I have both Daisies and Brownies and both groups went. Daisies worked on How Robots Move; Brownies did Programming Robots.
Daisy Badge: How Robots Move
According to GSUSA's Badge Explorer, the requirements are:
- Learn about the parts of a robot
- Find out how robots move
- Make a robot move
When you’ve earned this badge, you'll know how to create a program that could be run by a robot.
Brownie Badge: Programming Robots
According to Badge Explorer, Brownies need to
Learn how robots work
Discover the robot brain
Learn about programming
Try simple programming
Code a robot
When you’ve earned this badge, you'll know how to create a program that could be run by a robot.
What Happened at the Apple Store
The gentleman who led our class asked the girls if we brought any cookies. I gave him the Thanks-a-Lots and he was duly appreciative. He then asked the girls about their favorite cookies and gave them a chance to show off their cookie knowledge.
He told the girls he was thinking of a three letter word and that he wanted them to guess the letters by his clues. He described the formation of the letters C, A and T --for example C is a circle that is open on the right side. Then he asked the girls to pair up and for one to think of a three letter word and to describe it to the other. Honestly, I don't think the girls "got" what he wanted; they knew how to spell those words and were eager to show off. With a little coaching some got the idea.
Next, they moved on to programming Sphero robots. The first exercise was to color in dots on a matrix, and then they saw the dot pattern transferred to the robot. Cool.
Next we went to programming the Sphero to move in the direction we wanted them to move. They picked up a piece of movement code and dragged it to the top of the I-pad screen. They then could add the direction and the duration of the move, along with the speed. Next they added a delay, basically making the robot stop before it moved in the next direction. They were taught to debug the program after each addition, and to fix it if it didn't do what they wanted. The girls had fun playing with the robots but I don't think any of them got to the point of making the robot do what they wanted, as opposed to enjoying what they told the robot to do.
Conclusions and Recommendations
This was a program that my girls enjoyed and since it was free, I have no complaints.
I wish I had led the girls through some of the coding exercises that VTK uses for these badges or for Think Like a Programmer before we went to this program. I think they would have had a better understanding of what they were trying to teach--basically algorithmic thinking.
Unless you do some preparatory work with programming, I don't think kindergarten Daisies will get a whole lot out of the program, other than realizing that robots are fun. I think you could probably bring Juniors in cold and they'd "get" it. Brownies are somewhere in the middle.
What's Next
At our next meeting we are going to talk more about robots and do some of the VTK activities for these badges. I also plan to have the girls each build a 10 piece structure out of Legos and then to pair up and give their partners directions about how to make the same structure. I think we will also make Doodlebots.
I know there are two more robotics badges at each level, but I think we will stop with this one, even if we pick up some pieces of others. Badges are expensive, and I'd rather go deeper with a subject than brush over the top just to award more badges.
Has your troop done any of the Robotics badges? What do you think?
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