This section outlines practical considerations to address before implementing the Robotics Club, to help sessions run smoothly.
Considerations Regarding Team Formation
It is important to carefully consider the best way to group participating students together into teams of 2 to 3, in order to encourage a fun, relaxed, positive environment, and successful practice and demonstration of the Personal and Social Capabilities.
If you do not teach some of the participating students, it is helpful to obtain background information about them, their social skills and networks from your colleagues who do teach them.
As a general rule, it is suggested that students are able to be in a team with fellow students who they are familiar with and are within their “comfort zone” in order to maximise engagement, before extending them by mixing teams and placing students with unfamiliar peers at one or two points throughout the program (i.e. when moving from the Beginning to the Developing Phase; and from the Developing to the Culminating Phase). Base these decisions on individual students’ needs and progress.
When teams are organised in Session 1, students will identify a team name, and a name for their robot. Ensure each kit is labelled. This encourages a sense of ownership and responsibility for the assigned robot and kit.
You may like to list participating students, to consider possible groupings of students into teams of 2-3, consider whether to allow students to choose their own teams initially, and any special considerations such as known personality clashes.
Encouraging Positive Behaviour and Collaboration
Like any learning environment at school, during the Robotics Social Club it is important to provide a safe and supportive environment and set up expectations that foster positivity, cooperation and positive relationships with and between students. Here are some suggested rules that work well in Robotics Social Clubs.
Ideally, print and display the Poster of Rules (PDF, 223 KB; Word, 968 KB) in the room each week, and remind students of them regularly. These rules can be referred to as appropriate to reward students’ positive behaviour.
Rules
- Have fun: with your teacher, friends and all students in the Club.
- Be friendly: with your speech and actions.
- Be respectful: of other people by listening and focusing on the positive aspects of ideas and designs. Look after the equipment and ask other teams before borrowing their equipment.
- Be safe: with the computers, robots and people in the Club.
- Ask for help: from your friends and teachers. All designs can be shared and copied by others. Sharing and combining ideas will help us make awesome robots.
Session Checklist
Ensure you complete the Session Checklist (Word, 18 KB) before each session, so that each session runs smoothly. Technical issues are not uncommon, so it is helpful to go through this list at least a day or two before the Robotics Club, to allow time for troubleshooting and/or preparing resources. A copy of this checklist is included in each Robotics Challenge webpage.