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 gave 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.

Robot Basics:
• What is it?

Circuit Scribe is a nice tool to give students experience with basics of electric and electronic circuits. The base kit provides just enough components to demonstrate basic circuits and controls; additional modules can be purchased to do more advanced circuit functions as well as creative/inventive-type projects. The basic kit also comes with a users guide.

• What’s in the Box?

The base kit we used contained one battery module, two LED modules, one switch module, one resistor plug-in module, one transistor module, and one conductive ink pen. Circuits are drawn on a sheet of paper; a template helps with design and layouts of the circuits. When complete – the paper is placed on a covered metal sheet which enables the magnets of the circuit components “lock” down onto the “wires” drawn on the sheet of paper.

• How Much?

$59.99

• Age Range?

Advertised as ages 13 and up.

• How Did We Acquire it?

Purchased with library funds.

Ideas for Use

My recommendation for an initial set of projects would be as follows:
– Explain concept of electric circuit
– Demonstrate battery connected via two “wires” to LED
– Demonstrate battery connected via two “wires” to two LEDs in parallel
– Demonstrate use of single-throw/single-pole switch to control power to one LED
– Demonstrate use of two LEDs connected to battery in series
I don’t recommend use of the advanced components of the base kit (transistor, resistors, and capacitors) except under direct/advanced supervision with a proper test plan. My reasoning is simple. First, some of the components (resistors, capacitors) are small and loose – and are likely to get lost. Second, their use is not intuitive and some advanced knowledge is required to demonstrate their proper use. Is it reasonable to expect that, for our example, library staff hold this expertise? Probably not. Is it reasonable for younger library patrons to be able to use these components on their own? Probably not.

Time Involved

I recommend that the first time leader/teacher spend at least an hour on their own familiarizing themselves with the Circuit Scribe concepts, components, and basic use. I also recommend that they take the time to run through the experiments ahead of time to have a working prototype that can be demonstrated to students. There are a couple of reasons for this, as I will further explain in the review/comments section. One is that the conductive ink can be somewhat finicky, another is that the ink is rather expensive.
For actual instructional/demo use – I would allot a minimum of 10-15 minutes of time per student/group of students to develop a basic circuit consisting of the battery, two “wires”, and one LED light module. Additional time can be allotted to accommodate more advanced experiments.

One-time or Recurring Program

Circuit Scribe is intended to be a multi-use tool. With some exceptions, the components appear to be well designed and should provide a long service life.

Skills You Need

A basic understanding of circuits.

Other Tools You Need

A cheap electronic multi-meter would be a useful tool for “debugging” drawn “wires” that do not appear to work. One uses this to verify its ability to conduct electricity.

Good Stuff

I liked the idea of the conductive ink. I liked how some of the component modules were packaged in an easy-to-use component.

This Vine video shows some of the good stuff.  She wrote out “Brightly Shine” with conductive ink. Indeed.

Garrett doodled and Jack wrote Hello World (Java anyone?).

Frustrations

I found the ink pen to be frustrating to use. It didn’t always draw clear, crisp lines.
Even after following the hints/tips provided by the vendor I still found the ink to be problematic.
I also thought that the resistor/capacitor module was not well designed.

As delivered – one uses the component in a circuit and then manually plugs in the desired resistor(s)/capacitor to do what the circuit calls for. I thought this design was cumbersome – almost to the point of being an afterthought. A better approach might be to incorporate the discrete component into its own module. To demonstrate use of multiple resistors – the component modules might be designed to be “stackable” – applying the resistance in parallel.

Ending Thoughts/Observations

As a kid growing up during the Nixon/Ford era – I had my share of experiences with the electronics kits of the era – sets by Heathkit, Tandy, Lafayette, and others, along with the build-it-yourself kits that made transistor radios and other useful things. These typically had lots of wires, discrete electronic components (“cool, dad – it’s a transistor – what’s a transistor?”), some use of soldering guns (or not, depending on whether parents are accepting of solder burns on dining room tables) – and usually very little in the way of useful learning opportunity. More often than not – components would be irreparably damaged due to misuse before any practical experiment using them could be completed.
So – some things have changed considerably over the past 30-40 years and some things have stayed pretty much the same. Electric/electronic circuit basics haven’t really changed much – and it’s good to see that Circuit Scribe embraces these while it also embraces newer components such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and more.
Each new generation of electronic kit has refined the usefulness of components, typically through modularization to make the pieces more “plug-n-play” easy and Circuit Scribe is no exception.
What sets Circuit Scribe apart from its peers is that the “wires” which connect the various components together – thus completing the circuit – are drawn freehand on paper using special conductive ink pens. This has a natural “hands-on” appeal for kids that want to draw and make their drawings “do something.”

