SLQ Wiki ypf:story_lab

STORY LAB: APP ANIMATION MASH UP WORKSHOP

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:26:43 +0000

STORY LAB: APP ANIMATION MASH UP WORKSHOP

A workshop for participants aged 8-16

This workshop was created by the Young People and Families team for State Library of Queensland’s Summer Festival: Tech+ Stories + Play program in December 2017.

Description

Remix free-use digital images to create loop-based animations with your fingertips. Using the live animation and VJ* app ‘Tag Tool’ it’s easy to manipulate and re-contextualize historical images and illustrations, combined with your own drawn creations, to create visual mash-ups that can be exported and shared.

Duration

5 hours, including a 45 minute and 15 minute break.

Participants

Maximum 15 people aged 8-16,preferably in groups of 8-11 and 12-16.
Participants work individually on their own creation.

Facilitator experience required

Facilitation of this workshop requires

A working understanding of the Tagtool app.
A working understanding of the iOS operating system on iPad.

Completing this workshop resource in full yourself as preparation for the workshop will act as adequate training for all of the above.

Once you've learnt the basics of Tagtool, experiment to learn more and make adaptations to the workshop plan as required. The software feels tricky at first, and has quite an innovative user interface, but once you’ve understood it’s functionality it feels very intuitive.

Outcomes

Engagement with concepts of remix culture, and how free use digitized materials from cultural collections can be used to create new art and ideas.
Working understanding of Tagtool, and how it can be used to create artwork and animations.
Creation of a short loop based animation using digitized collection materials
A serious amount of fun

Venue requirements

Flat floor workshop room or auditorium, minimum 7m x 12m minimum floor space
5 x Workshops Tables with chairs
Large projection or LED screen.
Audio playback and speakers.

Material Requirements

10 x iPads with ‘New Tagtool’ app, activated with ‘Tagtool Pro’ (in-app purchase, $9, required iOS 9 or higher).
1 x iPad for presenter with ‘New Tagtool’ app setup in ‘Demo Mode’
10 x Name Tags & a sharpie
1 x Apple TV (or a compatible video output cable for your iPad)
1 x Music Stand - to put the presenters iPad on whilst they are demonstrating.
1 x Projector or digital display w/HDMI input.
A surface to project onto.
Assorted print outs of free-use collection materials, like these compiled PDFs (1 and 2) pulled from the these State Library of Queensland Flickr Commons.

Workshop Summary

4 hours total, plus 1 hour of breaks.


15 minutes	Introduction & Safety Briefing
20 Minutes	Project Briefing & Discussion
60 Minutes	Exploring Tagtool
15 minutes	Snack Time!
40 minutes	Creating with Tagtool Part 1
45 minutes	Lunch Time!
60 minutes	Creating with Tagtool Part 2
25 minutes	Sharing & Debrief

Setup

I set this room up with multiple stations for individuals to work, with several participants per table, all with proximity to the front of the room where the screen was positioned.

I made sure the Tagtool app was pre-installed and then tested on all iPads. Please note that the app requires software iOS 9 or higher. To upgrade from the 'Free' version to the 'Pro' version, inside the app on one of the iPads purchase ‘Tagtool Pro’ whilst logged in to your Apple account. This purchase will then be available on any device logged in on the same account. When you then go in to upgrade on your other devices, click 'Restore Purchases'.

Connect the presenter iPad to your Apple TV and use it in ‘Screen Mirroring’ mode. Then, in the Tagtool app, turn on 'Demo Mode' by selecting it in the Menu. If 'Demo Mode' is not turned on then you will see the Tagtool canvas output screen rather on the projector rather than a mirror of the Tagtool workspace.

I also pre-printed all the digitised collection materials from public domain collections, printed in an A4 format, having scaled images to fit the maximum size possible on each A4 page. Here are the files that I used.

app_illustration_mash_up_1.pdf app_illustration_mash_up_1.pdf

DETAILED WORKSHOP BREAKDOWN

Step 1: Introduction & Safety Briefing

(10 minutes)

Introductions

Upon entry to the workshop, I ask participants to sit on the floor in a circle in a clear space away from workstations. I also ask them not to touch any of the equipment on the workstations until the are instructed to do so.

A strong and through introduction is important for:

Setting up a positive working environment
Builds a feeling of trust
Letting go of any nervous energy
Building the foundations of a consistent and clear way of working - that there will be two types of working.

Introductions can include:

Acknowledgement of country
Introduce yourself as the presenter, your background, experience and interest in the workshop topic.
Introducing any other staff that might be in the room.
Unpack the ‘ground rules’ for collaborating together in a positive work environment. (Come up with these yourself - mine are Kindness, Generosity, Respect, Do your best).
Explore ways of working: A: Instructional, where they are expected to listen, and respond when asked to. B: Free-working, where they will be required to self-lead their work in groups, and are able to freely chat and converse.

Play a game!

I like to choose a game that everyone will have the opportunity to succeed at, regardless of their athletic ability. I also try to choose a game that is based on a process of focus and concentration, rather than one based on physical exertion.

