The second-grade students at the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School were introduced to a new program that they absolutely love. The Lego We Do Robotics unit was launched this year. In their study of energy, students work in pairs to build and program a drumming monkey. The students take great pride in their work as they adjust the levers and gears in the arms of their Lego robots to change the resulting beat that the monkey is drumming. They learn how to create sounds, delays and stops to create their own unique sounds and songs.
They changed the hand position and the lever position to get more force to optimize the design of their model to play the drums louder. They also discovered that by changing the direction of the motor, they were able to get more force and a louder sound on the drum. Some of the young engineers modified their design of the drums themselves to get a better sound.
These are amazing discoveries for young scientists. They learned about command blocks during the unit on coding using the elementary course materials from www.code.org. They are so eager to try to make the program different by adding sounds and repeat blocks.
Second-graders now have the opportunity to learn how engineers and computer programmers work as they build and redesign a Lego model to optimize its work. They will learn about energy through this unit as well.
Some of the skills the students are expected to gain include: seeing themselves as engineers and programmers who can use STEM skills in an integrated way to solve real world projects; thinking creatively to make a working model; developing vocabulary and communication skills to explain how the model works and establishing links between cause and effect. The students will be expected to write or present projects using models for visual and dramatic effects.
