Trip to Ahwatukee – What I Learned

MJ j -

Hello all, and welcome to my seventh blog post. 

This week, I attended a Robotics Engineering class at BASIS Ahwatukee, taught by Jennifer Murillo. During the session, Mrs. Murillo provided instructions to the students, who were actively building a claw robot using VEX guidelines in groups. While they worked, I had the opportunity to ask Mrs. Murillo several questions about her teaching approach and the class’s logistics. Below are 10 of the questions I asked her, along with her responses.

  1. What are the students expected to have learned by the end of the year?

They should have introductory knowledge on Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Computer Science.

     2. What things do the students seem to enjoy building and learning about?

The students love building robots within teams and then competing against one another to see what robot could perform the given instructions better/more efficiently.

     3. What topics do the students have the hardest time grasping? 

The students have the hardest time grasping the math and physics behind robotics.

     4. Any suggestions for teaching any particular topic?

For teaching Artificial Intelligence, use Code.org

     5. Where did the finances used to buy the kits and materials come from?

The finances came from the cost of the class itself, since it is an elective.

     6. What programming language do you teach the students in the curriculum?

Block-based code, similar to Scratch, is taught. If students desire, they can also learn Python.

     7. When the students do build something, is it individual or group-based? If both, which seems to work better?

Almost always, the work the students do is group-based.

     8. Do you talk about Artificial Intelligence at all in the course?

Yes, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are taught in the course.

     9. What medium do you use to teach the topics at hand?

Most topics are taught through PowerPoint, with images and instructions regularly taken from VEX curriculums and embedded as part of the presentation (with proper citing)

   10. Is there any other advice you have on a class on robotics?

Make sure the students understand the physics and math before delving into the concepts. No need to go super specific on any topics. Use VEX EXP and VEX V5 and Trashbots.

 

Below are a few pictures I was able to take with descriptions on what is being shown:

This first image depicts a shelf in the classroom with different parts that are sorted according to their function and/or the company that made them (VEX parts vs LEGO parts, for example)

This second image shows a separate room connected to the main room that houses the area for competition. Although this space is primarily used for kids that are in the robotics club that they have at BASIS Ahwatukee, the upper school robotics engineering class also uses it from time to time. On the left of the image, you can see a table with a bucket on top of it. That wall is the workshop for many of the hands-on building, specifically the more complicated VEX builds that require screws, etc.

This is a zoomed in picture of the robot you can see in the last picture as well. Even though this robot was made by students in the robotics club (not the class), I still thought it looked cool and decided to put it here as an example of what complex robots could really look like.

This last image shows a cart that is overflowing with LEGO pieces. I was amazed at how many legos were actually on the cart, as I don’t think this picture does it enough justice. Further, the students were actually going to the cart and looking for pieces they needed to build a claw robot the day I was there.

 

This experience allowed me to learn how to best navigate a robotics class as well as give me ideas on how to frame the robotics class I am making. This upcoming week, I am hoping to solidify a rough draft of a curriculum that I could even test myself later on.

 

Until Next Time!



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Comments:

All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.

    meggiles
    MJ! Great job on this--I'm so happy you were able to get out to our sister campus to learn more. I admit I am jealous of the space & resources you discovered. The curriculum should start to come together at this point; I'm eager to see what you and Galluppi are going to discuss. Well done! MG
    April 1, 2025 at 1:33 pm - Reply
    sidd_s
    Hi MJ. This is really interesting. What made you choose those specific questions? Did any of the responses to the questions surprise you or give you new insight?
    April 2, 2025 at 11:16 am - Reply
    nico_l
    Hey MJ, I like the robot photos, they're pretty big, and I wonder what many hours went in to making them. For the math side of things, what is the minimum level of math required to understand stuff; is it algebra or do you need some basic calculus/precalculus?
    April 2, 2025 at 2:17 pm - Reply
    joaquin_s
    Hey MJ! It's wonderful that you were able to experience firsthand how a class like this is taught at a different BASIS campus. My question is: What sort of things did you not like about their class and you will most likely omit from your own? I feel like it's important to not only know what you want to include, but also what you don't want to.
    April 2, 2025 at 4:45 pm - Reply
    mj_j
    Hello Sidd. I decided to ask the questions based on information I thought would be the most useful when I make the robotics course myself. As for any responses that surprised me, I can say I was surprised when Ms. Murillo said that she teaches her students a lot about AI and Machine Learning. Since it is relatively a new field, I wasn't expecting there to be much if any coverage at all, especially at a high school level.
    April 4, 2025 at 8:34 pm - Reply
    mj_j
    Hello Nico, although I don't know exactly how many hours went into making the robots, I know that the students had several months before they had to take the robot to the competition. I'm sure they worked on it for many hours! For your second question, it really depends how deep you want to get in understanding robotics. Since this is an introductory course to robotics, I am planning to include 2D physics and related calculations, as well a few concepts relating to circuitry, namely current and resistance. From the math side of things, only algebra will be necessary.
    April 4, 2025 at 8:40 pm - Reply
    mj_j
    Hello Joaquin! One thing I didn't like about their class was how all the pieces they needed to build the clawbot were in the back of the room, causing there to be too many students trying to get parts at once. What I will most likely change to alleviate this issue is to specify in my curriculum to distribute the parts beforehand so that the students can focus on actually building the given robot and not simply looking for pieces.
    April 4, 2025 at 8:45 pm - Reply
    vinesh_k
    Great experience! Do you think a similar class would be implementable at BASIS Mesa? Do we have the resources, or even the demand? Let me know your thoughts!
    April 7, 2025 at 8:47 pm - Reply

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