To Begin, a Thank You
One of the more important aspects of a child's education is parent involvement. A parent that cares for their child's education enables them to focus on their school studies and preparing themselves for the future, and gives the parent peace of mind that their child is able to take care of themselves in the future.
Robotics education is something that many parents may feel they do not know enough about to assist their child with. Remember, that anxiety is something that the child feels as well, even if they aren't able to properly articulate it! This is why we do what we do; to give teachers, parents, students, principals, and superintendents the capabilities to teach robotics within their classrooms that enables both learning and fun. A parent is not merely a spectator, there to watch and cheer their child on; they must help push them forward and encourage them to try something that even the parent does not know much about.
In this, we thank you for diving head-first into a situation which you may know absolutely nothing about, solely to help your child and the others around to learn robotics and have fun. We will strive to make this as simple of a process for you as possible, and ensure that you have your own good experiences to talk about in the future.
Robotics education is something that many parents may feel they do not know enough about to assist their child with. Remember, that anxiety is something that the child feels as well, even if they aren't able to properly articulate it! This is why we do what we do; to give teachers, parents, students, principals, and superintendents the capabilities to teach robotics within their classrooms that enables both learning and fun. A parent is not merely a spectator, there to watch and cheer their child on; they must help push them forward and encourage them to try something that even the parent does not know much about.
In this, we thank you for diving head-first into a situation which you may know absolutely nothing about, solely to help your child and the others around to learn robotics and have fun. We will strive to make this as simple of a process for you as possible, and ensure that you have your own good experiences to talk about in the future.
Class Summary
Below is a generalized summary of what is expected of a parent volunteer for a single hour long class. This process should only take about 5 minutes for Setup and 5-10 minutes for Shutdown, but you should begin about 5 minutes before the class begins. Further details are below if you are confused.
Laptop/Robot Charging Classroom
As many of the school's classrooms are limited in wall plugs, some teachers have been kind enough to allow us to charge the laptops/robot in their classroom for the duration of the month. In between each class on the schedule, the robots should be picked up before the class and returned after the class to the following rooms:
Setup
Shutdown
If you have any questions, ask Adam in person or at [email protected]
Laptop/Robot Charging Classroom
As many of the school's classrooms are limited in wall plugs, some teachers have been kind enough to allow us to charge the laptops/robot in their classroom for the duration of the month. In between each class on the schedule, the robots should be picked up before the class and returned after the class to the following rooms:
- Oct 16 - 22: Room 22
- Oct 23 - 30: Room 25
Setup
- Arrive in either Room 22 or 25 depending on the week. There should be two carts, one with laptops and one with robots.
- Robot cart: Unplug the power bars from the wall. Put cords on the cart.
- Laptop cart: Unplug chargers from laptops.
- Take both carts to the proper class as denoted on the schedule on the carts.
- Unplug robots from the chargers.
- Open laptop lids.
- Press the spacebar a few times to wake the laptop up and open the login screen. (Or turn them on if they've been shutdown.)
- Click on Sign In. There should be no password.
- At the bottom in the taskbar, click on the Synthiam ARC logo.
- Once loaded, the laptop can be set aside for the students. Repeat for all laptops.
Shutdown
- Take the laptop from the student.
- Click on the X at the top right of ARC to close the program.
- Click Yes on confirm.
- Click No on save.
- Once back on the desktop, close the laptop lid.
- Place the laptop on the laptop cart.
- Take the robot from the student.
- On the bottom or back of the robots, verify the power on the robots is off (0 or Off)
- Fold up the Humanoids and Hexapods if necessary to fit on the cart.
- Place the robot on the cart and plug it in.
- Rovers on the top, Humanoids on the middle shelf, Hexapods on the bottom shelf.
- Take both carts back to the charging classroom.
- Plug Robot Cart power bars into wall socket.
- Verify that every charger has either two red lights or a red and green light. This indicates that they are charging.
- Plug laptop chargers back into laptops.
- Verify that all laptops are being charged.
- Gold laptops will have an orange or blue light next to where the charger plugs in.
- Blue laptops will have an orange or blue light on the opposite side of the laptop from the charger. A second blue light may show up there to indicate that the laptop is on; ignore that and look for the charge indicator light.
If you have any questions, ask Adam in person or at [email protected]
In class assistance
Much of the robot setup and operation is expected to be done by the students themselves. They must learn how to open and save their projects, as well as connect to the robot and ensure its proper operation.