Safety Briefing

The safety briefing for this workshop can run as follows:

Safety is the most important aspect of this workshop.
Do not touch any of the equipment without being instructed to.
Be careful with the equipment - iPad screens are delicate.
If something is broken, don’t pick it up. Get a staff member immediately.

Step 2: Project Briefing

(20 minutes)

A clear briefing helps participants understand what they are in the workshop to achieve, an allows them to self-direct their focus as they work through each step of the workshop process. Participants who don’t understand what they are working towards and have no means of figuring out where they are up to in a greater process are more likely to lack focus.

So - I briefly unpack each part of the process. Having the workshop schedule breakdown somewhere in the room will help participants orientate where they are up to in the process an where they are heading next (or when lunch is happening - very important information).

This workshop can be unpacked through the following steps.

Workshop Briefing
Tagtool - Demo & Learning
Tagtool - Experimenting
Sharing

Workshop Briefing

Facilitate a discussion to give context to the content that you will be creating throughout the workshop. Start with exploring the idea that animation is no longer the domain of the professional, and that GIF animations have permeated internet culture. Some talking points could be:

Animation is for everybody, and ranges from super simple, to super complex.
GIFS are a simple form of animation that have been popularised and shared on the internet.
The key things about these forms of animation are that they are not made by professionals; they are often made by hobbyists who are remixing other people’s content.
GIFS are often about taking something old to make something new.

Discuss what content is available on the internet for us to freely use and transform. Talking points could include:

State Library of Queensland is a collector of all things to-do with Queensland. SLQ has millions of items in their collection, including lots of awesome images that are:

Out of copyright - which means we are free to use, edit an adapt them into whatever we want, and
Digitised, so they are in a format that we can edit them using digital tool.

Discuss the idea that creative people all over world are already making amazing new animations from old images found in libraries and show some examples from a competition for this kind of animation called GIF IT UP. Use your iPad connected to the projector or display and browse through GIF IT UP page on GIF HUB and look at some examples of GIF animations created using remixed collections.

Step 3: Exploring Tagtool

(60 minutes)

Gestures.

Tagtool is a multi-touch gesture based interface, so it’s important to have a good grasp of a variety of multi-touch gestures before you even pick up an iPad. Before you hand out iPads to start the hands on session of the workshop, teach the gestures that you’ll need to the participants. This seems like simple stuff, but really comes in useful down the line!

Gestures to cover include:

One finger tap
One finger hold
One finger drag
Two finger tap
Two finger pinch
Two finger drag up/down
Two finger drag left/right
Three finger tap

Tagtool is an app that requires two hands to operate, and often you will be required to do two gestures at once, on each hand. Ask the participants to respond to your instructions. For example.

Left hand = One finger hold. Right hand = Two finger pinch.
Left hand = One finger drag. Right hand = One finger hold.election

Discovering the interface

Learn mode

For this section of the workshop, make sure ‘Learn Mode’ is selected. This will cause Tagtool to show you the functionality of the interface whilst it is in use. Encourage participants to tap around the pane and read the text that appears to learn different functions.

Paint Mode

There are two interfaces to Tagtool, Paint Mode which shows your paint pallete pane and paint functions, and Animate Mode which shows your animation layers pane, and animation functions.

Discuss paint mode as the illustration aspect of the app, an interface for creating visual content to animate. Learn the following functions.

Colour selection
Hue selection
Transparency selection
Brush Size selection

Instruct participants to draw a shape with their chosen color, and to fill it in.

Creating New Layers

Discuss the concept of layers, the idea that you can have different elements of your image in different layers, so they can be edited and animated independently. Demonstrate layers by:

Do a 3 finger tap in the colour selection pane box. The screen should flash to indicate a new layer has been created.
Choose another colour and add two dots to your shape to make eyes.
Do a 3 finger tap in the colour palate pane. The screen should flash to indicate a new layer has been created.
Choose another colour and add a line to create a mouth or smile to the shape. Your end result should look like a face.

Animate Mode:

Ask participants to press the ANIMATE button to toggle to the Animation mode of Tagtool. On the left, they will see the Layers pane, with the three layers they have just created (shape, eyes, mouth). These layers will be visualized as rectangles.

Ask the participants to drag the layers up and down to re-arrange the layers, where they should notice that the top of the pane is the rear of the image, and the bottom of the pane is the front of the image. Ask the m to resort the layers to make sure the head shape is at the rear of the image, with the mouth and eyes on top.

Ask participants to tap the layers, either in the layers pane, or on the image themselves, and notice that the layer selected turns yellow in the canvas pane, whereas the deselected layers are grey.

Animate Layers.

Instruct participants to tap and hold the PANELS button with one finger, then with the other, tap on the arrow buttons to ensure that the panels around the canvas pane are not hidden.

Participants can then follow these instructions to animate their first layer (the shape/head).

