My Program Failure

Programs, True Confessions

To my great shame, my most memorable program failure involved my first attempt at robotics. I had heard about Bristle Bots (or brush bots), I read as much as I could find about them, and I had talked to staff at other libraries who had fun and successful Bristle Bots programs. It seems straightforward enough; adhere a little motor and battery to the head of a toothbrush, glue on some googly eyes, and watch it run around the table.

What went wrong

Things started going wrong in the days leading up to the program as I received the supplies and tried to make a sample project. The motors we had were too big, and the dollar store toothbrushes could not support them. In trying different methods to attach the batteries to the motors, I ended up draining some of the batteries and needed to go to the store to buy more.

At the time of the program, I still wasn’t happy with the project. I made the best of it by telling program attendees the problems with the design, and presenting it as a challenge to design a way to make it work. The closest we came to success was by fastening two toothbrush heads with adhesive foam strips, but we only got the tiniest of scoots before the batteries died or it tipped over. It wasn’t devastating, but it was disappointing.

Look at this sad thing:

Bristle Bot

What I learned

Having the right supplies is pretty important. We purchased the smallest motors we could find locally, but we should have gone online and perhaps bought these or these. By the time I realized the motors we had were too big it was too late to have smaller ones shipped. The whole thing was a learning experience for me, and after almost two years I will be attempting DIY robots again this summer. I’ll let you know how it goes!

What about you?

At Robot Test Kitchen we believe that learning is at its best when you are ready to fail forward. Do you have a program failure you’d be willing to share with Robot Test Kitchen readers? Contact us and tell us about it.

 

Ten Dollar Tuesdays: Engineering Challenge: Marble Runs

Guest post, Programs, Ten Dollar Tuesdays

We are happy to feature a guest post from Ann Carpenter!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ann Carpenter is the Youth Services Librarian at the Brooks Free Library in Harwch, MA. Among many other programs, she runs a monthly Engineering Challenge for school aged children.

  • Program:

Engineering Challenge: Marble Runs

  • Age range:

Around 15-20 school aged kids can participate. More can be accommodated if you have them work in groups. Each group should have at least two pieces of foam.

  • Cost:

10 6 foot pipe foam pieces at $1 a piece. You will also need marbles and masking tape, but those are things I had around the library anyway.

  • Activity:

We talked about momentum demonstrating that a marble rolled along a mostly flat track will stop, but a marble rolled down an inclined track will keep going, and that marble rolled down a very steep track can build up enough momentum to keep going even uphill. Once they had the general idea, I gave them the first challenge: to build a roller coaster that allowed the marble to go up and over a hill. I purposefully make my first level of challenge relatively simple so that every child participating will have at least one success by the end of the program.

To accomplish their challenge the children were given pipe foam that I had cut in half lengthwise, forming a channeled track. The pipe foam was perfect for our purposes: very flexible for young hands to manipulate and very cheap at about $1 for a 6 ft tube, which provided 2 channels. I also OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAgave them access to lots of tape. Our second level of challenge was to create a loop-the-loop. I told the children who completed the second challenge that they could either do a free design, or they could try for two loop-the-loops. Most chose to try for two loops.

  • Difficulties and challenges:

One thing I noticed during this program was that it was not enough for the children to accomplish the task: they needed me to be a witness to their success. This meant running around the room quite a bit so that I could personally watch marbles rolling around the tracks. The looks of delight were definitely worth it. Emphasize that engineering is a process, and they may need to try out their design, then go back and make adjustments based on results.

Let’s explore advocacy: Invite people

True Confessions

There is a really easy thing to do to make people feel welcome and part of the library. Invite them. It seems very simple but I often think we make simple things more complicated than they need to be. When you break something down, and get to the root of the issue – sometimes the simplest answer is often the one that makes the most sense.

So when you have those moments of, “why is no one coming to my program?” or “why do my coworkers not understand what I’m doing?” or “why can’t I do this because of (insert whatever you are struggling with here)?” It might be good to stop and make sure whatever you are doing is inviting and welcoming. Is your program at a bad time for the people you are trying to serve but fits awesome in the library schedule? Well, that’s not very inviting for the people you are trying to serve. If you get a chance ask people why they couldn’t make it and then give them a reason to come to the library – extend an invitation.

Do you sometimes struggle with advocating for kids with your coworkers? I think everyone feels this at some point and it hits like a brick. And sometimes it is really hard to work your way out from that feeling. And that’s okay. But dwelling too long in that feeling won’t help. Advocacy can be a friend here. A large part of advocacy is getting the entire library team on the same page, and that means you have to understand and appreciate. I think inviting people to see what you do and why you do it is a huge way to break down some walls. Invite staff to programs personally, let them observe. Show them the tech you are using. Did you get Sphero/Cubelets/MakeyMakey/etc.? Let them try it and if they have concerns – listen! Talk about why you do what you do, and why. Then ASK them about what they are doing – congratulate them on their success. Because the library is one team and that team deserves the recognition.

Inviting people is essential and I think it is taken it for granted. We must honor the trust the public gives us for wanting librarians and library staff to serve their community. After all, the library belongs to the people – make sure they know they are welcome and wanted.