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Subject: 
Re: suggestions on a mixture of 2nd to 5th graders
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.edu
Date: 
Thu, 10 Mar 2005 06:21:48 GMT
Viewed: 
4916 times
  
In lugnet.robotics.edu, Elizabeth Mabrey wrote:
Hi,



I am going to hold an afterschool enrichment class designed for 3rd to 5th
graders.  The organizer made a mistake of taking in a lot of 2nd graders as
well. Now, the class has 8 2nd graders, 10 3rd graders, 10 4th & 5th
graders.    Yes, I do have one instructor and two assistants.  However, I
just think including 2nd graders  in the same curriculum is just too
unrealistic.



Now, since the organizer has already informed and accepted the enrollment of
these 2nd graders who most likely very much look forward  to the class, I
hate to disappoint them by removing them.



My next immediate solution is to move the 2nd graders to another class, but
it leaves budgeting problem as far as making payment to another instructor.
I wonder if I can borrow ideas of the most sensible solutions to this
situation.



Suggestions will be greatly appreciated!



--

Elizabeth Mabrey

Hi Elizabeth,

As a favor to a community services manager I took on a class of 1st graders last
year (usually I teach 3rd - 8th graders). It was a bit like hearding cats but I
learned a few things from the experience.

They're a bit young at that age to understand and really work with programming.
Some will get it but quite a few just don't have the attention span to handle
the back and forth that needs to go into solving a challenge. You are fortunate
to have some older kids in the class. The younger ones will watch the older ones
and learn by osmosis. In the end I was happy if they could tell me what steps
needed to go into the program.

I use Robolab and tailored most of their challenges so that they could solve
them in Pilot. Simple competitions like drag racing and tug-o-war will keep them
happy and allow you to sneak in gear ratio theory and some simple sensor work.
Older kids can also participate in the same events but use Inventor to make more
elaborate programs.

You could also take the approach of assigning a larger project like a minature
golf hole or building an amusement park ride. These don't need as much
programming but allow you teach things like gear trains and other simple machine
stuff.

Hope that helps. Good luck,

James
http://robotics.megagiant.com



Message is in Reply To:
  suggestions on a mixture of 2nd to 5th graders
 
Hi, I am going to hold an afterschool enrichment class designed for 3rd to 5th graders. The organizer made a mistake of taking in a lot of 2nd graders as well. Now, the class has 8 2nd graders, 10 3rd graders, 10 4th & 5th graders. Yes, I do have (...) (19 years ago, 9-Mar-05, to lugnet.robotics.edu)

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