Teacher Spotlight: A Lesson in Persistence

Written by: Shannon Wydra - Gorham Middle High School STEM Teacher and WMSI Teacher Mentor

This activity is facilitated using the Paper Walking Robot activity published by: jegatheesan.soundarapandian on instructables.com.

I utilize the paper dog as an opening project for a quarter long robotics course. Students are tasked with creating a paper dog that will walk down a cardboard ramp and pass the finish line.

Supplies are easy: some different weights of paper, scissors, rulers, and a cardboard ramp. Most times it takes about one hour for almost all students to complete the task.

The best part of the project is that students will get frustrated! They will also cheer each other on, help each other, and share in a common goal. This quarter’s students did not have a single walking dog at the end of their first class. I told them not to worry they would be able to work the next day too.

At the end of day two there were two dogs that walked down the ramp. Every student in the class was successful eventually. They:

• Never gave up.

• Kept iterating and testing their dogs

• Tried different paper, different folds, different angles until they found a workable combination

They were all persistent!