Well, OK, it was a simulation of going to Mars. But it was triumph for the robotics club at Sandburg Elementary. Mr. Newell is running yet another banner year of robotics, science and engineering at Sandburg and this time they took on the challenge of preparing a robot to function in their simulation of Mars... the sandbox on the playground! After some early difficulties navigating the shifting surface, the team successfully navigated a challenge course, collected samples and returned them to the base. Here is a slide show (students, please forgive how I cropped out faces as I'm not comfortable advertising your school and your identity at the same time)
The following is the mission report from Steven Newell:
We tried this 5 day project with a 4th grade class over the last couple weeks, targeting our space exploration curriculum objective. We’ll document the lesson soon on our site, but here’s a quick summary:
1. Background knowledge: landers and rovers, mission roles
2. Role-play: mission control, rover design, science/communication
Deliverables: proposed rover design, mission plan, science objectives
We did this for one day, but needs two days.
3. Acceptance testing: rover built by instructor (could be student robot club if you allow a week)
4. Mission day: cross sandbox, pick up Mars lava rocks (the science team’s objective), and load them to the return vehicle.
5. Debriefing day
On mission day, having completed the primary mission, mission control drove down a Mars canyon until we broke a tread trying to drive up the side of the wall. Driving up canyon walls was not in the lander requirements! J The wireless camera battery gave out early, so we lost our video feed, but otherwise everything worked. Lego fans, the tracks are from a newly released Batman lego tank kit, driven by a standard technic gear.