WMSI is back from holiday break filled with excitement about programs for 2017! Specifically, I've been putting thought into how our sessions work. Should they follow a rigid plan? Should they be flexible, allowing students to drive learning forward through creativity? Both approaches have their merits, but if you have a truly engaging learning tool, letting student creativity power progress can lead to loads of fun!

During our musical robots sessions, students did just that! We started by explaining the engaging tool: a LEGO EV3 computer with a distance sensor and a color sensor attached. On our laptops, we had software in which we could code different sounds to different colors or distances. The framework was set. what could students do with it?

Students brainstorming with one of our outstanding youth leaders!

Students started with a fairly easy challenge: program the distance sensor so that volume is related to distance measured. STEM Explorers took off with this prompt, creating police siren like calls as well as howling dogs that increased or decreased in volume. One pair danced in front of the sensor, causing the computer to produce different sounds depending on how far away they were!

Messing with the coding for the distance sensor

The big design challenge of the day? Use the color sensor to produce something fun. Students drew information from their previous, more structured challenges to follow their curiosity with this open-ended prompt. Some students "attached" a word to each colored block, so that when they flashed red under the sensor the output said "Luuuke." they pushed the red away and inserted green - "I am". Lastly, they used blue - "your father". Movie quotes filled the room with giggles.

A couple sets of students used the custom sound recorder on the LEGO software to record random words. They then coded the words to different colors, which allowed them to make random sentences. They called it "The Mad Lib Generator". This gave me an idea. I talked to the students some more about their generator and decided to act on the idea. With the help of Bill and our youth leaders, I created a madlib LEGO program that would draw from a random bank of nouns, verbs, or adjectives depending on which color was under the sensor.

This code generates a random number. The number range it can generate depends on what color is under the sensor. A random number triggered by the red block will choose one of three nouns added by students.

for our next music bots session some students got to beta test the program, adding their custom nouns, adjectives, and verbs into the word banks. They read a Mad lib that I printed and used the program to fill in the blanks. Not only did they love the program, but it also gave them the chance to explore random number generators and variables in the LEGO code! This novel idea would not have been possible without STEM Explorers driving the creativity of our Mobile Lab sessions.

Some students having a blast with mad libs!

Next, electricity!

WMSI STEM Mobile Lab wrapped up spin art sessions around Coos County with a strong showing of excitement and innovation from our STEM Explorers! Arriving in Berlin, we were thrilled to see the smiling faces and minds ready to engage. One student said to me, “robots. Did you say we’re building robots?? Hey mom! I need to tell you something! Jeremy said we’re building robots!” She excitedly ran off to tell her mom. This story sums up our spin art well and highlights what we’re trying to do at WMSI: excite people about creative problem solving.

Indeed, each class had a high level of energy and creativity. Berlin students spent a lot of time on the coding part of the lesson, trying out loops, wait functions, and playing around with different motor speeds (below)

Some students tried out using one color and creating zoom patterns.

Other students went for more of the color explosion approach! (below) Several explorers had the idea of putting down two or three markers at once onto the spinner, creating a very symmetrical rainbow pattern!

In Whitefield, we had 3rd and 4th graders who had never coded before and were flabbergasted at the possibilities! (below)

Three Whitefielders stepped spin art up a notch and turned their project into an “art launcher”, sending a piece of paper skittering off the desk. Giggles were had by all.

We wrapped up spin art in Gorham with an excited bunch students and Youth Leaders! Five of Gorham High School’s most innovative inventors showed up to help the STEM Explorers, bringing knowledge, patience, and some well deserved goofiness!

Gorham students were particularly interested in color blending, using similar shades to create vortexes and swirls. Artsy!

One group dove into coding, making a complicated spin pattern using loop, wait, and power functions. Cool!

This group below combined spin art with some astronomy and used the robot to make a model of a solar system!

At the end of each class we all gathered around and talked about our next session. The new challenge? You must build a LEGO creature that moves; however. you . Can’t. Use. Wheels (Gasps!).

“No way”

“How’s that going to work??”

One student, “I think I have an idea. . .”

We’’ll see how they do after Thanksgiving!