February: Daily Challenges

In daily challenges student review techniques they have learned throughout the year. This techniques used in different configurations can make anything. Each day students are presented required pieces for their new creation and must build and program as imaginatively as possible.
Spinning Flowers
Students work together in one hour to make a flower that spins. They accomplish this using two different gears and a creative use of LEGO pieces.
After 45 minutes of hard work the groups show off their finished machine.
Automatic Door
As an extra challenge students must use a sensor to detect people at the door. This robot is fully autonomous since it opens and closes the door on its own.
Students find out that the most difficult part of this challenge in programming.

January Challenge: WeDo Pet

Goal: Everyone needs a pet, but not everyone can have a live one. Make a WeDo pet instead. Use a WeDo sensor and motor to make the pet respond to you in some way. A puppy that wags its tail? A kitten that comes when you call it? A tarantula that twitches when it sees food? Create the pet you’d love to have. In your submission, be sure to tell us your pet’s name! 

November Challenge: Smart Hat

Goal: A hat should do more than cover your head! Use WEDO to make a smart hat. It could fan you to keep you cool or greet passers-by when you go for a walk!
In their own words, students try to explain how their machines work.

October Challenge: Burglar Alarm

Goal: You have a valuable treasure to protect! Make a WEDO burglar alarm to keep it safe and sound. If someone gets too close to your treasure, the alarm goes off, scaring the intruder away. As an extra challenge, can you figure out how to program the alarm to reset itself after it goes off?
Each video shows a different group and the burglar alarm they designed. Students highlight their designs by showing the different parts of their alarm and explain how their programming works. The process started by brainstorming ideas, putting the ideas on paper, and then bringing them to life!

WEDO Challenge

Picture
Team work in play! 
Students complete the challenge of controlling 2 moving objects with only 1 motor. 
A new challenge is presented in every class.  Ideas and creativity are put to test with mixed results. 

Work in Progress

Students work together to challenge themselves in every way imaginable.
Coming up with a design model is the first step!

Research

Research is an important aspect of first designs. Here the students are using what they learned from pictures and videos of real ski lifts to create a working model.
Here you can see the different parts of a ski lift coming together. Towers and bull wheel are all essential parts that students try to recreate.

First Class

 Their first glance at the pieces and their brains are already working. Legos can get anyone excited!

November Challenge: WEDO Mountain

Each month a new WEDO challenge is released. The groups do their best to make it work and sometimes it takes a lot of tries before getting to the final product.
Perseverance and collaboration skills kick in!
Working on presentation skills. The robot and program work but kids are shy and no one wants to speak up.  Soon to change...

December Challenge: WEDO Celebration

Its the New Year and students celebrate in WEDO fashion. Each team of students attempts to create a amusement park ride using the WEDO kits of LEGO parts, motors, and sensors. Students put their research to the test as they design, build, and program a robot that takes LEGO men for a ride.
We now have confident speakers making eye contact with the audience. Students also exhibit a good understanding of program blocks. 
So proud of each one of them!