A project as simple as connecting a battery to an LED actually generated two bright lights – one on the LED itself, and one on the child’s face when they realize that the wires they “drew” actually worked!
We had some problems using the supplied conductive ink pens. First, students tended to use them as they might a regular pen – with downward pressure that generates a narrow line of ink. Second, we used a hard surface for drawing and design – in hindsight, a softer surface might have worked better but our lab environment did not allow for this. Third, the pens seemed to empty fairly quickly – causing problems for a couple of students attempting to draw circuits. Fourth, all of the students required “debugging” time whereby they’d draw a circuit and then we’d spend time inspecting their result to look for flaws which might result in breaks of electric current and thus an open circuit. In some cases – students were able to quickly remedy faults and achieve success; in other cases – they became frustrated when they couldn’t fix things and see success.

Another problem was the natural tendency for students to “doodle” while trying to draw circuits. In some cases – this was a success – mixing creativity with success, while in other cases it was a failure – using the expensive pen as a doodling tool without understanding what was needed. One option might be to first have the student draw their circuits on regular paper with normal ink to gain “approval” prior to making the commitment using the conductive ink pen.
A “hindsight is 20/20” thought – having an electric multimeter tester available might be handy for testing how well student’s lines are drawn – by demonstrating whether they’ll hold an electric current or not.
There are a number of web pages that provide information for making one’s own conductive ink. However tempting this might be – one has to carefully consider all potential ramifications of doing so – especially from a safety point of view.

I tried a low-tech substitute – a high-quality old fashioned graphite lead pencil – without success. Graphite is a conductor of electricity – perhaps not as good as a metal or even the conductive ink provided by Circuit Scribe. But it’s proven technology – and it’s readily available. A good experiment might be to draw a line using Circuit Scribe’s ink and a graphite pencil and test each with a multimeter to find out how close/disparate each is in terms of electric conductivity.

Don’t get me wrong – I think that what the Circuit Scribe folks have done is marvelous. However, from a repeatable project perspective – use of the Circuit Scribe ink is for all intents and purposes unsustainable from a cost perspective (when each pen costs nearly $20USD).

Overall Rating:

I would give it a C+. The ink gets both high and low points for its uniqueness and cost/effectiveness. And I think the resistor/capacitor components could have been done better to make them more ‘foolproof.’

Hello! Mindy Perry here, guest posting about Sphero 2.0. This is my 2nd year as a school librarian at Greenbrook School. We are a K-5 building and serve approximately 500 students. I’m very new into the world of robotics, although I love technology. My motto is books + tech. Sphero 2.0 is my first robotic type purchase for the library. I participated in ILEADUSA 2014 alongside Robot Test Kitchen. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE what they are doing and I’m honored to be a guest blogger for this very cool site.

Robot Basics

• What is it?

A robotic ball with internal leds that can be driven by any mobile device. Sphero can do tricks, is sensitive enough to dance to music being played, is waterproof and pet-proof.

• What’s in the Box?

It came with the Sphero 2.0 ball, charger, and necessary cords.

• How much?

Price is $129.99 off of Sphero’s website. Mine was ordered through Amazon. Watch for deals on both sites. Amazon was running a sale around Christmas. Sphero had their accessories on sale through there website.

• Age Range?

I’d say Kindergarten and up. Most people of all ages will enjoy Sphero 2.0.

• How we acquired it

I asked for Sphero 2.0 and Ollie as my Christmas present. I left the decision on which one I was going to get in the hands of my mom. I like surprises and would have been happy with either model. The kids were blown away that I would ask for a robot for Christmas just so they could get to play with it during library.

Ideas for use

My first concern and thoughts when I opened the box was about how I was going to set up my Nexus 7 tablet so that it would be easy for students to manage on their own while playing and how I was going to manage the Sphero 2.0.

But first he needed a name. My mom told me a story about a TV show from when she was young about a robot named Tobor (Robot spelled backwards). I couldn’t resist the name so my Sphero 2.0 is now known as Tobor.

Then my brain was flooded with a million questions…..

When will the students play? Who gets to drive? What will the other students do? Where will I house the device? How will it charge during the day? How will I set up the apps on the phone? How will I teach it? My brain has a way of running away without me.

On the Nexus 7, I created a second profile so that I controlled which apps they had access to and at what times. On the homescreen, I downloaded 6 Sphero apps. I took all other apps off the homescreen because the Nexus 7’s only use at this point is to drive the Sphero ball. This minimized confusion of apps. So far so good but I’d be open to any suggestions on better management of Sphero 2.0.

