This summer it was all girls camps:
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| Water Robot using gears |
Wallip Waterbotics 2012
Camp in June on TSU campus in Houston, TX .
A 5 day program with goals to reach every day
techNIKE-Workshops at the Vienna Univ. of Tech. in July
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| Land Mobile Robot using sensors |
Analysis and Comparison
Generally found less is sometimes more. I liked how Austrians repeated similar tasks for each sensor, so they were able to explore better.Texas Waterbotics vs TechNike Robotics Day
- Water vs Land
- Both planned for 1 age group used for broader age range
- 15-18 used with 12-15 vs. 10-13 used with 10-45
- 1 Week vs 1 Day repeated
- Specific tasks vs. Intro tasks, then explore
- Construction: example, but own model vs. 1 model given
- Construction modifications on own vs. modifications given
- Both group of campers wanted more construction examples
- 1 trainer sometimes 2 trainers vs. 3 trainers always
- Trained in January vs trained week before
- New program with new feature each task vs. new sensor similar program
- Both: encouragement to try science and engineering
- teams and learned team work matters vs. pairs or individual
- Campers paces: worked at very different paces vs. worked at similar paces.
- Computers set-up day before camp vs. computers set-up earlier with VM
- Both at Univ but: No connection vs campers saw a demo of a high school swarm research project in progress
- Backgrounds: Same ethnicity, but different economic vs mainly Austrian, but many internationals
- Both: 1 or more sets of twins
What would change
Can definitely learn from both!Both: Add good construction basic finger exercises
Texas Waterbotics 2012 :
More self-paced with online-instructions to handle different paces. Especially since had problems with smart board. Possibly a VM computer set-up.
Austrian Girls Robotics Day
Have the girls show and explain their own project at some time during the day.
