January 27, 2022 2:32 PM Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance

Date: 28th September 2021

We will continue working in breakout rooms like we did last week

- Start working on the next project, a 3d chess piece

- Explain students how to make it on CAD and then make it along with them, live

- Finishing sketches

January 27, 2022 11:57 AM Strength & Growth

Second_Project_-_Fidget_Spinner.png
80 KB
January 27, 2022 11:56 AM Commitment & Perseverance Strength & Growth

Date: 21th September 2021

Today was the third week of the CAS Robotics Club and we continued working in breakout
rooms like last week. This week, we had prepared a new project the students could work on,
however, before they started the new one, we wanted to ensure that they finished last weeks
work. While most groups had, my group in particular was not, since the students in my group
had absolutely no prior knowledge of CAD or 3D designing, unlike most of the other students.

I soon realized that I have to be more patient with my students because just like they were
learning CAD, I too was learning how to teach students - we both had our weaknesses. I noticed
that my communication skills weren't the best, at times I went a bit too fast, and students were
not understanding what I was teaching. Eventually once I got a hold of it, I became more
patient, and while our group was slowest, I was content with the progress we made over time.
We ran into 30 mins of the class finishing the previous design, and then we began working on
that week's project, the fidget spinner.
January 27, 2022 11:42 AM Commitment & Perseverance

First_Project_-_Coffee_Mug.png
300 KB
January 27, 2022 11:27 AM Commitment & Perseverance Strength & Growth

Date: 7th September 2021

Today was the third week of the CAS Robotics Club. Now that every student had the software
installed, we were actually able to begin our work. We began by having a common session
where we began by teaching the students the basics of cad and showing them the features of
the software. Some of the things we showed them were:

- How to create a new sketch

- What are the different tabs, buttons and what are their functions

- Using the most basic commands that are required very often

- Drawing basic figures and shapes like squares, circles, and rectangles

- Finishing sketches

After we taught them the basics of the software we decided to start with the first project, a
coffee mug. As mentioned in the last reflection, one of the issues was that because we had so
many students together in one class, students were not able to learn properly and we weren't
even optimizing the other IB students working along with us. To counter this, we started
working in break-out rooms where 4 students would be taught by 2 teachers, this gives the
student much more personalized attention, and as expected, the students responded well to
this change. After the end of the session, we asked the students to upload pictures of their
designs so that we could monitor their progress and see if they were understanding us.

We hope to identify more problems as they come along the way and find methods to rectify
them.
September 21, 2021 7:09 PM Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Initiative &
Planning Strength & Growth

Date: 24th August 2021

Today was the second week of CAS and the first proper session where we began working. We
had planned content beforehand, which we thought would last us for about 3 weeks but as it
turned out things went much slower than expected.

I was nervous since I had to lead the entire project, however, I challenged myself by making a
small presentation on how robotics works at a high school level, I covered topics including,
what are the main things involved in making a Robot, its subsystems including, programming,
construction and electrics, and what kinds of competitions are available to students at our age,
the presentation went well, and then our aim was to quickly begin working on using the
software, Fusion 360, which is where all CAD Drawings are made.

However, this took much much longer than anticipated. We had assumed that by now everyone
would have installed the software, since we had given a tutorial about the same last class, and
briefly began teaching. However, after limited responses from students, we paused the
teaching to find out what the issue was. It turns out that the majority still were unsure about
how to install the software and many were facing issues. To counter this, we repeated the
procedure multiple times and I made sure to check in with students every now and then. Many
students had individuals issues, so we told them to share their screens and sorted out
everyone's issues on a case-by-case basis. I even made it a point to reach out to the students
who were facing issues, to make sure that everyone was on track and that by the time our next
session started, we could get straight down to teaching.

While we were off to a rocky start, this session did teach me something, to check-in if everyone
is following you. Many times during school as well I find myself lost and distracted and miss out,
perhaps the same happened to the students in the session today and I had not actively made
sure to check in, perhaps many of them would have never spoken up and could have been lost
throughout all later sessions. It is important to be kind and approachable when talking to
students, especially younger ones. At times they are apprehensive and being nice to them and
making an active effort is very important.

Perhaps had I used the team better, things could have happened faster. There are around 10 of
us senior students, maybe if we worked in breakout rooms things could have happened a lot
faster. This was my mistake, up until now, in the second session, I have not made any use of the
rest of the members, and will certainly change that in the lessons ahead.
I hope to begin working on the activities we had planned for this week in the later sessions.

September 21, 2021 7:04 PM Collaborative Skills Commitment & Perseverance Initiative &
Planning Strength & Growth

Date: 17th August 2021

Today marked a new beginning towards my journey in Robotics. I have been given the
opportunity to lead the robotics club in school. I am both nervous and looking forward to this. I
believe that I thrive on being given responsibility especially when it is in something that I am
passionate about, which in this case is, Robotics.

The first session today began with everyone introducing themselves and then we needed to
understand what were the student's expectations of us. To do so we circulated a Form asking
the students what they would like to learn over this course and how we could achieve
maximum output. Upon reading the answers we noticed that the majority wanted to learn
Fusion 360, which is a 3D modeling software that lets us make theoretical drawings of robots.

So, to do this we spent the rest of the class trying to help students download this software. A
few students faced challenges, but I believe we were able to help them sort it out. So from the
next class onwards, we can start teaching them this software.

I had several takebacks from this class. One was being interactive. No one likes a boring person
conducting sessions, so as a student leader it was my job to make sure that I made the sessions
interactive and made the students feel comfortable enough to speak freely. Secondly, taking on
responsibility is harder than I thought. It gets even harder through virtual means when you are
looking for a response and it seems as if you are talking to walls, there were several moments
like those in today's session and I hope to reduce that.

In the next session, we hope to be working on the software and teaching the students more
about robotics

Date: 26th October 2021

We will continue working in breakout rooms this week

- Start with the new project which is making a race car

- This is one of the last projects so it is relatively harder

- Finish making the race car on CAD

January 27, 2022 2:44 PM Commitment & Perseverance

Fourth_Project_-_Golf_Ball.png
600 KB
January 27, 2022 2:42 PM

Date: 12th October 2021

We will continue working in breakout rooms this week

- Groups that haven't finished the chess pieces from last week will finish that first

- Start with the new project which is making a golf ball

- Finish the new project and tell students to upload pictures of it

January 27, 2022 2:42 PM Commitment & Perseverance

Group_Session.png
400 KB
January 27, 2022 2:37 PM Commitment & Perseverance Initiative & Planning

Date: 5th October 2021

We will continue work together this class, instead of breakout rooms

- Start with the new project which is making a different type of object

- Finish the new project and tell students to upload pictures of it