Summer SAVY Session 5, Day 4, Programming and Robotics
We didn’t waste any time getting started today because we had a packed day of new ideas planned! That didn’t keep us from getting started by reading The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown to help inspire our brains about what future robots might be able to do automatically. Automatically was our theme of the entire day as it connected to coding, learning about AI, and programming their LEGO robots to do events automatically.
Today’s puzzles on code.org were the most challenging because they required the programmers to use functions and conditionals to identify intricate patterns within other patterns while being prepared for the unexpected to pop up in the program. Although it caused plenty of frustration, they overcame the challenge and kept persisting to get it correct.
After lunch, we continued to learn about how artificial intelligence collects data to learn. We identified downfalls with this process if the data it collects is inaccurate based on human fault. In order to understand this process, we studied the website quickdraw.withgoogle.com. It is a worldwide A.I. experiment where the program tries to guess what you were asked to draw. It uses over 15 million images drawn by people around the world to try an identify your image. This was a very exciting and engaging activity to look at machine learning because it also allows you to view how other people have drawn the same item.
The most exciting part of the day was when they engineered new features for their Lego Boost robots. Some groups built a human-like robot that moved with treads and others created a robot that had a belt with sensors similar to what you would see in warehouses. I am thrilled with their ability to make connections to other industries! They were all excited about the bulldozer that could stop at an item to pick it up and the cat that could move its eyes. The human like robot teams programmed their robots for battle bots!
Tonight ask your programmers:
- Why are conditionals important to a program?
- How was the machine robot on quick draw able to guess your pictures?
- What was one puzzle on code.org that you struggled with today
- How does your team communicate while building the Lego robot?