The introductory lesson for this learning community is essentially a meeting since this project of building a competitive robot is so large. The interest meeting that was held was a success in the sense that it gave students and parents a true insight as to what time commitment would be expected as well as what the goals and outs were. I do not have any suggestion as to how we could fundamentally improve our meeting or in this case our lesson. The best lessons are real life experiences and that is exactly what this learning community is focused on. The effectiveness of the meeting is evident by the types of questions asked by parents and students.

As I stated earlier there is nothing that fundamentally needs to change. This learning community is real life and so does not follow the same formal constraints that a traditional lesson plan follows. In this process learning is natural and much more evident than any in school program even though students rely heavily on what they have learned in the classroom.

One insight I gained is that students can be much more assertive and adult like when they are motivated and proud of what they do. In the beginning I felt I may have a problem making students take owner ship of this massive project. This was a challenge since students need to understand so much but there is a point where the students understand their roll and the process of building a First Robotics competitive robot.

Files

• First Robotics Learning Community Worksheet
• First Robotics Site