So what does this look like in use at an elementary school of approximately 500 students? I chose to introduce Sphero 2.0 to grades 3-5, much to the dismay of 2nd grade. They were not pleased! Once I get a handle on all of this and the kinks are worked out, I will most likely reconsider for them. I like to jump into things, but I don’t want push myself over the deep end either. Teaching is hard enough. I spend 30 minutes with each class each week. The first 15 minutes, I teach. The last half of the class is for check out. It doesn’t take some students that long to check out so I have different activities and stations that they can do on their own until the end of class. The kids learns on their own and I’m free to help students find worthy reads. Sphero 2.0 has become an option to play with after checking out books. This not enough time! I hear groans and “we’re leaving already?!?” at the end of library. I made it very clear that they need to share the tablet amongst themselves and to problem solve who drives. I wasn’t going to create a spreadsheet on who wants to drive and who drove last. I want them to take ownership of working together without my involvement. The non-drivers for the week can build obstacle courses with the terrain park, 3 chariots, 2 covers, and 3 lbs of Lego’s I purchased.

In a few weeks I will be introducing a project that will take us to the end of the school year. I am modifying Sphero Education’s Chariot Challenge. I will be incorporating lessons on searching, notetaking, and citation into the research portion about chariots. You know, all the librarian stuff we teach. I am thrilled to introduce this project!

Good stuff

Best conversation ever:

Student #1: The library has a robot? No way.

Student #2: You haven’t heard? Everyone’s talking about it. It’s over there……

Enough said. The library is pretty much the coolest place right now. Word spread pretty quickly, as did the amount of questions I answered in the hallway by students who had library later in the week. Tobor’s popularity even reached the middle school. My 5th graders last year found out through the library’s Instagram account.

Frustrations

I’m still trying to figure out if it’s my WiFi connection or the Bluetooth pairing that is causing the connection to say: “Sphero not found” occasionally. The WiFi is not the greatest in the library. It doesn’t happen every time I try to play, but enough that it is causing a little frustration. The students want to drive it, not wait around for it to connect.

Only having one Sphero 2.0 to play with between 20+ students at a time can get a little tricky. So far they’ve been good at sharing and dividing tasks, but it’s only been a week so this may change.

Not enough time to play. This has nothing to do with the robot itself, it has to do with my scheduled amount of time I have to see students each week. They get a few minutes each week and it’s just not enough. I have really excited students who just want to keep building, playing, and learning.

Ending Thoughts and Observations

All I knew was that I wanted to bring a robot into the library. I had no idea what I was going to do with it or if it would be worthwhile. If you’re on the fence, take the jump. It’s warm in the water. It’s very easy to use with little setup. Just search the many apps Sphero has, download and play. Don’t worry if you think you won’t be able to figure it out. You will be able to understand a few key components of the Sphero and then hand it over to the kids. They’ll teach you.

Every now and then I’ll get smacked on the head in a way that makes me think “how brilliant, why couldn’t I think of this?”

As part of a learning project at work – my wife got a copy of a children’s game called “Robot Turtles.” It’s a standard board-type game using a familiar theme; you choose a turtle which is represented as a card you move along a maze of obstacles consisting of unmovable stone walls and meltable Ice walls in search of the elusive hidden treasure. You get the treasure, you win; your opponent gets it first, they win – not you. OK, kids games 101, right? Wrong!

Where this game differs is that each player has a stack of cards that enables them to perform various actions with their turtles. One card turns the turtle left, one turns it right, one advances the turtle one position forward, and one zaps (melts) the segment of ice wall in front of them.

The kids play the game by playing cards in a sequence to select their path through the maze – the outcome of which will (hopefully) lead them to the hidden treasure. The parents are responsible for keeping their mouths shut and reacting only to the directions given by their kids (and by making the appropriate turtle sounds for each card played).

These cards are a basic computer program – an exact sequence of instructions to be followed out by the “dumb” computer (in this case, quite appropriately, their parents). I immediately thought “Turing Machine” when I saw this in action.

You can change the board up any way you want. And build in obstacles…

Making it more interesting is that, depending on the setup of the maze – it may be desirable to define repeatable patterns of play activity. The game provides for this – effectively letting the kid “program” a “subroutine” that then can be invoked multiple times by means of a special “call subroutine” card. My wife had challenges understanding how this worked – and when I understood both the game and this subroutine capability and explained it to my wife – I stood back in awe of the brilliance chosen by this game designer to teach computer programming. Back when I was a wee lad – the common school of thought was that a certain level of mathematical skills was necessary as a foundation for teaching programming. This brilliant game knocks that notion away and brings the concept of computer programming down to the level of four-year-olds.

If you’ve got kids – you may wish to check out their website.  (I am in no way connected with this game, company, and stand to gain no benefit other than seeing the joy of the promotion and preservation of the nerd species commonly known as programmers).

David Hrycewicz
Sr Principal Software Engineer
CA Technologies