One of the tasks that I was looking to do with the
Edison 2 was to increase its compatibility. Once the robot was unpacked with the setting of the machine (essentially straight from the box to start working) and the basic location tasks had been completed - looking to extend the students at a basic level. One of the positives that the
Edison 2 has is that it is easily compatible with Lego. These designs here were completed by a six year old.
Left: Basic design added to Edison 2 with mixed lego pieces, the task was simply to add additional pieces and make sure that the robot would still work. The wheels that are visible on the left and right of the wheels are for effect only and did not help with movement. There were no restrictions on the shape of the vehicle the task was simply to create a car to ensure the Edison could still move. (the sensors cannot be covered over otherwise the machine will not function as expected).
Left: to slightly make the task more inventive a challenge was made to produce a car/truck that would transport four lego figures without the figures falling out. When the Edison 2 would come up against an obstacle it would 'push' against it which meant the design had to be made with a way to secure the lego figures. The tasks were similar to the initial problem of travelling from one location to another, this time with the figures remaining safe.
Left: to further make a challenge an object was introduced that was oversized and to cause the vehicle to be redesigned. The back of the lego design needed to support the object and again the task was to transport the object from one location to another without the object on the back falling off. As it was the design was able to support the object without modification with the design from the previous task of transporting the figures.
Left: Which led to the stacking of blocks onto the back of the Edison 2 design - the blocks were intended to be loose so that when they would react to obstacles the would tip off. The intention of this was to have the student build support and consider the implications of the 'heavy load' of the blocks as it would be more of a challenge for the six year old.
Left: This was the final design by the six year old when the transportation tasks were complete. The six year old decided to create something interesting with a working arm. However this had limited mobility and was not the most practical in terms of getting to point A to B without items falling off.
This was an open task to allow the six year old to be creative without a specific end point.
Reflection: The Edison 2 is extremely compatible with Lego. There was no set in particular that was used to integrate with it was a collection of lego sets and pieces and that just worked. The practicality of it would be for a teacher/adult to purchase second hand set or lego pieces (wheels would need to be included in the set) to design a set of tasks with the Edison. This of course takes into the account the students have a predisposition towards Lego and have the motor skills to create.
