CREATE Lab Satellite Network

The imagination of a child is said to be limitless. Great thinkers, from Albert Einstein to Dr. Seuss, sang praises of the power of imagination and its effect on learning and success. This summer, ASSET STEM Education™ put students’ imaginations to the test during its inaugural Engineer Your Summer Fun summer camp—and saw glowing results. One program in particular, Arts & Bots, developed by ASSET STEM Education in association with Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment Lab (CREATE Lab) at Carnegie Mellon University, prompted summer campers to combine craft materials, robotic components, programming tools and a healthy dose of imagination to build and animate robotic creations. Campers used recycled materials and CREATE Lab’s Visual Programmer software to build and program their own robot. This course, typically provided as professional development to educators, is a true multidisciplinary course, combining art and technology to fashion moving, talking, one-of-a-kind creations.

ASSET camp educators provided materials like cereal boxes, construction paper and cardboard boxes and hands-on, concrete opportunities for campers to learn about coding and programming before designing and creating their robot. Special attention was given to the components of the Hummingbird Duo™ kit, the hardware used in conjunction with Visual Programmer software, and how these components attached to the controller and worked alongside one another. Campers then used what they learned—along with their own imagination and innovation—to produce their robotic creations.

To browse other hands-on, minds-on out-of-school learning opportunities for your students, like Arts & Bots, visit ASSET’s site.

This past summer - graduate students at Carlow University programmed hummingbird kits using visual programmer for an Arts & Bots project in a course entitled Developing Logic and Mathematics in Early Childhood Education. This was the first attempt at computer programming for these students.  The students explored how this type of project connects science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics and how integrated projects can fulfill multiple Next Generation Science Standards and address practices, crosscutting concepts, and core disciplinary ideas in creative and innovative ways.

Arts and Bots lesson plans for 7th grade Health/Phys Ed class.

From Brett Slezak, Phys Ed teacher at AVSD – part of ABC CREATE

Gilbert, W.Va. - The June Harless Center for Rural Educational Research and Development, part of the College of Education at Marshall University, offered “Camp Create” at the Larry Joe Harless Community Center in Gilbert, W.Va., July 14-17^th. “Camp Create” – which was held in memory of James H. “Buck” Harless - focused on engaging children with real technology and creative robotics while integrating the arts. This year’s theme was Jurassic World; the children created dinosaur robots.

Arts & Bots is a program created by the Carnegie Mellon Create Lab at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. The children used the visual programming software to program their robots to move, light up, and audio voice-overs. Each child created his or her own robot, which was displayed at the community center. A showcase of the creative robots was held for the families and community. 

Tytus Endicott works during Camp Create using Visual Programming software to program his tetradactyl robot.

Madelyn Billups uses the visual programming software to program the tree in the dinosaurs environment to rotate 360 degrees.

During the showcase, Jaelyn Blofsky, demonstrated the program she created for her dinosaur robot to move.

Family and community members watch as Eli Hagy programs his tyrannosaurus rex.

Left to right clockwise: Issac Jewell, Jonah Mahon, and Ben Wilson work during Camp Create to build and program their robots.

Grace Ellis created an environment for her dinosaur robot. Community members observe and interact with camp participants during the showcase.

Jaeden Osborne created a sequence on the visual programming software to go along with her dinosaur robot.

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A group of teachers from Putnam County took their teaching expertise to a new dimension Tuesday afternoon during a training session at the Huntington Museum of Art. (article from the Herald-Dispatch)

Teachers from Ona Elementary, Beverly Elementary, Cornerstone Academy, Kellogg Elementary, and Barboursville Middle took part in a 2-day training on arts and bots on July 10th and 11th on Marshall University's campus.  The 8 teachers agreed to pilot the project and integrate it into existing classroom curriculum and will be using it in a variety of subjects including physics, math, reading and career exploration.  Allen Perry Physics and Chemistry teacher from South Point High School in South Point, Ohio was on hand to help train the teachers on equipment use while the Harless CREATE Satellite team assisted with curriculum. The project has expanded to include additional schools and teachers since the initial training last fall.  We look forward to seeing what the teachers and students come up with this year!

The June Harless Center held a weeklong summer camp June 4^th -7^th, 2012 for children entering 2nd-5th grade on Marshall University's campus.  Allen Perry, a Physics and Chemistry teacher from South Point High School (Ohio), lead the camp with the Harless staff assisting.  Allen participated in the roll out which involved 4 local schools this past school year. Children gained inspiration for their designs from a virtual tour on the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History’s website and used the engineering design process to create their robots with the goal being to learn how to create and program a robot.

