The Robotics Summer of Learning teaches students STEM skills needed for today's changing world (w/video)
(Nanowerk News) Students and teachers will have the opportunity to develop programming skills, design virtual game levels, animate stories, earn badges that lead to certifications, and win prizes for free this summer through the Robotics Summer of Learning. The initiative will focus on providing step-by-step lessons to make programming easy and prepare students for a STEM future. The program is sponsored by Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Academy and hosted online at the Computer Science Student Network at http://www.cs2n.org/summer-of-learning.
The robotics programming aspect will focus on how to write code in ROBOTC, the premiere robotics programming language for educational robotics and competitions. It will also utilize the Robot Virtual Worlds software, a high-end simulation environment that enables students, without robots, to learn programming right from their computer. Two new “programming only” robotics game have been developed that take advantage of current VEX and FTC games in Robot Virtual Worlds. The games are played by autonomously programming your robot to place objects into scoring positions as quickly as possible.
The animation competition, “Nature Doc-u-mentary,” asks students to write a creative narrative and make an animated documentary using either Scratch or Alice 2.0. By using storytelling and animation as a motivator, students learn the importance of the design process while using interactive programming software.
The game design challenge, “Beacons and Barriers”, will focus on users creating levels for a virtual robot to navigate through. They will use the Model Importer, included in Robot Virtual Worlds, to create objects to serve as checkpoints and obstacles.
Software and training will be provided for free throughout the summer. Students will have 24/7 access to the online course materials, as well as professional support from developers of the software and curriculum. There will be over $10,000 in prizes available to participants in the challenge, including free software, robot kits, and college scholarships. The Robotics Summer of Learning kicks off on June 1 and runs to September 1, 2013. More information on this opportunity can be found at www.cs2n.org.
About Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy
The Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy is an educational outreach of Carnegie Mellon University, and part of the university's world-renowned Robotics Institute. They are committed to using the motivational effects of robotics to excite students and teachers about science and technology.
A video about robotics in the classroom.
About Computer Science Student Network
The Computer Science Student Network is a collaborative research project between Carnegie Mellon University and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) designed to increase the number of students pursuing advanced Computer Science and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) degrees. You can find out more at http://www.cs2n.org.
