{"id":4732,"date":"2015-01-31T09:00:16","date_gmt":"2015-01-31T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=4732"},"modified":"2022-04-15T16:42:37","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T20:42:37","slug":"robotics-pbl-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/robotics-pbl-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Robotics, PBL, and collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Science<\/a><\/p>\n

At TechJam<\/a> this past autumn I was fortunate to run into a number of student groups who were there to show off projects. That forum, and others like it<\/a>, gives learners a space to share, interact, and learn from each other. One group I met was from Big Picture South Burlington<\/a>\u00a0(@BigPictureSB<\/a>), a community of learners working in the Big Picture<\/a> model within South Burlington High School<\/a>. Big Picture is all about authentic real-world learning, and this group of students had chosen to enter the ChampBot Challenge<\/a> at the Champlain Mini Maker Faire<\/a>. Talking with the students and their advisor Jim Shields during and after got me thinking about a number of issues related to collaboration, constructivism, and student choice in STEM education.<\/p>\n

First, a little bit of background on the ChampBot challenge. \"Champ1\"It required teams to create remote-controlled robots in the image of our beloved Champ<\/a> that could maneuver through an aquatic obstacle course. Extra points were awarded for being able to place an object into a target, igniting a flammable target, or submerging and resurfacing your robot. Of the 7 teams that took the challenge, only two were able to complete it this year.<\/p>\n

How did students from Big Picture South Burlington get involved? From Jim:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have 14 students in my advisory, and there are 28 students in our school. This project was one of three projects open to students for \u201cOrientation Term.\u201d The goal of orientation term is to familiarize students with project-based learning by modeling what it is like to do a high quality project. Students from both advisories got to select one of the three options, so the 9 students in the ChampBot group selected it as the option that interested them most.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019ve been reading Science Saturdays for a while, you may remember a previous post on robotics and be able to predict where I am going with this. Constructionism<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The nature of the STEM fields gives students the opportunity not only to build their own knowledge, but also (and perhaps more importantly) to build and experiment in the real world. Through the process of creating this bot, students conceptualized, designed, fabricated, programmed, debugged, and worked around. This was due to the real-world and open nature of the project.<\/p>\n

The loosely defined problem allowed them the flexibility to drive their own learning, and the requirement to have a deliverable product pushed them to act. Thinking about the different types of learning going on during a project like this reminded me of Tony Wagner\u2019s seven survival skills<\/a> (video<\/a>). These students were engaged in building knowledge and skills that are valuable to them now, and will be valuable to them in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Of course, the progress of the project was not without difficulties. According to Jim, the team divided into a number of different squads, and \u201cwhile this allowed students to gravitate toward their interest (aesthetics vs programming, for example), the squads didn\u2019t communicate well with one another, which created setbacks.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, students engaged at different levels, with some taking on a lot of responsibility while others contributed less or were more easily discouraged by the difficulty level of the project. These are challenges that are common when a heterogenous group of students work collaboratively on a big project.<\/p>\n

There were also challenges around the timeline, which is common when dealing with external constraints.<\/p>\n

So what can we take away from these students\u2019 experience? Here are some of the things that the students would do differently next time:<\/p>\n