Tap the shape/head layer so that it turns yellow in the canvas screen.
With one finger, tap and hold the record button on the bottom panel below the canvas pane.
With the other hand, tap and drag, or pinch the layer in the canvas pane to move it around, and resize it.
You will see a dotted circle appear whilst you are moving the layer. When this dotted circle is red, remove both hands to set a smooth animation loop.
Notice that the animation loop is shown in the bottom panel and can be scrolled through.

Ask participants to repeat these steps with each of the two other layers to separately animate both the eye and mouth. The end result should be an animated face with eyes and mouth that move separately. If they wish, they can add additional layers and animation loops to the image. You can create more than one animation loop on a single layer.

To preview animations, ask the participants to tap the FULLSCREEN button in the top menu row, and hold up their iPads to show each other their progress.

Group Layers

The Group function allows you to group layers together so they behave as a single animated layer. This allows for complex layers animated in sync to be connected, and re-arranged, duplicated, or saved. To use the group function participants can:

Make sure that you’re in Animate Mode.
With the left land, tap and hold the SELECT button.
With the right hand, tap the layers you would like to group, in this case, the head, eyes and mouth. They should all turn yellow once selected. Remove your finger from the select button you were holding.
Press the GROUP button. All the selected layers will now be connected as one grouped layer. Notice that these layer are now stuck together in the Layer Pane.
If you wanted to un-group that layer, you could do so by selecting the grouped layer, then pressing UNGROUP.

Save to Decks

Deck is a functionality that allows you to save components of, or the entire animation for future use. You can save individual, or grouped layers to your Decks. To save to decks, instruct participants to:

Ensure you are in Animate Mode.
Select your grouped ‘face’ layer that we have been working on. You’ll know it’s selected because it will have turned yellow.
Press the + SAVE button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. You will now see an icon of your grouped layer in the Decks pane. Drag and drop your saved layer to you canvas pane to add it to your canvas.
Note: When you drag and drop saved layers to you canvas from a Deck, it will automatically be set at 100% opacity. To make the layer visible, turn your opacity up using the OPACITY bar next to the Canvas Pane.

Import Image

Tagtool not only allows users to paint and animate content created inside the app, but to edit and animate content such as photographs created outside the app. This is where the potential for remixing free-use collections comes into play.

Ask participants to:

Choose one image from the printed materials you’ve supplied them, that has a figure, object or building that could be cut out and animated in the foreground of their animation;
Lay the background image on a flat surface with even light.
Press the CAMERA button on the top pane above the canvas.
Take an in-focus image of the printed image. To focus the camera on the iPad, tap the screen on the surface you are photographing, and hold the iPad as still as possible.
Preview your photograph, and if it is not sharp and in focus, take it again until you get a better result.
When the image imports into your canvas pane, it will automatically be set at 100% opacity. Turn down the opacity using the Opacity Bar to make it visible.

Editing Layers

Once a layer has been created or imported, it can then be edited using Paint Mode. Ask participants to follow these instructions to learn how to edit layers.

Make sure you are in ‘Animate Mode’.
Using your left hand, hold the SELECT button, then with your right hand tap the layer you would like to edit. You’ll know your layer is selected because it will appear Yellow in the canvas pane. Remove your finger from the select button you were holding.
Now tape the EDIT button. You will see that Tagtool takes you straight to Paint Mode, but rather than be creating a new layer, you will now be able to edit the layer that you had selected ready to edit.
You can now paint and erase your image as you wish.

Erasing parts of a layer

Once a layer has been made available for editing in ‘Paint Mode’ by following the above process, it is possible to erase the parts of the image that you do not require in order to animated specific parts of the image. For example, and using an image containing a butterfly, the butterfly can be extracted by erasing the rest of the image. That butterfly can then be animated as a layer. Ask participants to follow these instructions to extract the foreground object/figure from an imported image.

In ‘Animate Mode’ choose the layer that you would like to edit and follow the previous ‘Editing Layers’ process to make that layer editable.
Change your paintbrush size by pinching in the colour palette. The size of your paintbrush will also equal the size of your eraser. A larger brush size is great for erasing large sections of an image, whereas a smaller brush sized is great for erasing small detailed sections of the image.
One you’re editing that layer in ‘Paint Mode’ and have your desired brush size, with your left hand tap and hold the ERASE button.
With your right hand, hold and drag on the image to erase the desired portions of the image.
A handy function to use when erasing smaller detailed sections of image is to use the Zoom function. You can tap and hold the ZOOM button with one hand, then pinch the Canvas Pane with the other to zoom in or out of your canvas, to get more detailed to your image and do finer erasing.
Once you’ve erased the sections of the image you wanted to, you can tape back to ‘Animate Mode’ to animate this new foreground layer.
It’s a good idea to save these extracted layers to your Decks, for easy access later on.

At this point, participants know all the functions they need to, and are now ready to be given the brief for their collection remix task.

Step 4: Snack Break!

(15 minutes)

Snack Break. An extremely important aspect of any workshop.

I always make sure my groups take the snack break in a different space, preferably outside, to keep your workshop space focused, and allowing for any high energy randomness to take place elsewhere.

