robotics Archives | THOM GIBSON

19 Feb 2019

Building COLLISION AVOIDANCE Robots in Middle School Robotics

I vlogged our big competition day for our collision avoidance robots in middle school robotics. If students had a head on collision or fell off the table, they were out. https://youtu.be/PtE-7p1rUZw Self-driving cars video I introduce the project with ▷Task: Create a bot that avoids other bots & obstacles in the field. Must utilize at least 3 sensors (touch, color, gyro, ultrasonic) Must incorporate screen text, sound, and lights. Must be autonomous. ▷Rules: If your bot hits another bot or obstacle, you’re out. If your bot is bumped, you’re still in unless it’s a head on collision Starting placement can…

23 Aug 2018

Life Update…

I share a little of what's been going on as summer has winded down and I'm getting into the swing of school. Advanced Robotics (0:34) YouTuber Class (1:36) Student Teacher (3:17) Mandarin Learning (3:42) Jiu Jitsu (4:49) Books & Beef Jerky (5:13) New PC & Livestreaming (5:45) Done List Journal (6:31) Summer Travel (8:08) Question of the Day (8:31) https://youtu.be/EBQhQv-e60U

23 Jan 2018

How To Teach Robotics

In episode 2 of The Thom Gibson Podcast, I recorded the sounds of my robotics classroom for a couple of days while they worked on and presented their final projects. I reflect on some of the observations of going back and listening to the audio. You also hear students working to troubleshoot their creations which included an electric guitar, a whack a mole, an etch-a-sketch, and robotic arm controlled via sensors on a glove connected bluetooth... Music by Podington Bear www.soundofpicture.com https://youtu.be/-Iw3ocfWlc8

20 Nov 2017

Post 11 – Integers, Rational Numbers, & Sumo Remote Controls

It is Monday of Thanksgiving holiday and as my wife is working Mon-Wed, I'm looking to get all my holiday work done these first few days. I also realized I missed a week of reflections so thought I'd look over the last couple weeks in my classes. PRE-ALGEBRA We finished up our integer unit. Overall it seems students have a great grasp on how to work with integers even in problems where order of operations is needed. Looking over the assessment data, my 1st and 3rd periods generally perform about the same. Class size is similar and a mix of…

11 Sep 2017

Post 03 – Programming Drones & Mathematical Properties

We're entering week 4 of school. This will be the first full, normal week so far. First day of week 1 was the odd first day schedule with assemblies and such, 2nd week had a 2-hr delay on Monday due to hurricane weather, and last week was labor day on Monday. Glad to start getting into a normal routine. But onto the reflection of last week. ROBOTICS & DRONING I spent most of my time last week reflecting on robotics. I was trying out doing some drone lessons where students program the drone to do stuff. Our first mission was…

27 Aug 2017

Post 01 – First Week Pre-Algebra, Robotics, and Advisory Activities

Well as part of my goals this year, I'd like to continue to blog every week as a reflective practice in my middle school math & robotics classes. This is my 7th year in the classroom, 4th year teaching middle school math & robotics, and 3rd year doing weekly blogs. I'm impressed by the number of teachers doing the #teach180 initiative where teachers write a DAILY reflection. Some will do an Instagram or Twitter post and that'll suffice. I'm going to be less worried about the presentation aspect of these blogs this year; I'm not spending time on cover photos…

08 Jun 2017

Entry 33 – School Has Come To An End

Today is the first official day of summer for me! Started out with breakfast for some friends, the first swim in a long while at the lap pool (taking a break for a week from the weight lifting as I've had some shoulder pain), and some good time to get a lot of little tasks done that have been on the back burner for a few weeks. My summer plans include doing some possible videography work (sent out a ton of inquiries this morning) and a trip at the end of summer to China! Sara and I found a Groupon…

05 May 2017

Entry 29 & 30 – “I Learned More In The Last 45 Minutes Than I Have This Whole Semester”

Didn't reflect last week. Had a big, fun retreat weekend and left right after class on Friday. It was with Sara's residency program. I made a fun video that has nothing to do with school that I'll just place right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NliF41lAmHM Onto the school content: PRE-ALGEBRA We finished up our ratios/proportions unit last week and students took their summative test on Monday. Our last lesson of that unit was using proportions to find the missing side of a similar figure. The opening question ended up being not as effective as I had hoped: I chose this one because I…

23 Oct 2016

Entry 10 – Puppy Bots & Student Led Conferences

It was a fairly short week in terms of actual class time. First part of the week was spend finishing up our project in robotics and winding down in our integer unit in Pre-Algebra. There were no classes on Thursday or Friday due to student-led conferences. STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES I wrote in-depth last year how we structure our student-led conferences. Check it out HERE. We didn't do much different this year except provide teacher comments. In the past, teachers would write comments for students at the end of the semester and the comments would be put on report cards. This time,…

28 Aug 2016

Entry 1 – My Sixth First Day

I've begun my sixth year in teaching. The plan is to reflect at the end of each week again this year. I've invited some of my colleagues to join me and am excited to read through their reflections :) This week was our first week back with students. Being that many of my students from 6th grade math are now in my 7th grade math class, it felt more like coming back from a long weekend than it did a brand new year. This week has felt a bit long with having to stay after school for some back-to-school nights &…