think it. dream it. design it.: NASC-I.R. RACES!

Hey gang. Finishin' up the blogging for the school year with our last activity. Here goes...

Activity 1: NASC-I.R. races

Big Idea: Educating kids on how to program I.R. programs while making the activity fun with a competive finish.

Dates: Monday, May 23rd and two Wednesdays, May 18th and 25th

Groups Participating: panther boys and girls club kids

Attendance: 12 kids and Gabe and I

Materials:
Software: laptops, transfer cables, transfer crickets, 2 crickets at each laptop

Hardware: motors, motor cables, various legos including motor attachments, different sized gears, spokes, wheels, and standard building pieces, zip ties

Directions: First have the kids program their crickets. Its the same program as activity two of "intro to I.R." with a few modifications. Here's a quick review with the changes. Program "remote" cricket to send a random value between 1 and 250 every second. For the races themselves you'll only need two of these remote crickets.
Next each kid should have a "reciever" cricket with a motor attached. The program should read that motor A will run for 1/3 of a second when that particular car's values are sent. Now, in order for the races to be fair and each race have a different winner, each car should be programmed at different values, therefore all cars will travel at diffent times. For example, car 1 will be programmed to travel only when the values of 1 to 40 are sent, and car 2 will only travel only when values 41 to 80 are sent, and so on until 250, which will provide enouph values for 6 cars to race. Since the remote cricket is sending random numbers every second, it'll be random who wins the race.
Next the fun part for most- designing and building their race cars. This can be accomplished a number of ways, so let the kid's be creative. The most popular way was though a basic two-gear system where the motor spun one gear which spun another that was attached to the wheel spoke. Also, use zip ties to secure crickets onto the cars, and to secure motors that want to jump off.
Finally, the race. We went outside to the concrete and laid down two 15 foot poles for our racing lanes. We raced two cars at a time, each car with thier own remote cricket pointed towards it. Its important the person holding the remote cricket stay near the car for it to continue racing, or, to the dismay of the opponent, sometimes if the signal is lost, the motor will run continuously. When that happened we simply started over.

Skills: I.R. programming, understanding how I.R. waves are sent and how they can be used to create, designing and building skills, and learning how gears and motors work together to propel

Associated Concepts: confidence in programming, some worked in pairs promoting teamwork, self accomplishment when car finally runs and races, fun competive atmosphere on day of racing

Best Part: Seein a kid figure out the gear system and watch their car run for the first time. Also, of corse, the races themselves.

Worst Part: Getting the older kids interested in "baby toys" such as legos was tough. However, Gabe and I just started building ourselves, and when we had a few cars running, kids came over in droves. Also, occasionally a car would all apart, but that only made the kids more determined to design it better the next time.

Culminating Event: "2005 Nasc-I.R. races" at Panther Courtyard Speedway! Before the races began, and for the last day of building, we had pizza in the teen room for teens only. This led to us having seven cars participate and a few kids join up who had not yet participated. Also, at least 20 kids came to watch the races and cheer on thier favorite cars, and we had some parents watch as well.

Improvements: If I had more time on race day, I would have made a bigger deal out of it all, with tickets and popcorn for those who attend. Also, I'd have the kids announce the names of their cars everytime they race, and have the audience cheer for who they thought would win. Like, "Cheer if you think 'Bohemoth' will beat 'Gargantuon'! Now whoever thinks 'Gargantuon' will win, lemme hear ya! Louder!" Next time.

So that about sums it up. We had a blast this year. The new kids were great, and I'm lookin forward to when all the younger kids who keep askin, "Am I old enough yet?" can join. I'm also pumped for summer institutes comin up. Until then, see ya soon.