Before the participants re-enter the room, I often get them to shake off their outside energy, and reconnect with their indoor focused energy. I also remind them not to touch anything when they re-enter and to wait for instructions.,

Step 5: Creating with Tagtool

(40 minutes)

Now it's time to give the participant their creative task.

Choose two images from the printed materials you’ve supplied them that has a figure, object or building that could be cut out and animated in the foreground of their animation – this could be the object they’ve already extracted using the Erase technique, or it could be a new image.
Choose two images that would complement the foreground images to make an interesting background image.
Use the processes you have learnt to edit and animate your chosen images to create a short animation.

Ask them to think about:

How do your images fit together in terms of their look, and their concept?
What simple story will your animation tell?
As you’re animating, keep pressing ‘FULLSCREEN’ to preview your process.

Step 5: Lunch Break!

(45 minutes)

Step 5: Creating with Tagtool (continued)

In this time, support and assist participants for the next as they complete their task.

If participants have completed their task, you can assist them in exporting animation

Exporting Animations

There is no in-built video export function in Tagtool, however it’s possible to use the in-built screen recording function of the iPad to export the animations.

If you’re not already aware of how to screen record from your iPad, follow these instructions to learn how!

If you’re using an older iPad model you may need to look into other processes for exporting the videos, using Quick Time Player and a PC or Mac Computer.

These recordings will export as .MP4 video files. You can convert these .MP4 files to GIF using a website like the http://www.ezgif.com, allowing animations to be shared easily on social media. If you do share them on socials, please tag SLQ or use the hashtag #appanimationmashup so we can check out your amazing creations!

Examples of previous outcomes!

THE END

That is the end of this App Animation Mash Up workshop resource. We hope you find it useful!

For questions in regards to this resource please contact the Young People and Families team at State Library of Queensland on ypf@slq.qld.gov.au or on 07 3842 9876.

STORY LAB: DIGITAL DIROAMAS WORKSHOP

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 11:11:40 +0000

STORY LAB: DIGITAL DIROAMAS WORKSHOP

A workshop for participants aged 8-16.

This workshop was created by the Young People and Families team for State Library of Queensland’s Summer Festival: Art + Stories + Play program in January 2019.

DESCRIPTION

Using the Sketches app for iPad, re-colour and remix photography featured in the Home: a suburban obsession exhibition along with other digital materials from State Library’s collections. Then, using the Tagtool app, arrange and animate a digital diorama.

OUTCOMES

Introductory understanding of Sketches app, and how it can be used as a tool for digital editing.
Introductory understanding of the Tagtool App and how it can be used as an animation tool.
Engagement in collaborative design process.
A serious amount of fun

PARTICIPANTS

Maximum 15 people aged 8-12 or 12-16.
Participants work independently.

DURATION

5 hours, including a 30 minute and 15 minute break.

FACILITATOR EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Facilitation of this workshop requires

A working understanding of Sketches Pro app.
A working understanding of the Tagtool app.
A working understanding of the iOS operating system on iPad.
A working understanding of Google Drive.

Completing this workshop resource in full yourself as preparation for the workshop will act as adequate training for all of the above.

MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS

15 iPads (participants)
iPad (presenter)
Apple TV
HDMI Cable
Music stand
Projector
15 Stylus
5 Scissors
5 Pencils
Digitised collection materials (saved on Google Drive)

VENUE REQUIREMENTS

Flat floor workshop room or auditorium, minimum 7m x 12m minimum floor space
5 x Workshops Tables with chairs
Large projection or LED screen.
Audio playback and speakers.

SETUP

STEP 1:

STORY LAB: INTERACTIVE STORY MAPS WORKSHOP

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:00:53 +0000

STORY LAB: INTERACTIVE STORY MAPS WORKSHOP

Coming April 2019.

STORY LAB: ROBO CREATURES WITH EDISON WORKSHOP

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:01:19 +0000

STORY LAB: ROBO CREATURES WITH EDISON WORKSHOP

Coming April 2019.

STORY LAB: ROBOT RACERS

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 09:16:43 +0000

STORY LAB: ROBOT RACERS

A workshop for participants aged 8-12

This workshop was created by the Young People and Families team for State Library of Queensland’s Summer Festival: Art + Stories + Play program in January 2019.

Description

Using a custom-made robotics kit designed and produced by members of the Hack The Evening meetup at The Edge Fabrication Lab, participants can engineer a robot racer using Arduino controllers, motors, and Lego. Once their racers are complete, they design and fabricate a large scale race track. Then ready, set, race to compete for good times and glory.

Duration

5 hours, including a 45 minute and 15 minute break.

Participants

Maximum 15 people aged 8-12.
Participants work in teams of 2-4, depending on numbers.
Each group collaborates on the creation of a single Robot Racer, using their own robotics an lego kit.

Facilitator experience required

This workshop can be facilitated by anyone! It’s a plug and play workshop with no prior experience necessary. You will need, or have the time to get familiar with the following:

A basic understanding arduino chips are, an and what they do
A basic understating of electronics.
A basic understating of engineering with Lego.