But the most time consuming aspects of a teacher's classroom is for setup and shutdown. These are windows of increased activity as students rush to gather their required materials and get properly set up. Often, classes cannot continue until every student is ready. Depending on how many teachers and volunteers are available, as well as systems put in place to expedite this process, it can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to set up, and the same amount or more to shut down.
For our in class education, we have put as many systems in place as possible to ensure quick and efficient movement, and get on to the teaching aspects of the classroom as soon as possible. Details on what is expected of you is below. Please read it through to help your teacher give the students as much time as possible to learn robotics!
Robot Charging
Each robot requires 1 robot charger kit. Each charger kit should be plugged into a power bar. It is recommended to have at least 3 power bars with horizontal plugs, enabling 5 or more chargers kits to plug into a single power bar simultaneously. This means that to fully charge the robots over the span of 30 minutes only requires 3 plugs near the cart. The robots, chargers, and power bars will travel with the cart between each classroom for simplicity.
But the most time consuming aspects of a teacher's classroom is for setup and shutdown. These are windows of increased activity as students rush to gather their required materials and get properly set up. Often, classes cannot continue until every student is ready. Depending on how many teachers and volunteers are available, as well as systems put in place to expedite this process, it can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to set up, and the same amount or more to shut down.
For our in class education, we have put as many systems in place as possible to ensure quick and efficient movement, and get on to the teaching aspects of the classroom as soon as possible. Details on what is expected of you is below. Please read it through to help your teacher give the students as much time as possible to learn robotics!
Robot Charging
Each robot requires 1 robot charger kit. Each charger kit should be plugged into a power bar. It is recommended to have at least 3 power bars with horizontal plugs, enabling 5 or more chargers kits to plug into a single power bar simultaneously. This means that to fully charge the robots over the span of 30 minutes only requires 3 plugs near the cart. The robots, chargers, and power bars will travel with the cart between each classroom for simplicity.
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The battery on the robots is inside the robots themselves, not visible from the outside. The only thing that sticks out is the battery wire, as seen to the right.
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The charger kit consists of two parts: The power adapter and a charger itself. As these two parts rarely, if ever, need to be separated, they will henceforth be referred to as a 'charger'.
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Power Adapter (Left) and Charger (Right)
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Robot 'Charger'
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Notice that when a charger is plugged into power, such as a wall socket or power bar, a red light will come on.
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The battery wire plugs into the charger in the smaller port, labelled 2 Cell. The 'rails' on the battery wire face upwards, towards the label.
When a robot is charging, the second light will go red. Once fully charged, the second light will turn green. |
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Over time, the maximum capacity of the battery may diminish lower than the maximum charge potential of the charger. In this case, the second light may never turn green and it will stay red. This is expected.
A robot will typically fully charge over the course of 30 minutes. Regardless of the color of the second light, it is highly likely that the robot is fully charged.
Robots can be removed from their chargers by pulling the battery wire and the charger directly away from one another. Try not to pull at an angle just in case one of the wires gets pulled out.
A robot will typically fully charge over the course of 30 minutes. Regardless of the color of the second light, it is highly likely that the robot is fully charged.
Robots can be removed from their chargers by pulling the battery wire and the charger directly away from one another. Try not to pull at an angle just in case one of the wires gets pulled out.
Laptop Setup
Students will primarily be responsible for every action taken within the software itself. This includes most setup situations. However, in order to keep students on topic and not browsing the web, playing games, etc, we always want to have the software open when the laptop is handed off to students. Similarly, at the end of class, we want to properly shut down the software to make it easy for the next group of volunteers.
Students will primarily be responsible for every action taken within the software itself. This includes most setup situations. However, in order to keep students on topic and not browsing the web, playing games, etc, we always want to have the software open when the laptop is handed off to students. Similarly, at the end of class, we want to properly shut down the software to make it easy for the next group of volunteers.
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When opening the laptop, at the bottom taskbar, there will be a purple S, standing for Synthiam ARC, the software. Click on that once. The software may be slow in opening, so clicking on it multiple times may result in multiple instances of the software opening and slowing the laptops down.
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Once you are on the screen to the right, the laptop can be handed off to the student.
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At the end of class, as students hand back their laptops, click on the X at the top right to close the program.
Click Yes to confirm, the No to saving the project.
Once the screen shows only the desktop, the laptop lids can be closed and the laptop plugged in for charging.
Click Yes to confirm, the No to saving the project.
Once the screen shows only the desktop, the laptop lids can be closed and the laptop plugged in for charging.