ASK:          What do you want your robot to look like?

                   What do you want your robot to be able to do?

IMAGINE:   Research

                   Brainstorm ideas

                   Choose the best one!

PLAN:        Draw a diagram

                   Make a list of materials you will need

CREATE:   Follow your plan and create it!

                   Test it out!

IMPROVE:  Talk about what works, what doesn’t, and what could  work better!     

                    Modify your design to make it better

                  Test it out! 

On Thursday, a showcase of the student’s work was held and parents, friends and family were invited to attend.  Some of the robot designs included an alligator, truck, Sacajawea, wooly mammoth, and recycle bots. The children enjoyed the experience and the parents were impressed with the designs that their children made and the creativity that was used

Students in the Pre-Engineering class at Huntington High School show off their robots.

Shark

"My shark is hooked up to a light and motion sensor. There is a fish in his mouth that has a LED light for an eye, and vibrates. It is sequenced so that if you get too close, the fish vibrates and when the lights go out his eyes light up."

Helicopter

"I am going to explain a little bit about my robot. Well first of all it is a battering ram helicopter. What it does is that if you want to take a building from the top to the bottom you use this because it comes down like a hammer. But you have to be a pretty good pilot because one mistake can cause you to crash. This shows you how crazy my imagination is. Here is a video to show you exactly what it does."

Rain

"My project is about a rainy day where there is a cloud that turns over and rains. There is a servo motor on the top loft and it has balsa wood where the rain sits on. When it turns over it rains little blue packing peanuts to the ground."

Wizard

"I was inspired to create this scene while working in the orchestra for our school's production of Beauty and the Beast. While playing the music, I realized that the main themes of the music were small and oft repeated. I wanted to incorporate this aspect into a small scene. Originally the wizard was going to tell the story, but ironically, Beauty and the Beast caused time to run short. His lines would have been things such as "Darkness fell on the forest" and "Stay away!!" and "I told you to stay away!" I am quite pleased with this project."

Car

"The robot is car like design with features that are similar to ones you would find on a car. The headlights brighten when the lights go out and the brake lights brighten when the robot stops. The robot will stop and back up when an object is placed in front of it before resuming its forward motion. The movement of the robot is powered by a motor that is attached to a sprocket that turns a chain which is connected to sprockets fixed on the robots two axles thus turning the wheels."

Dragon

"This robot is a design of a dragon. I choose this design because I figured it would be cool and not a lot of people would chose this design. It uses a motion sensor which is located on its left arm, 2 tri colored LEDs for eyes, 3 servos to move its wings and its tail. The whole body of the dragon is made out of popsicle sticks and has fake fire coming out of its mouth. The wings is a type of green frabic and it is pieced togethered with glue and tape. The robot does a lot of stuff like move its wings and tail, makes sounds, and changes it's eye color."

R2D2

"I decided to make my robot a model of R2D2. I went to my basement to salvage some trash and old junk which we no longer needed and as a result, the base of my robot is made of a flashlight and foam. The head is entirely foam, and all of the body is wrapped in super glue. I bought cardboard boxes for $0.44 each and constructed multiple legs and other useful parts. parts of its eyes are also the top of a pen cap and all of the blue shiny paper is origami paper from my drawers. All in all, it was a fun project, but there were some difficult parts which had to be overcome. One of which is putting the hummingbird inside caused wiring extremely difficult and next to impossible to see where what was going. Thats where tweezers come it! The next difficult issue, probably the hardest, was overcoming torque with R2D2's wheels. the motor does not have any sort of attachment process, so only glue could have been used. This caused the twisting to come off multiple times until I found the perfect ratio of hot glue and super glue. Finally, the last difficult issue was the fact that the arts and bots program was unable to load my MC Hammer "cant touch this" song. I had to troubleshoot it and work it through itunes instead. My original plan wanted it to pace back and forth, checking every second for an object, and when something would obstruct its view, it would dance. I instead had to put this at a predictable time since I, manually, had to click itunes. overall all, it was a fun and interesting project and I recommend it for any highschool kid."

School link: http://www.edline.net/pages/Huntington_High_School

Aliens Among Us, An Arts & Bots project from Ceredo Elementary in West Virginia. A group of 33 5th grade students created 16 alien robots. Check out their creations below.