Project Inter-Actions

Sunday Afternoon Session

“Vit-Vit” by Marcus, with Mom and Dad’s help

Our Vit-Vit project dances and sings. It’s important because we made it up. The Vit-Vit protects the forest (our last name means “base of the forest”), makes people smile and lives a good, yet simple life.

We built it with Legos Robolab kit, a pipe-cleaner frame, paper mache outer shell and paint. We programmed through applying what we learned in class, trial and error and a bit of research. We worked at home about 4 hours.

The hardest part was probably programming. Robots can do lots of things and they are hard to build. They can be programmed. Culture brings family together.

“Art Mobile and Gear Mobile” by Owen & Alyson

Our art car draws on black paper, plays music that Owen scored and this is important because members of our family are artists.

We basically did the whole project at home. Owen designed and built the car, Alyson supplied support for figuring out the way to add the crayons and the programming was done as a team.

Programming was the hardest part. We are still trying to figure out the light sensor. I learned that robots are fun to make. I learned that a culture is really important because it gives you ideas about your family and what you will be when you grow up.

“The Picker Upper” by Alexandra and her Dad

It helps pick things up. It is important because it helps me clean. I built it by putting pieces together but something usually fell apart. Then we put more pieces across the bottom to keep it together and put a skeleton on top that drives it. My dad programmed it. We very rarely worked on it at home.

The hardest part was to put it together. I learned that you cannot just go and say “I’m going to build a robot”. You actually have to think about what you are going to do and you have to build it piece by piece. I learned that there are different kinds of culture and everybody celebrates a culture. I’ve learned about the cultures that people in my class celebrate.

“Miss Violinist” by Jackson, assisted by Gordon & Juliana

Our robot is violinist who plays “Ode to Joy” on violin. I chose this because we have had music in our family for all the generations we know about. I picked the violinist because all three of my sisters play the violin. I really like the violin. I want learn how to play the recorder because I like how it screeches and sounds like a flute which is one of my favorite instruments too.

We built it using Lego Robolab. We programmed it on our old Pentium 1 computer. We did about 3/4 of the work at home. The hardest part was making the gears work so that the bow went back and forth over the violin.

I learned that robots can do a lot more than I thought. I really had fun doing this robot lab.

“The Frog Eater” by Noah and his Dad

My project picks up my frogs in my room. It is important because it helps me keep my room clean. I built my robot by using a lot of blocks and arms. I programmed my robot by making it go backwards and forward. I made it stop for two seconds. I did not work on my project a lot at home.

The hardest part was making my project tight. I learned every robot has a brain. I learned a culture is something a whole family does.

“Dancing Turkey” by Rebecca and her Dad

“The Creature” by Zachary and his Dad

My project spins and changes direction with light from a flashlight, and flashes the eyes of my creature. It is important because it is like a Pokemon creature.

I made it with paper mache and Legos based on my drawings. My dad programmed it with my help. We did all the work at home.

The hardest part was deciding what to do. I learned a little about how robots know what to do. Is Pokemon culture?

“Música: The Drummer” by Joelle, with help from Ramón (Dad)

Our project plays the drum trying to play a dancing beat. Music is one thing that our family likes a lot.

To build our Drummer we first built the drum on top of a post. Then we attached drumsticks to each of two motors and made them taller than the drum. Our program split into two branches, one for each motor. Each arm moved in one direction and then changed to move in the opposite direction. We played with the timers until we got the beat different in each arm and just right. At home we did not have too much time, but we were able to build it better and stronger and added details.

Building it strong enough was hard because sometimes it would come apart when the drumming started. We had to experiment building it stronger. The other difficult thing was programming it to move in the beat pattern that we wanted it. Getting the beat back and forth just right took some time trying different ways and different time lengths. We learned that you need to have a good image of what you want your robot to do and look like. It takes patience, repeating things, and learning all the choices in the program that we could use. In this project we thought about different things that our family does on holidays and special occasions and other things we like to do because of the cultures we have in our family.

“Christmas Tree” by Galileo and Mark (his Dad), with help from Galileo’s Mom

Our project is supposed to symbolize religion and muscles. It has lights like a Christmas tree and also has moving decorations and a little music. In answer to the question: Why is it important? - We do not know!

We thought about what we wanted to make and then we made a map of what we were going to make. We thought of things that ordinary Christmas trees would do then we added a punching bag and a hand to hit it. Galileo quickly discovered how various icons worked, Mark had to help making sure the wiring was completed in a way that was logical and would run. Galileo contributed most of the ideas of what to do. We spent about 60% of the time at home and about 40% at Tufts University.

The hardest part was to get it to sing the song at the same time as the lights were turning on and off. We learned that you can't walk right up to a robot and program it so that it works. You need to make the things you want to go first go first and the things that you want to go second go second and connect the lines so that it will work. Galileo says that he did not learn much about culture. We did learn that there are many different cultures.

Congratulations to all the children and families on their hard work!