! It’s all about the kids and what they will want individually. We understand that some of them may want to do it themselves, and effectively tell us to buzz off. That’s cool! Or some might want every little bit explained and demonstrated- a hands on approach works best for some. I know it does for me! Some might fly through the exercise while others might work more slowly and steadily. However each child will approach the building of his or her bot is great; we want him or her to be in control of defining the experience.
We cannot wait to post all sorts of pictures of the kids’ discovery process, of little minds expanding and working, and the smiles of achievement! And because this, our first workshop of the summer, is a special cooperative effort between B4T and 826CHI, it will have the added bonus of a second session: a writing workshop held the following week at The Boring Store in which the kids will explore the personalities of their robots and place them in settings, imaginary or real, while overcoming fantastic hurdles!
Stay tuned for pictures from our first workshop next week, and stories and pictures from the kids the week after that!
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