Subject:  Re: FW: Elec. Car Proposal!
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 08:37:30 -0600

Hi folks,  Lee Hart and I are discussing the suitability of use of the Lego 
Dacta kit we talked about at the last meeting.  We are interested in you input. 
Before we submit a grant proposal, we want to be sure it includes items that 
will be used successfully.  The following comments are excerpts from 
e-conversation between Lee and I........
     
Lego Dacta
     
Consider that what I know about them comes from a 1-hour exposure at the MN 
Sci Teachers Assn meeting. What I saw were several pre-defined projects, 
with pre-built actuators (motors and gear trains sealed in a box), sensors 
(light and temperature), and canned software that had to run on a 486 under 
Windows.
     
Example; a greenhouse with a motorized door and a temperature sensor. It 
opened the door if the temperature exceeded X degrees. You had to build it 
right or it wouldn't work; the software was hard-coded to assume the motor 
direction and speed. "Flexibility" meant you could change the temperature 
set point, or substitute the light sensor for the temperature sensor so the 
door now controlled the light level inside.
     
The courseware was designed for zero student-teacher interaction; the 
teacher could leave the kids with it and go out to lunch. The manual 
babbled on for pages and pages on irrelevant stuff that wasn't demonstrated 
by the model anyway.
     
>My idea is to throw out the instruction booklets for the teachers. 
>The plan... let the younger kids build a moving object
>as teams, with guidance from us engineer-types.
     
Now you're talking! Legos are a wonderful tool for this. But what do we 
replace the Dacta courseware with? And is it worth spending the money on 
the Dacta sets if we're not going to use it?
     
It looks like the Lego Technics are the same thing, but without the fancy 
computer interface box, software, and courseware. And 1/10 the price. We 
could buy 10 times as many.
     
As for controllers; you realize a Magic Stat with its thermistor at the end 
of a wire could do exactly what the Lego Dacta box does? Any resistive 
transducer input, relay output, battery operated, easy to program, cheap, 
rugged, etc.
     
>I do not believe the electric car idea is viable... at lower grade levels
     
You're probably right; it would be like trying to have them run before they 
can walk. Until I started going into the schools, I had no idea how 
primitive their understanding of mechanisms and tool-using abilities really 
are. They live in a world of Hollywood movie science and Wile E. Coyote 
engineering.
     
But we need to find things that grab their interest. Things they want to 
do. Make a birdhouse. Fix a bicycle. Take apart a wind-up alarm clock. Wire 
a pair of headphones to a telephone handset. Whatever it takes to spark 
their enthusiasm. Help them learn how this technological world of ours 
works, and how to manipulate it with tools to do their will.
     
The electric bike fit this very well for the 7th-9th graders. They are 
outgrowing bikes, and getting interested in driving and mobility. So the 
electric bike interested them. It then provided a platform for teaching 
them about mechanics, electricity, etc.
     
I appreciate your point that it is easier to spend money and buy the kits 
than to spend time inventing our own. If you have money and no time, then 
the choice is made automatically. And I am coming to understand that many 
teachers need a fully documented step-by-step plan, and Lego Dacta provides 
this.
     
But are we just picking an easy solution rather than a good one? Would 
*YOU* buy a Lego Dacta set for your kids? Heck no! You'd sit down and play 
with them, and show them how to do things with the actual tools and 
products you have around the house.