Middle School Robotics Underway

Some random photos and thoughts from early sessions of Machines Behaving Badly, the middle school combat robot class.

Assorted vintage power tools, and a strange figurine.  I release these more sophisticated components only to kids who show me plausible designs to use them.

I'm trying to teach them a few basic skills.  Like "never use a hand drill when you can use a drill press".  Hole saws for wheels and hubs are a particular case.  The torque involved in their use makes them dangerous with hand tools.  Nice to see safety glasses in use.

I am getting these kids at the end of a long day.  And they are middle schoolers.  And the school is extra chaotic as it is under construction.  So I try to keep the actual teaching aspects of the class manageable.  The ratio of talking to doing should not exceed 5%.  But that's enough.  Last week I showed a short video with the history of robotics in our district.  Starting with these little combat robots - one clip had detached Barbie heads flying around the arena - moving on up to advanced projects and then to the high school team.  This week it was basic tool safety.  I have a continuing message.  Keep working.  Don't goof off more than necessary.  Anger not the Robot Overlord nor his Minions and one day you too will be on the high school team building uber cool stuff.