Wednesday Roundup

After learning a little bit about algorithms and programming we made sandwiches and designed the sandwich making machines in groups. We have discussed algorithms that we use in everyday life and learned more about present day programming languages.

Then we went to the lab to write our own programs in Scratch. We have also saved the files on the USB sticks so we can continue to work on them later, and had an opportunity to post stories and pictures of Recyclobots on this blog!

Check out all the fantastic recyclobots below!

Fantastic creativity on display below...

alienator

eyes) spindels
head)CD drive tray

my robot

this is the spinny robot! The platter is the head the optical drive case for body ram for arm re rite thing for head base for a motor for spinning parts.base of a cd circut for feet

Zahg

My Robot is made out of: 1 floppy drive, one ram, 1 spindle a cd part and a magnet.

Colorful car

This car is a really colorful car. The bumper in the back lost one side in a cot-so-serious-accident.

The Wheelie Awesome Battle-Bot

Made of :(Computer parts) 2 platters,1 motor track,2 hardrive spindles, 1 CD drive spindle, and a read/write head.The platters store information,and the platters rotate with the hardrive spindles.The CD drive does the same thing except with CD's, and the read/write head reads or writes information on the platters.

Motorzila

I used the fan and ribbon-wires of the computer. The fan keeps the computer cool. The ribbon-wires transfer energy.

my robot

this is my robot he is made from 1 fan 2 cottan balls 2 pipe cleaners and 2 cd drives. the fan cools off the motherboard and the cd drives are used to one open it and two stores memory

Lights

This is a robot that it shoots lights out it is made out of a hard drive platter which saves or stores information , disks and a C.D drive read ifo.

Surveillance-bot 9000

My robot is called the Surveillance-bot 9000.It is used surveillance purposes.It has a camera that can move from side to side to see different places.The camera I got was a laser from a computer. All the parts are from a computer. A wire from a computer is connected to the brain, which is a laser thing. It has many batteries. The brain sends info to a CD on the optical drive, so you can take it out and view it.

Robosuper Computer

This is a robot that controls your computer and does your work for you. It can do all your work for you! No more waiting for your secretary! Just start it up and type in what you want done! Thats all it takes! just push and stop worrying for the rest of the day. No more typing out homework! No more getting your speech ready for your students tomorrow! No more spelling mistakes and grammar problems! No more... well you get the point. It does ANYTHING!!!! Made out of recycled items like Floppy disk drive, Hard drive platter, 2 CD drives, Hard drive case, wires, Ribbon wire, lights, a Processor and much more so its very Eco friendly! It even comes with headphones! A five dollar value for just $500.99! Get it while its still here! (in case it runs away)

U F Oh No I Broke My Computer!

My robot is a UFO. The motor from a CD drive is my alien. The teleporter/door/wall is made out of a pin connector. Part of the floor is made out of some power cable. The actual ship is made out of a hard drive platter. The rest of the ship is made of pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, and pebbles.

-Braden

ROBOB

Robob is the the robot that i built. His eye is a camera so he can see which is really a laser. The laser is a part from a computer, it is used to read info on a disc. Robob has a fan no him that generates power so he can move around. The fan keeps everything in the computer cool. I used a circut bar to hold everything together. Robobs legs were motors from a computer. Building Robob was fun!!

Tuesday Roundup

After learning what HCI actually is, we explored some cool ways to use a computer. We watched some video demos about new HCI technologies being researched which don't use a mouse, keyboard, or even a screen! Then it was off to University of Manitoba HCI lab. There we had the chance to use some of the technologies we explore earlier.

Back in the classroom, we tested out some different ways we can use a Nintendo Wii Remote to control a computer, including head tracking and a virtual whiteboard. We even had the chance of trying to build our own hats to use with the Wii Remote head tracker.

Monday Roundup

After an introduction to the very basics of computer science (including some very thorough demolition of some old desktop computers) we all went to visit the University of Maniotba Autonomous Agents Lab. Dr. John Anderson showed us some of the different robots this lab works on and discussed some of the reasons we do Artificial Intelligence research at the University.

Once we got back to the classroom we put some of that disassembling knowledge to use and started making RECYCLOBOTS out of used computer parts. Everyone should be posting their bot and its name and story tomorrow, so here's a teaser. Check the PHOTOS page for more.

TUESDAY REMINDER

Don't forget to bring an old hat to use for an activity Tuesday (something you don't mind punching holes in)

Welcome to the Tech Camp Blog

Welcome to the blog for the Spring Break 2010 Kid-Netic Energy tech camp portion.

Here you will find:

• Preliminary Schedules
• Links to find out more about topics
• Activity posts from our campers
• End of day wrap ups and photos.
• and more...

Stay tuned as the camp begins.