Outcomes

Introductory understanding of Arduino, and how they can be used in robotics applications
Practical understanding of the components of an Edge Bot, how to connect them, and how they can be controlled via the Arduino
Engagement in collaborative design process
Realisation of a design
A serious amount of fun

Venue requirements

Flat floor workshop room or auditorium, minimum 7m x 12m in floor space
5 x Workshops Tables
Projector or LCD Screen

About the BrickBot Kits

These custom robotics kits are currently in a prototype form and are not available to the public. They are designed and fabricated by members of the Hack The Evening meetup at The Edge Fabrication Lab right here at State Library of Queensland. The vision for these open source hardware & software robotics kits is that they be made available as a low-cost resource available to the public, particularly public library staff.

At a beginner level, Edge Bots are a perfect introduction to Arduino electronics and how they can work with physical components to creative physical computing outcomes. At a more advanced level, they can also be used as a resource to develop skills in coding for Arduino, either in the Arduino IDE or using C++.

If you're interested, check out the original entry on this wiki. It features information about the original use of the bots for a battle comp, and lists the code that runs on the Arduinos.

Material Requirements

5 x BrickBot Kits featuring custom arduino hardware including bluetooth unit, plastic enclosure, break out cables
Standard lego base boards
1 x Medium Lego Classic Creative Brick kits
A selection of Lego Technics parts.
2 x DC Motors
2 x 3D printed motor cases with lego base and top surface
Playstation style bluetooth controller
USB micro cable
12v Lithium Polymer balance battery charger

Notes:

Each kit should be labelled 1-5.
Boffins at The Edge though the the following Lego selection where the ultimate combination of parts for Robot Racer building. Each of our kits had these parts included separately in a bag, with other lego mixed up amongst each set.

Other materials

8 tables as workspaces
Name tags
Marker Pens
Cardboard plaque for team names
Slide show - you can access a copy of the Google Slides presentation I created here.
Audio system and playback device (optional)
Various sound effects for Robot Racers Tournament including Mario Cart music (optional)

Track building materials.

Painters tape
Cardboard Boxes
Any recycled materials or toys that can be made into a race track or obstacles.
Children’s stools chairs for ‘pit crews’ to sit on.

Workshop Summary

4 hours total, plus 1 hour of breaks.


45 minutes	Intro, Team Building, Safety Briefing
45 minutes	Robot Racer Construction & Testing
15 minutes	Snack Break
45 minutes	Robot Race Customisation, Testing and Fixes
45 minutes	Lunch
30 minutes	Practice Laps
30 minutes	Racetrack Building
60 minutes	Robot Racers Tournament!

Setup

This workshop would ideally be run in a space where there is room for a simultaneous workshop space for building, and a racetrack space for racing. This means you could avoid changeover of the space in between.

In my case, I did not have that luxury, so these instruction are for the setup of a space that needs to be changed over at lunch. Prior to the setup of the space, take the painters tape and create the outline of your racetrack on the floor. For our space, I created a long skinny oval circuit with two long straights.

Divide the track into 6 sections - Home Straight, Section 1, Section 2, Section 3, Section 4, Section and Section 5. Each section should be a similar size. Label each section by taping out the number in each section. Once your racetrack is marked up, you can setup workstation for for the first.

The space should be setup in five workstations, all facing the presenter at the front of the room.

Each workstation should be numbered 1-5 to match the Robot Kit numbers. have two demarcated spaces in consistent colours.

The Workshop Space - central to the table as a space for construction. The idea here is to minimise the amount of time that a robot gets picked up or passed around. The more that happens the higher the chances of the robot getting dropped or broken. This workspace allows for participants to rotate through the space when taking turns, by keeping the robot construction confined to one space.
The Storage Space. As the name suggests, this space is for storage of any parts that will be required throughout the Robot Racer construction process. The idea of this space is that it’s contents are not to be touched without specific instructions from the presenter.

In each Storage Space, the following equipment should be laid out.

Whilst the goal of the workshop is having fun, learning robotics, and racing for glory, a level of friendly competition can help participants focus their energy throughout the session. Setting up a points board before the workshop will give you a headstart. I used a system where positive behavior could be rewarded through the subtraction of seconds from a teams best TIME TRIAL time during the tournament. Similarly, seconds could be added through

DETAILED WORKSHOP BREAKDOWN

Step 1: Intro, Team Building, Safety Briefing

(00:00 - 00:45)

Introductions

A strong and through introduction is important for:

Setting up a positive working environment
Builds a feeling of trust
Letting go of any nervous energy
Building the foundations of a consistent and clear way of working - that there will be two types of working.

Introductions can include:

Acknowledgement of country
Introduce yourself as the presenter, your background, experience and interest in the workshop topic.
Introducing any other staff that might be in the room.
Unpack the ‘ground rules’ for collaborating together in a positive work environment. (Come up with these yourself - mine are Kindness, Generosity, Respect, Do your best).
Explore ways of working: A: Instructional, where they are expected to listen, and respond when asked to. B: Free-working, where they will be required to self-lead their work in groups, and are able to freely chat and converse.

