Experiences teaching CS1 with Personal Robots

2. Experiences teaching CS1 with Personal Robots The Institute for Personal Robots in Education Jay Summet, Georgia Institute of Technology with Tucker Balch, Doug Blank, Mark Guzdial, Deepak Kumar, Stewart Tansley, Jared Jackson, Natasha Eilbert, Keith O'Hara, Daniel Walker, Gaurav Gupta, and Monica Sweat

3. Help! My robot's gone crazy! The Institute for Personal Robots in Education Jay Summet, Georgia Institute of Technology with Tucker Balch, Doug Blank, Mark Guzdial, Deepak Kumar, Stewart Tansley, Jared Jackson, Natasha Eilbert, Keith O'Hara, Daniel Walker, Gaurav Gupta, and Monica Sweat

4. Why make CS education more fun and effective?

5. IPRE Overview • Mission: Make Computer Science education more fun and effective, using Personal Robots • Focused on CS1 education at the undergraduate level • But we also want to promote pushing down to K-12 and extending to more advanced CS / ECE classes!

6. IPRE: Lead Institutions • Georgia Institute of Technology • Tier 1 research university, founded in 1885 • 15,000 students • 2/3 of the undergraduate students are male • Bryn Mawr College • Liberal arts college, founded in 1885 • 1,200 students • Mostly female students

7. IPRE Principle Investigators • Tucker Balch, Director, GaTech • Douglas Blank, co-Director, BMC • Mark Guzdial, GaTech • Deepak Kumar, BMC • Stewart Tansley, MSR

8. Not your typical robots! • How are robots seen in popular culture?

9. 6 P's of IPRE • Personal – Every student owns a robot • Price – Substitute for a textbook • Pedagogy – Robot designed by the curriculum • Peripheral – Robot is treated as a device • Performances – Creativity & expression • Programming Languages – High level, interpreted, break the compile/debug cycle

10. Personal Robot • Small enough to carry in a backpack • Wireless, controlled from computer • Interactive and easy to program • Personalizable • More than “just a robot”

11. Current Prototype: Scribbler with IPRE Fluke $149 RobotEducation.org

12. Current Prototype: Scribbler with IPRE Fluke • Bluetooth wireless control • Movement • Sound (beeps)‏ • Light Sensors • Obstacle Sensors • Camera!

13. How to afford a robot for every student? • Transfer costs to the students • $150 is close to the cost of a science textbook (in the US)‏ • Amortize the cost over time • $150 robot is a $50 robot if you use it for three classes • 30 robots cost $4,500

14. How Reliable? • But what if a robot breaks? • How frequently to robots break? • Parallax offers a 90 day guarantee on the Scribbler, but a 16 week semester is 112 days!

15. How Reliable? More reliable than student's laptops! • Laptop problems (software as well as hardware) were more prevalent than robot problems • Having a few hot-spares to lend/rent is still a good idea (Project groups!)‏ • Failure rate around 1-2%, comparable to most consumer electronics

16. Language: Python • Looks like English • Indentation matters • Interpreted / Interactive • Easy to learn, but powerful • Job examples: • Google • Amazon • Industrial Light & Magic

17. Software: Goals • Easy to learn, but doesn't seem simplistic as the student grows in experience: “pedagogically scalable” • Easy to use: no compile-download-run • Instant gratification: interactive, dynamic • Open source: available for study or change • Cross-platform: runs on Linux, Mac, Win32

18. Myro/Robot Demo! • Turn on Bluetooth • Turn on Robot

19. Programming as a social activity

20. Towards an Accessible, Engaging Environment for new, diverse students • Competitions? Collaborations! • Race? Orchestra! • Compute factorial? Dance! • Battlebots? A robot performance! • Write a program of your own design!

21. The First Assignment • Make your robot dance! • Musical accompaniment • Function calls • Encapsulation • Looping

22. A CS1 Assignment: Maze • Data from sensors • IF statements • Recursion • Saving state

23. Using the Camera • 3 person teams • Week 1: Generate Special Effects (FX)! • Week 2: Shoot a movie • Robot camera • Robot actors • Using your special FX

24. Image Special FX • Teaches looping through data • Nested FOR loops • Data Representation • 0-255 – One byte per color • 24 bit color – 3 bytes per pixel

25. Movies • Lists of individual frames • Editing scenes together • Playing scenes backwards • Rendering at 1/2 or 2x speed • Overlay text and graphics?

26. Robot Performances • 3 person teams • “Live” performance • Synchronization of robots • Graded on technical correctness, but also entertainment value, costumes and story

33. Student Movies

34. Summary • Student owned personal robots provide a concrete context for learning computer science • Can be done relatively inexpensively • Creative, non-confrontational group assignments stress the social and creative nature of computer science

35. What was the most important or interesting thing that you learned in this course? • “That computer science can be creative!”

36. You can do this! • Software and textbooks are free – use AS-IS or modify to fit your needs • Print materials yourself or buy online from print on demand publishers http://wiki.RobotEducation.org

37. You can do this! • Educator materials available: • Lecture Notes • Power-point presentations • Assignments & Labs http://wiki.RobotEducation.org

38. Hardware? • We sell the robots and FLUKE upgrade modules from a non-profit company • Looking to encourage 3rd party manufactures • Contact us if you want the schematics / designs www.RobotEducation.org

39. Questions? For more information please visit: www.RobotEducation.org Play with the Robots: Demo Booth 7

40. IPRE Research Goals • Hardware – Robust, inexpensive robot • Software – Easy for students to learn • Curricular Materials – Focus on learning CS • Assessment – Make sure it works • Adoptable – Easy for instructors to adopt!

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