Chris Cooper

Middle School Robotics

by Karin Guns

I visited a newly revamped Robotics course in the Middle School this past week and was thrilled to see the students engaged in the process. Chris Cooper took over the course, which is a marking period elective class designed as pass or fail. The day I visited, the pupils were downloading the new program for their robot design. They each had to make sure they had the design in their computer on their own, but the rest of the time, they worked cooperatively to complete the task at hand. 

They had to accumulate all the necessary materials for the next part of their robot. It was fun to watch as Mr. Cooper worked the room and made sure each boy was aware of his expectations and responsibilities for the entire class. In the end, all the students were motivated to help their classmates and ready themselves for the building process. They do not have a final project, but they follow a progression that builds figuratively and literally on what they have done.

Mr. Cooper has them build projects following what he calls an “Act, React, Interact” model. They start with programming basic robots to “act.” The video below is their first “act” project. They had to work cooperatively to program all of the robots to play Happy Birthday at the same time. They will then work on the “react” process, which will require the addition of sensors to the robot and program them to act out different behaviors based on what the sensors pick up. The final task will be to build an arm that is able to “interact” with its environment. The students are active participants in this well-designed, cooperative course.