Team Building

Many STEAM workshops I have seen jump straight into the workshop content without making time to set up these important foundations. By focusing and uniting the group - the participants will work together better and achieve more.

Play a game!

Team Building helps form the working groups that we will be forming into for the remainder of the day. It is important to get groups set up as best possible early in the session to avoid any conflict or difficulty later on. I often begin with a group game to allow an opportunity for the group to get to know each other and have fun in a low-pressure way, but this is also an opportunity for me to gauge the dynamics of the room and allow me to make a more informed choice when it comes to group selection.

Team Selection

In the process of selecting groups for this activity, I take into account the following:

Ascertain how many participants are here with a friend or family member, and if they would like to work together. Ascertain how many participants are not here with a friend or family member, an if any of these participants have made a connection with someone else during team building, or have a similar energy. If there are female participants, allow them to identify if they would like to work with other female participants, or with anyone else in the group. Once this is done, create groups based on the preferences and personality dynamics of the group. If there are younger participants, paring them with older participants can help with skills sharing and focus throughout the day.

Team Naming

In this process, I ask participants to come up with a Team Name, Team Motto and Team Movement that represents them and their team values/personality. Give groups 2 minutes to come up with each , then share with the group. Write their team names up on the Points Board as they do so.

I also ask each group to write their team name on their cardboard plaque.

We are now ready to allocate each team to their workstations. Before participants travel, don’t forget to remind them not to touch anything

Role Allocation

In the first part of the workshop, participants are enrolled as mechanics to build their Robot Racer. To encourage sharing an establish a fair and equitable process for all participants, giving each mechanic a letter (A, B, C) an asking groups to rotate through their construction jobs using that letter system can help avoid conflict or tension that sometimes arises from turn taking.

For example, the first construction task is performed by mechanic A. The second is performed by mechanic B, an so on. ONce everyone in the group has had a turn, the process starts again at A. By referring to this sharing system

Safety Briefing

The safety briefing for this workshop can run as follows:

Safety is the most important aspect of this workshop.
Do not touch any of the equipment without being instructed to.
Be careful with the equipment - some of it is delicate.
IMPORTANT: Be careful when handling the battery.
Do not put anything in your mouth.
If something is broken, don’t pick it up or try to fix it. Get a staff member immediately.

Project Briefing

This workshop can be unpacked through the following steps.

What is an Arduino?
Build Robot Racers
Test Robot Racers
Customise Robot Racers
Driving Practice
Build Racetrack
Race for point & glory.

Step 2: Robot Racer Construction & Testing

(00:45 - 1:30)

About Arduino

This robotics kit was designed by members of the Hack the Evening meetup group at The Edge using an open-source hardware and software platform called ‘Arduino’.

Pictured: Arduino Micro

Arduino boards are able to read inputs - in our case - data from the buttons/joysticks on a playstation style gaming controller - and turn it into a corresponding output - in our case activating two motors. You can tell an Arduino board what to do by sending a set of instructions (code) to the microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino programming language and the Arduino Software (IDE).

Arduino are an important technology in what is called Physical Computing, Physical computing means building interactive physical systems by the use of software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world.

So the people who designed and built this robot kit had an idea to connect this tiny computer to motors and a playstation controller. But Arduino can be used to connect to anything electrical! Check out some other cool Arduino project that have been created.

Arduino are also open source technology - which means they are cheap - and built on a culture of sharing. Millions of people have created things using Arduino and shared them for free online. This really is technology for good, with everyday people creating things to make life better.

Pictured: (L-R) Robotics prototype 1, 2, an the current version we used in this workshop,3. The next step is to get the hardware created as a PCB (printed circuit board), making this open source hardware available to be ordered and taking this project to the next level!

Robot Racer Construction & Testing

Now we are in our teams, and know about the technology we are working with, we are ready to start building our robots. This step has four parts

Chassis construction
Electrical plug-in
Testing

Chassis construction

Whilst there is no ‘correct’ way to build a Robot Racer chassis from lego, in this workshop I added a instructional process to the beginning of the construction process to give all groups an opportunity to have a strong an equal foundation. If everyone has a really solid chassis, it means there is less potential for catastrophic failure later on during the races. The lego construction does allow for a trial and error engineering process which is ideal for learning, but in a short period of time where you want to ensure a positive outcome for participants, sometimes providing the building blocks for success can help early on. Also, participants will be extremely familiar with Lego style instructions, and using these familiar skills early on will help them focus into the process.

This is the initial chassis that I asked each group to build. You can make changes if you’ve got better engineering ideas!

1. Mechanic A: Use a 16 x 16 base plate and attach it to a 16 x 8 base plate to create the ‘nose’ of your racer.

2. Next Mechanic: Extend the nose of your racer using another 16 x 8 base plate.

2. Next Mechanic: Attach another 16×8 base plate to the underside of the chassis in the same position as the original which creates a brace.

