The 2018 Tech It Out Challenge will include 600 students from across the Muscogee County region coming to the Columbus Qualifier on a field trip. Teachers are given the three activities below to support the field trip. It challenges the students to generate student ideas on strategy and ideas after watching the game video showing this year's competition. Click the game logo below to see this year's game (3 minute video). Learn about FIRST Robotics from Morgan Freeman (3 minute video). These videos are to be used to introduce FIRST to students.
Most students look up to sports figures and too many think their dreams are tied to being a professional athlete. In this sport, the student-athletes are junior scientists and engineers. In this sense, everyone in this sport can go PRO!
What a great opportunity for a field trip! Students and 2 teachers from schools in Harris County, Muscogee County, Fort Benning and Phenix City are invited to attend the Columbus FIRST Robotics District Competition on Friday March 23rd, 2018 held inside of the Lumpkin Center at CSU. The event ran all day Friday and Saturday so everyone else could come as well.
Prior to attending, each teacher will have shown their classes the 3 minute video explaining the game this year.
Additionally, the students were asked to complete one or more of the Tech It Out activities where they express some ideas about how they would take on the challenge presented in this year's game. The students can compare their ideas for how they imagined the game solutions and the actual robots created by a group of their peers from across the state. And we'll make sure you get photos to back up your ingenuity.
Below is a short description of classroom activities open to students under the direction of their teachers that can completed prior to attending the competition.
After watching the 3 minute video, groups of 2 students can work together to complete a Strategy Plan which is a realistic description of what a robot built by a group of high school students should be able to do in 2 1/2 minutes. A Strategy Plan sheet is included in the file below to provide some workspace.
Many students are visual thinkers and learners and will see the game video and instantly imagine some mechanism that would make the a robot accomplish the goals of the game. Groups of 2 students will describe and sketch mechanical solutions to parts of this year's game. This sketch does not have to be an entire robot with all of its components. A template is included in the file below.
Some students can imagine the big picture where a robot would be in midst of the competition. This competition is looking for artistic renditions of a robot or robots competing in this years game. Submissions would be from individual students on paper no bigger than 11x14 inch.
In 2017, the students were able to see several rounds of the game to see the 38 different robots built by high school students across Georgia. They were able to compare their ideas to what they saw in the actual competition, in the 2017 Tech It Out Challenge. Middle and High School students were also invited to see the teams and pits up close in a pit tour.