A change can do you good

This year for our robotics clubs we decided to change things up a little bit. Coaching FIRST Lego League, we have four aspects of our competition to prepare for:
#1. A research project
#2. A LEGO robot we build and program
#3. The performance of said LEGO robot on a game field
#4. Our teamwork

Typically the season starts in September and runs through the middle of November. Halfway through we host a scrimmage and invite other teams. We mostly run it to show our students they need to get cracking and quit slacking or else they're not going to do well in the competition come November.

The problem we've been encountering in the past is that nobody wants to work on the research project and everybody wants to play with the robot and the LEGOs. 10 middle school kids and nobody wants to do research- surprise? I thought not.

This year, instead, we decided to dedicate ALL of September to the project. Exclusively. No robot. No LEGOs until October. All of the team members would just research, brainstorm, consult experts, and work diligently on that year's research problem. I feared we might get burn-out and kids might stop coming, but the students have actually been doing an awesome job. My team watched the movie Food Inc (well, most of it anyway, I fast forward through some of the slaughter house stuff) to learn more about the Food Industry. The year's theme is Food Factor. My team has decided to reconfigure how they set up feedlots for cattle and they want to feed the cattle GRASS instead of CORN because cattle are supposed to eat grass! The whole problem with corn vs. grass is the e-coli the cattle produce as a result.

So, in one short month my team has gotten some really good, deep information (better than any previous years), has developed an awesome solution, and is well on their way to doing a great job for the project. Now we have time to dedicate more resources to our robot and hopefully have an awesome season.

Definition of insanity - continue doing the same thing and expect different results. We changed this year how we run things, hopefully we'll have different and better results. :)

One on one

This past week I had an awesome experience working with a student in one of my classes. This student is not the high flier super achiever student. Typically I struggle to keep him engaged and focused in the class. As a class, we decided to do a second video project after the first initial one for the video unit in my communications technology class (this decision was 'forced' upon us because we got kicked out of the computer lab I use for the class). After an entire day to plan their videos, this student and his group were sitting around staring at each other. No plans were evident, and they were missing out on the first of two periods they had to film. Since most of the class was out in the halls doing their filming, I was free to be able to give this group a little additional guidance. I sat down at their table and started trying to get them to come up with some good ideas for a video. "What do you want to make a video about?"
"I dunno.."
"Do you want to make a movie, a commercial, a documentary, what?"
At this point, one of the students in the group remarked they should make a commercial about soda. With this one suggestion from the group, I was able to shape their discussion and brainstorming session. By the end, they decided they wanted to make a movie about how drinking soda is bad for you and you can get fat. To illustrate, one of the group members was going to stuff their shirt with extra clothes to appear like they were fat. They got really excited, and actually got a pencil and paper and started writing out their script. This student who normally doesn't do much took the lead in writing and drafting up the plan for his group. I was so proud I could almost cry. This is why I teach. These are the experiences I strive to have. It is so great what can be accomplished when students are given the attention they need.