4. Next Mechanic: Now take your Arduino unit (handily housed in a 3D printed case with Lego plates on the bottom for attachability) and place it in the read centre of your chassis, wires facing forward.

5. Next Mechanic: Take your DC motors and attach them to the rear left and right of your chassis, with the white axle rods facing outwards.

6. Next Mechanic: Use a 16 x 8 piece to top brace the two motors together.

7. Next Mechanic: Take your 11v battery, an place it in the centre of your chassis. We are trying to keep the weight of the racer distributed as close to the wheels as possible so the front is not unnecessarily weighed down.

By now, participants should be used to the convention of taking turns, so encourage them to now keep that process going autonomously.

We are also about to move from the fixed instructional process to a more collaborative free-thinking process where groups will be making design and engineering decisions for themselves.

The following tasks are the first steps to take as a group in completing their chassis.

Reinforce your wheels and Arduino unit by building up around them using 2×8 brick and increase the amount of surface area your top brace. A rule of thumb here is that the more bricks connect your bottom base plate to the top brace, the stronger your robot will be. This is particularly important around the wheels where most of the power and movement is generated.
Build a case around your battery to ensure that it doesn't’ fall out.
Make sure all your wires are still accessible.
Keep sharing and taking turns.

IMPORTANT:

At this point some more design orientated participants may want to start planning the customisation of their racer in terms of decorative and aesthetic additions. Whilst this thinking is definitely encouraged, it’s important to be clear about the order that things need to take place in. Decorative elements can get in the way of the engineering process, and the next step, which is attaching electronics. It’s not helpful to have more than one part of the Robot Racer being worked on at once. Groups are encouraged to identify what jobs need to be done, set an order that they need to be done in and allocated a mechanic to complete the job. Whilst some groups are working on a job, others can be finding pieces for the next one. Each group is given a limited an equal(ish) palette of Lego. In my workshops, I had a box of bulk Lego pieces which could be requested by participants. The basis for this is that groups needed to identify what parts they required and for what they would use it for, at which point we could search for the piece in the bulk Lego box. Groups who were spotted sneaking Lego from the box were penalised in points.

Electrical Plug & Play

The next step of the process is to connect and test the electronics in the Robot Racers.

Use one of the Robot Racer chassis to demonstrate as a group. I took everyone away from their workstations to the shared central space and demonstrated on the floor, so everyone was focused and not tempted to touch their Robot Racer whilst I gave my example.

It is CRUCIAL that plugin only ever happens on the floor. If this is done on a table, the risk is that the robot drives off the surface and crashes onto the ground into a million pieces.

Steps for plugging in your Robot Racer

1. Plug the motor cable with the YELLOW pins into the wire with the GREEN plug. To start with, it doesn’t matter which one goes into which. What we are doing here is connecting an OUTPUT pin on the Arduino to the motor, to send it power.

2. Plug the other motor cable with the YELLOW pins into the wire with the BLUE plug. Now both your motors are connected.

3. Now take both of the RED wires, one has a plug an the other has a socket, and connect the two. If you’ve completed this step the two LED lights on the Arduino should flash YELLOW and RED while it is in setup mode. Once setup is completed one of the LEDs will remain BLUE.

4. Now it’s time to test that the instructions from the Arduino is being sent to the right place. You’ll know that the pins have been plugged in correctly if the Robot Racer drives in the correct directions when controlled using the Playstation style controller.

5. Pick up the controller and press P3. While the controller is pairing over Bluetooth the four lights on the rear will be flashing. You’ll know that the controller has paired when the flashing has stopped, and the number 1 light is now on.

6. Now to test your Racer using the joystick test. Your Racer has been coded to be controlled using the RIGHT joystick.

ON your joystick:

Tap forward. Note what direction your Robot Racer drives.
Tap backward. Note what direction your Robot Racer drives.
Tap left. Note what direction your Robot Racer drives.
Tap right. Note what direction your Robot Racer drives.

Did your Racer move in the right directions?

If yes - you’re lucky! Your pins are all connected correctly and you are ready for the next step.
If no - not to worry - follow the following step.

7. Troubleshooting your connections. If your Racer did not drive in the correct directions on your Joystick Test, it means that the pins on some of the cables are connected to the wrong plugs, and information is being sent to the wrong place. This is a great trial and error learning process to work through as it requires you to test your setup, observe how it’s working, and make adjustments based on what you’ve observed.

Unplug the pins plugged into the GREEN socket. Flip the pins 180 degrees and replug. Complete the Joystick Test again. Did your Racer respond correctly this time either in a forward/back or a left/right motion? If one of your directions has corrected itself, leave the pins as is. If they have not correct themselves, change them back.
Unplug the pins plugged into the BLUEsocket. Again, flip the pins 180 degrees and replug. Complete the Joystick Test again. Did your Racer respond correctly this time either in a forward/back or a left/right motion? If one of your directions has corrected itself, leave the pins as is. If they have not correct themselves, change them back.
If neither of these solutions work, SWAP the pins from the BLUE plug to the GREEN plug and vice versa. Did your Racer respond correctly this time either in a forward/back or a left/right motion? If one of your directions has corrected itself, leave the pins as is. If they have not correct themselves, change them back.
You’re looking for the perfect combination of pins to plugs - you’ll know you’ve found the right combination once your Joystick Test works correctly.

