Dot Day: Prototyping and Testing our Art Robots

This week students continued their art robot project inspired by International Dot Day. Students finished their collaboration expectations and norms and their sketch of their art robot. Then they started making their robots!

Students had all the materials they needed for their robots and followed their designs to but their robots together. Adults were on hand to help with taping and attaching the wires when needed. The adults in the room also redirected students to their collaborator norms if there were any conflicts in the groups. When one group was struggling with who was adding the materials to the robot we revisited their plan to make sure that everyone was working together. The group's plan was to take turns adding materials to build the robot. The group redirected themselves and followed their original plan to take turns and their group work continued with everyone feeling like they were apart of the group building.

Many groups had a tested their robot and it was off balance, didn't move or fell over. The groups needed to step back and figure out what they needed to change in their design to get their art robot up and running. Students saw their initial art robot failure as an opportunity to rethink what their design and rework their art robot to get it working.

Some of the groups have some more adjusting and rethinking to do during the next building session to finish their art robot and art creations. Then we will have a final reflection piece to have students think on the process, the collaboration and what they learned from this experience.