Our first workshop was a blast! These guys were not merely participants in the Bots 4 Tots program; they made history by being the first ever group that we’ve hosted! Here we are in front of the workshop room, located in the back of the Robot City Workshop,  where all the building took place that fateful Saturday the 16th of May, 2009. Don, our volunteer helper Casey (a good friend of ours- pictured next to me, behind the kids, above) and I were so delighted to work with the kids, and not to mention impressed with how quickly they took ownership of the project! The most important part of the experience was in the fun and discovery of learning and building!

When we arrived, Don Casey and I were welcomed by Kevin of Robot City Workshop’s rendition of our logo (above)! Greg Gilla welcomed us and made sure that everything was in place for our monumental undertaking, and then our new friends and fellow roboticists, the workshop participants, started arriving!

After a brief look at the instructions, we fielded some questions about robots and electronics. The PC Board was a thing of mystery as the kids first took it out of the box, but after a quick breakdown of what a circuit is and how electricity makes its way through the board, we were all a little more familiar with the goings on of our respective robot’s brains. We did a preliminary test, attaching the sensor, the motor, and the battery pack to the PCB to be certain that each one was working within specified parameters before venturing forth into the great unknown!

Getting right to work, we started with the locomotive innards- the gearbox! Don and I were available for questions and help as Casey sat at the end of the table and built his own Jungle Robot for the first time alongside the kids. At first the kids seemed to be expecting a step by step breakdown, but we asked them all to look over the instructions, inspect the elements of the first task, and try it once themselves. Were we ever impressed to find that everyone was successful on his own, without any hand-holding at all! All we had to do was go around and make sure everything looked right with the gear boxes before moving on! We all tested our gearboxes in unison, all with great success, and then continued to assemble the body of the bot around it!

It was only a hop, skip and a jump from there to the assembly of the body. I took over the documentation of the workshop as it progressed, the kids busily buzzing away and testing the motors after the completion of each major step. As they made sure the axle was turning through the body encasement, I could see each one of them applying the understanding that he had just gained of the PCB and the motor with the way the legs were going to be attached. Exclamations of enlightenment were abound! Don rapped with the kids about the finer points of tapping screws and sockets, and then before we knew it, heads were being attached!

We’ll be finishing up our first workshop this coming Friday (the 22nd of May, 2009), at 826CHI’s  The Boring Store, where the kids will put the finishing touches on their robots. We’ll be talking  about what was learned through the workshop, and writing about the experience, and celebrating a job well done! Look forward to pictures, writings, and the announcement of our second workshop this summer!

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!

The most recent edition of Chicago’s Columbia Chronicle is featuring an article all about Greg Gilla of Robot City Workshop and Don and I with Bots 4 Tots. There’s even a mini interview with moi! We are so excited to have the words “Bots 4 Tots” in print; it’s a first for us (besides our pamphlets, of course)! You can read the article online here, or better yet, pick up a copy and hang it up on your office wall, your refigerator at home, or your forehead! Thanks for the recognition, Bertha Serrano! Greg, Don and I really appreciate your spreading the word throughout the Columbia community!

How can you tell that Greg Gilla, owner of Robot City Workshop, is “the man”? Because, as if just helping us bring the Bots 4 Tots program to the world by hosting our very first Chicago workshops at his store wasn’t enough, he has now donated a robot to Don and I to be the mascot for Bots 4 Tots! Can you believe this guy? If you are ever in the Lakeview neighborhood, be sure to stop by his shop and give him a big fat propers!

Why is there not a picture of said robot above this post, you may ask. We will reveal him soon, but first, we want to ask you something… will you help us name him?

We want to know what you think we should name our very first Bots 4 Tots mascot. Don and I have named a few robots in our time, but this robot belongs to all of us. We want you to help! Comment below on what you think the B4T mascot should be named, and we will hold a poll in the near future.

To help you name him, let me tell you more about our friend. This model will be masculine, but don’t worry fembots, our girl mascot is next in the production line. This, our first mascot, will be remotely controlled but will also have an autonomous personality that will allow him to roam around, snap and send pictures to the Internet, and detect and project sounds. He will be able to find his way around a room by sight, and recognize where he is. We are going to program lots of interactivity into him, but he’ll also be able to be self-aware enough to know when he has to return to his charging base.

We cannot wait to hear your ideas!