Skip to main content

Happy Hour of Code Week

By Anonymous

Don't forget that next week is the Hour of Code, a global initiative to entice people of all ages to learn one hour of coding through games.  You don't need to do anything more than download some promotional materials and lead patrons to the website for them to sign in.  To extend the hour of code beyond the website, we'll be putting out some of our robots to try.

This year's newest addition to our circulating collection is the adorable Dash robot. Who is by far my favorite robot that I have played with because Dash actually has a personality! I immediately wanted to hug him and yell "Johnny 5 Alive!" Dash talks, blinks, lights up and runs around on 3 wheels. He has a companion robot, Dot, many fun accessories, and even Lego brick adapters.

The apps that I downloaded for him on our iPad gen. 2 (gen 1 won't work) are:

Blockly
Path
Blockly Jr.
Wonder

Wonder is the hardest and least intuitive app, aimed for experienced robotics users or at least middle school students with Path being the easiest.  I posted a video of Dash at the race track using Path on Instagram. Blockly took a few minutes to get going but if you have any experience with Scratch programs it will be immediately understood.  All of these are free downloads.

My other new robot this year is for the preschool set called Bee Bot. He doesn't require an iPad and is simply there to teach basic order of operations using 7 buttons on his back: LEFT, RIGHT, FORWARD, BACKWARD, STOP, PAUSE & GO. Here is a great classroom example of its use.  You could build it a little obstacle course and challenge kids to safely make Bee Bot go through the path.

I was practicing with Dash today at the desk and a little boy about 2 came up to it completely in awe. He WOULD NOT talk to me but he readily said, "Goodbye Dash!" on his way out. His grandmother had said this is probably his first experience seeing a robot and isn't that what the " Library of the Future" is all about?
Labels:

Comments

  1. BloggerNovember 2, 2017 at 8:54 AM

    Ever wanted to get free Facebook Followers?
    Did you know you can get these ON AUTOPILOT AND TOTALLY FOR FREE by registering on Like 4 Like?

    ReplyDelete
  2. BriannaJanuary 18, 2025 at 8:35 AM

    It sounds like you have some exciting new robots at your library!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting!

Popular posts from this blog

3D Printing Signs for the Library Collection

By Anonymous
Last weekend, I went to the annual Tee-Off mini golf event at the Brookline Public Library.  As a first time visitor, I was mini-golfing with my phone at the ready. Special thanks to the AMAZING librarian rockstar Robin Brenner for so many great ideas. It truly is worth a visit just to see her teen room. Here are a few 3D printing/marketing ideas to takeaway: Having a  3D printer filtration cart would be wonderful in our library.  Look at the price if you dare.  Right now I have to go downstairs to retrieve prints because we are concerned about the fumes and little hands touching anything while the printer is on.  I have a video camera set up downstairs using an iPad 2 and the free app called Presence  for monitoring but sometimes I do forget to keep checking the presence website while I'm on the desk especially since it makes this annoying beeping sound to say, "Are you still watching?!"..As the sign reveals on the cart, the propensity to want to lean or...
34 comments
Read more

When Makerspace Projects Come to Fruition

By Anonymous
I love stories of patrons or staff who use our equipment to make something truly creative and original. We had two of those instances this week: Our first comes from our talented staff member, Karen, who runs a monthly knitting night at the library. She draws a big crowd as individuals work on solo projects, share their skills and troubleshoot with each other.  These knitting nights have brought out some spinners and loom enthusiasts that have shared their talent as well. Using these new skills, Karen made her own sweater.  It doesn't stop there though. Over the past year we have increased our collection of unusual items for circulation to include a polymer clay kit which Karen used to make her own designer button for her creation. I told her she could have her own couture business! Read more about this and other projects on her knitting blog.  The second project came from a pair of siblings who won 1st place in the Pembroke Science Fair with the 3D printing help...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cube 2 3D Printer Review

By Anonymous
We have had the Cube 2 3D printers for over a year now and I think it's time to weigh in the pros and cons. For the record, we also have an Ultimaker 2 as my comparison for features. It does come with an extra price tag $ for those features but well worth the staff time I've saved. Most of our 3D printing programs with these Cube machines occur with first time users usually ages 10 and up.  Even if you don't have a Cube it is good to know the limits of any 3D printing machine before purchasing. Cube Software.... Pros: is pretty easy to use. Unlike other printing software (Cura for Ultimaker*) I've used, there are limited options so it doesn't feel daunting to work with.  Is it solid or hollow? Supports yes or no? How large?  Cubify is an easy download off the website and you can download it to as many computers as you want. Our workflow is we create an object in Tinkercad , save as an .STL file then convert into Cubify. Cubify saves the options fro...
13 comments
Read more