Week 5: October 3

This was the only meeting this week, and the 2-1/2 hours were divided between the project and robotics.

Since the kids have had trouble focusing on the robotics after the project, we decided to start with robotics today and see if that helped their focus. It didn't seem to; they just don't seem to have much "fire in the belly". There are also some personality conflicts emerging, and it's difficult to pair the kids off to work efficiently. Clearly a new approach is in order, something for me to think about.

Even though the time on robotics was short, they still managed to forge ahead to get a third mission nearly solved (the Pizza Molecules), start looking at another mission (the Dirt Trap), try out a couple of strategies to travel the length of the mat, and start working on an alignment jig (although they are not all convinced that is a good idea.)

After a break they switched gears and Monique worked with them on the research project. They each had new information to share, and together they worked to identify the many areas where they need to do more research. They want their proposal to be at least somewhat plausible, but they are still struggling with the complexity of the topic. My main concern is for them to keep their project focused, and draw a clear connection between the issue, their invention, and the underlying science.