1. Trinity Robotics as an apprenticeship Joe Pouliot Science Instructor Trinity High School Manchester, NH

2. My Educational Path

Earned BS in Math Ed from UNH in 1980

Taught Math in ME and the Seacoast

Returned to UNH while being Mr. Mom

Began working at Trinity in 1998 as a Physical Science instructor

Took over Physics classes in 2003

Created Advanced Competitive Science in 2004

3. Trinity High School

Small Private Parochial school in Manchester, NH

Roughly 450 students in attendance

College Preparatory Curriculum

98 to 99% of seniors are accepted into colleges

Roughly 8% study engineering w/ another 8 to 10 % studying biological science and medicine.

4. Trinity Robotics

Trinitys FIRST team was established in 1997, but wallowed in obscurity until 2003

In 2000, Dan Larochelle joined the team and soon after intelitek returned to the FIRST scene after a brief hiatus.

Very successful FRC team, generally known as the best 2 ndplace team in NE.

Roughly 25 students work on the team during any one year.

5. Advanced Competitive Science

Began as ACS I in 2004 with Lego Mindstorm kits.The prime reason was to teach C programming for use in FRC.

ACS II was instituted the next year using the VEX robotics kit and EasyC.

In 2006, the Vex robotic kit and REC were used exclusively in ACS I and ACS II.

6. REC in ACS

ACS is a Project Based Learning course that uses robotics to teach engineering and programming.

REC I is used in ACS I while ACS II uses REC II.

ACS diverges from REC as robotics competitions occur, such as WPIs Savage Soccer or the VRC.

Students who are not involved with the Robotics team can compete in a number of events.

The competitions allow students to work collaboratively yet competitively with each other.

Out of large numbers of competitors, one or two designs become truly noteworthy.

7. Nostrila 2004 WPI Savage Soccer 8.

Big EasyFTC 2007

9. 10. 2009 Trinity FRC Robot 11. Team Sprinkles 2007 Savage Soccer North 12. BenchPressFTC -2008 13. 14.

GaryVRC Elevation -2009

15.

Simone -Savage Soccer 2008

16. VRC Clean Sweep 2009 17. 18. 19. Project Based Learning

Authentic real world problem solving

Capture students interest (engagement).

Provokes serious thinking

Teacher as coach and facilitator, no longer the authority

Student directed learning

The projects are the curriculum

Competitions as ill defined problems

20. Project Based Learning

Teacher guidance fades as group members gain confidence with the subject matter and become more competent with the learned procedures.

As learning progresses the problem is adjusted by adding components to make the problem more realistic and more difficult.

This progression motivates learners as they gain expertise, responsibility, and ownership.

This is often referred to as scaffolding.

21. Scaffolding of solutions

Worked examples of robots and simple C code

Goal free problems; completion suffices

Scaffolding takes place by gradually increasing the difficulty of the problem solving with each successive project.

The eventual outcome is a student centered project.

They design and build their own competitive robot.

22. The Physics of Robotics

The structure of the robot itself sets the pace and the format for introducing various physical concepts.

Batteries and motors are addressed late in the senior year, if at all, but comes first in REC I.

Circular motion and rolling require an early introduction.

Force, work, torque, and mechanical advantager become everyday terms when working with robots.

By the time a students takes a course in physics, the vocabulary and formulas are not new, thereby making the learning more concrete.

The ultimate goal is produce future engineers.

23. Robotics Competitions as PBLs

FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)

Mini-FRC

VEX Robotics Competition (VRC)

WPIs Savage Soccer Competition

BEST

BattleBots IQ

Mate ROV competition

24. The Future of Education

Collaborative teaching strategies

Personalized learning using household technology

Just in time learning/whenever and wherever- mobile computing

Critical thinking and complex problem solving

E-books

Simple augmented reality/ LEGOs digital boxhttp:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =mUuVvY4c4-A&feature= player_embedded # !

25. Phil Sheppard working on scissors lift 26. Tom Kroll working on roller claw 27. Dave Pounds working on articulating claw 28. Gerid Paquette working on gragger mechanism 29. Robert Desmarais working on his monster 4-bar and pneumatic claw 30. Conclusion

What started out as a seasonal game has become a year round educational endeavor.

As the level of experience and responsibility increases from year to year so does the difficulty of the tasks encountered the student.

By their senior year, students can have experience in machining, CAD, mechanical design, computer programming, etc.

Trinity students have a pronounced head start in critical thinking, engineering, and college.

31. 2010 Trinity FRC robot 32. 33. 2010 Trinity Drive Team at the FIRST Championships 34.

Harrison Williams

Junior in 09-10

FRC robot driver

Java programmer

Electronics intern

35.