All resources in STEM

Robots & Robotics - An Introduction to Robotic Technology

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People have a lot of different ideas about what the future will be like. Will there be flying cars? Will people live on the Moon? One thing that most people agree on is that robots will probably be very important. So let's have a look at robots - how they work, how they're made and how they're going to change the world. Robot technology is already changing our World. This program provides an easy-to-understand introduction to the history and applications of robots, along with the basic principles of robot Control Theory and engineering. Robots are some of the most complicated machines to have ever been made, but the basic principles of how they work can be quite easy to understand. Robot designs can be broken down into two different general types: Open Loop and Closed Loop. Open-loop robots repeat the same sequence of pre-programmed actions, no matter what. This type is commonly used by industrial robots, or other robots that only do one job in a very structured environment. They can be very easy to make, since they only do one thing. Closed-loop systems are much more complicated. Instead of just going through a list of pre-programmed actions, the robot looks at the world around it and changes its behavior depending on what it sees. Subjects covered include: A brief history of Robots, how Robots work, types of Robots, the Future of Robots.

STEM Foundations

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This course is design to support the development of foundational skills in workplace communication and mathematics that are used in various STEM careers. The course offers practice using workplace communication and math skills that are encountered in the workforce. The activities are designed to strengthen skills in preparation for entering a college program in a STEM career.

Material Type: Full Course

STEM Inquiry Lesson Template

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This template supports STEM teachers and librarians in working collaboratively to create lessons that build science practice and STEM inquiry skills in alignment with state and national science standards, and that address the Common Core literacy shifts around close reading and building textual evidence.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Mindy Boland

Continuous Line Robots and Art

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Students use the robot paths they documented during the associated Robots on Ice Engineering Challenge activity to learn about and then make artwork. During the previous activity, students recorded the path of their robots through a maze in order to collect data during a remote research simulation. Now, they take a new look at the robot paths, seeing them from an art perspective as continuous line drawings. Students learn about Picasso’s famous works of art that used the same technique. Then they learn the artistic definition of a line and see examples of how it is used in different art pieces; they practice making continuous line drawings and then create sculptures of their drawings using colorful wire. A PowerPoint® presentation is provided to guide the activity.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Anthony Spears, Ayanna Howard, Carrie Beth Rykowski

Toilet Roll

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The purpose of this task is to engage students in geometric modeling, and in particular to deduce algebraic relationships between variables stemming from geometric constraints. The modelling process is a challenging one, and will likely elicit a variety of attempts from the students.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Illustrative Mathematics

Shrinking

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This word problem is based estimating the height of a person over time. Note that there is a significant amount of rounding in the final answer. This is because people almost never report their heights more precisely than the closest half-inch. If we assume that the heights reported in the task stem are rounded to the nearest half-inch, then we should report the heights given in the solution at the same level of precision.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Illustrative Mathematics