Real World Application - Developing a Science & Engineering Identity

[CLICK 2 SCIENCE pd] [Real World Application of Skills: Developing a STEM Identity] >> It's supposed to go forward and it's supposed to turn to your left, it's supposed to avoid three obstacles. >> Providing real world application of the skills of an engineer is an important strategy when developing a STEM identity in youth. Watch as a volunteer engineer gives youth real world engineering application of the project they're doing in robotics. Listen for the challenges he gives youth to think deeper and try to solve problems using redesign. Notice, how he does not solve the problem for them but lets them work through the project on their own. >> Now what did you do to make that travel just a few feet and stop? >> Oh, yeah, we set out with this one and I had it going forward. >> And that's going to run for how long? >> Forever. >> Forever. If you tell a robot to do something forever, at some point you have to tell it to stop. You can lose that robot. The US Navy ran into that. They had one of their unmanned vehicles that communicates back and forth. The people on the boat expected that robot to go left and it went right instead. They didn't let it run forever. If it went two minutes without being asked, are you there, it's surfaced. So two minutes later, it surfaced. Come pick me up. You guys messed up. >> So do we need to turn right or left? >> Right. >> All right, so what I changed is the direction that it would be turning and the length, like how far it goes. At this time, it should move backward if it sees an object right in front of it. Didn't go the way I wanted it to. What I had done was... This is the left motor and this is the right motor, and I told only the left motor to move instead of both of them to. >> One of my favorite quotes comes from Albert Einstein, "Keep everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." What is this software doing? >> It goes forward, it senses, goes backward, then goes forward. >> Can you make it any simpler than that? >> No. >> I don't think so. So download that and see how it works. It's avoided second obstacle, and the third. Good job. Think about a practical application. How could going towards something and stopping before you get to it help somebody in the real world? >> Maybe for somebody who can't see like a blind person. >> Can't see. In the 1970s, they built a walking cane that used an audio output. >> Yeah. >> So that's one application. [CLICK 2 SCIENCE pd] [Real World Application of Skills: Developing a STEM Identity]