Mission: Martian Colony
Focus and Purpose
We propose a pilot course between Indiana University Bloomington and Columbus Indiana High School North, team taught by
instructors at both institutions. Students taking part in this innovative course will explore topics in mathematics, physics, and computer science
through the use of LEGO robotics in a hands-on, active manner. It presents an opportunity for university and high school students to collaborate
at a distance with each-other using new technologies for motivating learning and creativity in the classroom. We anticipate engaging 30 students
at each site in this exciting project that we have titled Mission to Mars.
Program Design
Background
Collaborative efforts between the Department of Computer Science and the School of Education have already accomplished a
great deal using the LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System. In CSCI A110: Introduction to Computing, we continue to use these kits as
motivational tools for students interested in exploring another side of computers and technology. This technology track within A110 has evolved
through a summer course offered to graduate students in the School of Education into CSCI A290: Introduction to LEGO Robotics, a 2-credit hour
explorations course in computer science. The curriculum has been developed over the past 2 years, enrolling over 115 students with great success.
With successful methods already developed for face-to-face instruction, it is our intent to bring this problem-based approach to learning to students
through known distance learning technologies.
This new course will continue to expand on the A290 curriculum, making extensive use of existing
materials throughout the semester at both Columbus High School North and Indiana University. What follows is a brief overview of the role distance
learning technologies will play in the implementation of the Mission to Mars scenario:
Event 1: Introduction
Our first use of the Vision Athena Network will be to bring the students together in the distance
learning environment to become aquatinted with each-other and the technologies involved. After brief introductions, we will use the remaining time
for pie-in-the-sky brainstorming on the part of the students, to get a feel for what the two groups are just beginning to imagine as possible outcomes.
Asynchronous communication mechanisms will be used to continue any discussions started here.
Event 2: Mission Planning
Program two will bring in experts from the Sojourner/Pathfinder mission team. Our students
will have the opportunity to brainstorm and discuss with experts in the field their ideas for how their own remotely operated explorer will be designed
and built over the remainder of the semester.
Event 3: Test Flight
Students will have access to low bandwidth and asynchronous communication mechanisms
in-between Vision Athena connections; this being the case, Test flight will present groups at both ends of the connection the opportunity to collaborate
on testing their designs in preparation for the upcoming Launch. Like a real mission, this will require the participation of all the students working in their
roles as designers, builders, planners, and mission control experts.
Event 4: Launch!
At this time, students will launch their creations, testing their programs and robots on the Martian
landscapes that each group will construct at their own, local site. Real Video and Quicktime movies of this exciting event will be available for sharing
through the project web site shortly after the mission.
In keeping with our NASA theme, and important outcome for students to have accomplished
at this point will bethe creation of Problem-Solving Templates. These templates will, to the best of their ability, describe forseeable poblems with the
mission, and step-by-step approaches to solving potential problems that might be encountered. Given the limited amount of battery power
(or, if you prefer, Vision Athenia time), it will fall to the students to solve problems during the mission as efficiently as possible.
Event 5: Mission Debrief
Lastly, once the students have successfully completed their Martian Colony (we hope!), we
will get back together with NASA engineers to breakdown and debrief the process.
Project Reach and Benefit
Reach
The individuals most immediately affected by this kind of work are those 50 to 60 primarily high school
students from Columbus North and a group of college undergraduates from IU Bloomington involved in the project. By making our fourth stage of the
project a public event, other students will be able to see and share in the outcomes of the projects efforts. Additionally, we hope this prototype
continues beyond this semester and other high schools become involved, possibly even establish their own relationships and projects based on the
model we are developing.
Benefits and Effects
The first and most obvious benefit of this work is the blurring of the arbitrary delineation that is
typically made between high-school and college-level students. High school students have the opportunity to do college-level work side-by-side with
college students, seeing that science and mathematics can be fun, and that they are ready in many ways to tackle the kinds of challenges that college
presents.
Secondly, this pilot course serves as a first-generation template for problem-based learning and collaboration between university and
high school instructors. More than just distance learning, this distributed model of collaboration we are developing involves a sharing of knowledge,
curricula, and general people resources in our attempt to create an interactive, engaging distance learning environment for students on both sides of the
equation.
Community Partners
The instructor for the A 290 course is Matt Jadud IU Computer Science Master student pursuing his PHD in IST. He will be the collaborative partner with Mike Spock Math teacher at Columbus North HS. We will also involve engineers from NASA who were involved with The Pathfinder Mission or other robotics projects to participate in the initial and final connections to act as consultants. We are in the process of determining who would be the best person(s) for this. We are looking at Johnson Space Center and Purdue universities through our networking contacts.
Project Evaluation
This project will be evaluated in a variety of ways. First this project is being developed to look at its viability for the DL format. If it is successful then it will result in a more comprehensive A 290 LEGO Robotics course for dual credit as early as second semester. The evaluation will come from the students, teachers and support people. The Columbus method of evaluation may be done in the Baldridge format which is an initiative currently under use in the Bartholomew County School corporation. Matt will develop his own evaluation structures fir the research component of this project. The methodology, content and student involvement and results will all be measuring criteria. Having research expertise both by Matt and the Center on Reasreach on Learning and Technology should have a positive effect on the quality of the evaluation and documentation.
Project Dissemination
Matt is intending to publish the results in an educational journal. We are also exploring TV exposure on IU basketball halftime through the Radio and TV dept. There will be a web site that will be accessible to the public that will contain the collaborative discussions, course content and resources used in the instruction that will be ongoing. We are considering a presentation at the ICE conference although that will be in part up to the graces fof the CEC in a coordinated effort. If not we may present at a future LEGO conference that Matt often attends and presents.
Timeline for Mars Colony Project
Classes begin at North -Mid August
First week at North - team building activities
Event 1 - Intro - Around Sept 1st
During first nine weeks,
Event 2 - Mission Planning - (start of second nine weeks)Early to Mid October
Event 3 - Test Flight - Early November
Event 4 - Launch -1 or 2 weeks after Test Flight, before Thanksgiving
Event 5 - Debrief - need to fit in with IU schedule, finals, breaks... Early December
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Created: Aug. 9.2000 Last updated: Aug. 10,2000. Comment to Dave Bartlett.