My “Maker Play” after school program at the Richards Free Library has been in full swing since October 2015. We’ve played with 3Doodlers, Gears Gears Gears, Makey Makeys, LOTS of Snap Circuits, Cubelets, and Brain Flakes.
Dash and Dot impressed everyone the most.
We had the opportunity to borrow the Dash and Dot robots, created by Wonder Workshop, from the NH State Library. Dash can move in all directions, dance, speak, turn toward your voice, and even launch balls. Dot can play back your own sound effects, and a bunch more that I didn’t finish discovering!
Since I had already created my month’s calendar when I got Dash and Dot, I had to work them into other Maker Play programs, rather than giving them a program of their own, until the last week of their stay. It didn’t matter—the children were enthralled. I first brought them out during a Snap Circuits flying saucer program with about 20 children present, including a contingent of guests from the afterschool program at the local elementary school. I had pre-programmed a series of commands into the Scratch-like programming app that controls the bots (Blocky), and when I let Dash go, the children were fascinated.
“It’s a real robot!” they said (this is in contrast to the Cubelets, which I have been unable to convince them are also a “real” robot). They were most excited about Dash’s ability to turn toward sound when disconnected from the control app.
After this exuberant reaction, I was excited to plan a special event for just Dash and Dot in the last week of their stay at the library.
In the course of all of the fun, we had just one problem, and it happened backstage well before I tried to introduce the robots to the kiddos. The library’s tablet was simply too old to download the Blocky app and connect to Dash and Dot. It’s an iPad, and it works beautifully most of the time, so I was not expecting this issue. In desperation, I downloaded the app on my smart phone. This limited my program in that I then had to be the one to use the Scratch program, taking input from the children rather than letting them try it themselves. However, it turned out for the best because there was no fighting over whose turn it was!
For the stand-alone program I decided to do a maze challenge with the kids. I gave them masking tape and meter-sticks (Dash moves by cm, not inches) and let them create a simple path for Dash to follow. It was a good opportunity for team work! One child was in charge of putting down the tape and another was in charge of measuring it and telling me how far to program Dash to go. We worked together to estimate the angles he should turn. The kids were fascinated by using their own bodies as obstacles, and took turns being “The Statue of Library” in the center of Dash’s route.
Once we got Dash to complete a full circuit of his route accurately (an endeavor that took us the better part of half an hour) we moved on to taking turns being the human target for Dash to throw balls at using the Launch apparatus. In order for the launcher to work, it must be firmly attached—that was the only thing that messed us up, until one of the boys figured out that it was slipping around Dash’s ears too much to push against the launch lever. After that, it worked beautifully! The balls aren’t thrown with enough force to hurt, and the kids LOVED being able to take turns loading the balls to throw at their friends.
Eventually we got out Dot, and we all took turns recording sounds for Dot to say on command. I had everyone say, “Richards Free Library!” together, but they enjoyed making their own phrases better. Someone did a bit of beatboxing, one girl meowed, and another sang a tiny song. Then we all marched up to the circulation desk to show off our work!
Dash and Dot on their own kept my kiddos engaged and working together as a team for more than a full hour. They were unwilling to go home even when their parents came to get them. The parents were pretty fascinated as well! I still have children asking about Dash and Dot and wondering about their adventures all over the state. These robots were an instant hit and a big success!
Thank you, NH State Library!
-Mo, Richards Free Library
(Thanks for the great post, Mo!)