Robotics Using Microbit - Advanced Level - Hands on Projects

Completed by 20 learners

Ages 10-15

Live Group Class

Expand your robotics skills even further into advanced concepts like insect behavior, treasure maps, and mazes.

David Salch

Average rating:

4.9

Number of reviews:

(3,347 reviews)

Popular

Live video meetings

1x per week, 5 weeks

3-18 learners per class

55 min

About Learning Overview Teacher Reviews

What's included

5 live meetings

4 hrs 35 mins in-class hours

Class Experience

If you already have the basic skills of robotics, and have been through the intermediate level robotics class, this class takes your skills even further! Each class presents a project challenge with guidance but the students are expected to write their own code from brief examples. This fosters a greater sense of accomplishment than just copying code and running it. Students then work on their project during the week with constant communication with each other and the teacher, then demonstrate their accomplishments in the next class.

The robot used in this class is the Yahboom robot with the Microbit microcontroller. This robot is the one built in the "Introduction to Robotics" class offered by me on outschool. It is recommended to take the beginner and then intermediate level classes first to prepare for this one. 

The flow of each week will be:
  1. New project is introduced and explained
  2. Discussion about potential programming approaches, with code samples
  3. Work on the project during class and during the week
  4. Present the project to the class
  5. Review and explore the coding methods used in the project

Weekly Schedule:

Week 1:   The Bug
   Each participant will program their robot to act like a "bug" and either avoid or run towards light. 

Week 2: Review the bug project, results and code

Week 3: Treasure Maps
    Each participant will program their robot to follow a pre-programmed treasure map utilizing the built in compass to find a treasure at the end of the map.

Week 4.  Review the treasure map project, results and code
 
Week 5. The Maze
    Discussion, tips, and sample code around teaching the robot to conquer a maze, the most traditional intelligence test.

Learning Goals

This class focuses on even more advanced concepts and problem solving, while performing real world tasks.

Other Details

Supply List

Each student is expected to bring to class the robot and microcontroller. This can either be built in the "introduction to robotics" class or acquired on your own from these links:

http://www.perfectpackageonline.com/product/introduction-to-robotics-build-and-program-a-real-robot-with-microbit-package/4?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

External Resources

In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:

programming environment

Meet the teacher

David Salch

Joined December, 2016

4.9

3347reviews

Popular

Profile

Teacher expertise and credentials

I have been involved in computer science and robotics for 5 decades, having hand built my first robot as a teenager back in the day where parts had to be manually hard wired from scratch. In my career I have touched on many hardware / software disciplines and have several patents to my name in this field. This gives me a unique view on hardware and software as two parts of a whole end product. 
In addition to the technical skills I have spent decades explaining difficult computer science concepts to non-technical crowds including investors, administrators, salesmen, etc.  This provided a solid basis for teaching these skills in an age appropriate manner. 
My computer science classes bring these two (technical abilities and teaching experience) together into a fun, exciting hands on experience that is age appropriate. 
I have worked with this particular Yahboom robot for about 4 years now, and successfully taught basic robotics and some fairly advanced concepts) with this robot to hundreds of students.