All of this process, from Steps 1-7 are ideally demonstrated to participants first, allowing the opportunity for everyone to see the process happen in front of them from beginning to end before they start it for themselves.

Now that that has happened, ask groups to head back to their workstations, put their Racer on the floor, to begin completing this process for themselves. This again, should be a shared process with everyone having a go.

Some groups will finish before others. Once groups have finished, instruct them to take turns having ‘Driving Practice’ within a defined space of the room. If Robot Racers start to be driven across the room freely, one of them is likely to get stood on an destroyed, leading to all kinds of trouble.

IMPORTANT:

Robot Racers should never be driven anywhere but the floor.
No-one should ever be using the controller whilst someone is holding or working on a robot. Unexpected thrusts of the motors can be a recipe for destruction.

Before the break, get groups to take their Robots and Controllers give a tidy up of their space; Racer in the workshop space, other bits including the controller in the storage space, and all excess Lego way in their lego tub. The first 3 groups to complete this task were rewarded, the last group was penalised.

Step 3: Snack Break

(01:30 - 01:45)

Snack Break. An extremely important aspect of any workshop.

I always make sure my groups take the snack break in a different space, preferably outside, to keep your workshop space focused, and allowing for any high energy randomness to take place elsewhere.

Step 4: Robot Racer Customisation, Testing & Fixes

(1:45 - 2:30)

Once back in the room and behind their workstations, give your participants their next task - to customise their Robot Racer to give it unique looks, features and stories. This is the time for their imagination to kick in and shine. Because they are already likely to be highly skilled in Lego construction, the designs they come up with will likely be quite sophisticated.

The beauty of building with Lego is that if something doesn’t quite work out, you just pull it apart an try again.

As this customisation happens, the engineering of the Robot can also evolve to better suit the vision for the Robot Racer. This process is encouraged. As participants get more familiar with their task they will be able to make improvements based on what they have learnt so far.

During this process, flaws in construction and engineering can also become known. It’s important to let participants know that YES, there will be unfortunate accidents leading to unwanted robot destruction, but to not be upset by this! The process of learning is a process of trial and error and building on mistakes. A broken Robot is just an opportunity to rebuild a stronger robot.

Here are a few examples of some outstanding robots created in past workshops.

In the last 15 minutes of this process, I encourage groups to put their Racers to test to make sure that their customisations are secure and sturdy. Again, it’s important make sure that each group is working within the confines of their floorspace immediately around their workstation to avoid accidents.

Step 5: Lunch

(2:30 - 3:00)

If like me, you don’t have the luxury set up your racetrack area in a separate space, you will be required to do a changeover of the space during the participants lunch break.

I moved the workstation tables to the edges of the room t to become a ‘pit lane’ of the racecourse, where maintenance work can be done on Racers.

On the floor, you should have already pre-marked up a racetrack circuit using painters tape. Setup the stools on the edges of the room to create a ‘seating area’ for groups of race spectators. Prep your ‘junkyard’ bits and pieces into five boxes ready to give one to each group as racetrack building material. I organised my materials in themes so that each section of the racetrack had a different feel - for example - one section was made entirely of cardboard, another of timber, another was all plastic animal toys.

Step 6: Practice Laps

(3:00 - 3:30)

Practice Laps

Using the Playstation like controller as the means to race your robot is harder than it looks! A short amount of time to have a practice run on a blank race-course is a massive help to participants, particularly people that might be less experience driving cars in real or video-game environments.

Key things to communicate to participants about driving your Robot Racer are:

The driver should be standing in the ‘inner oval’ of the racetrack. They can be accompanied by one ‘Pit Crew’ member to help out if the worst happens and there is a crash where debris needs to be cleared from the track, or worse if a Race needs to be serviced mid-race.
EVERYONE else should be sitting in their seating area.
The driver should turn their body so that they are facing the same direction as their robots trajectory. If your Robot Racer turns left, you turn left with it. This is to help your brain intuitively know which way to go next!

Practice Laps structure:

Practice takes place on a blank racetrack.
Each team has one team take part in a practice per race.
Each driver starts their racer from their corresponding section of the track.
All drivers start simultaneously. When they complete a full lap and arrive back at their origin they are finished and can pass their controller onto the next player.

Step 7: Racetrack Construction

(3:30 - 3:50)

Building a racetrack is an excellent way to add further agency and participation into this workshop. I found that it added another dimension of ownership over the Robot Racers tournament, and provided an additional set of tasks throughout the tournament which helped keep participants busy and focused.

During the lunch break, I went ahead and built my own ‘home straight’ section with a starting/finish line and a long open straight to get started. This allows participants an easy start to their race, and gives a little example of the type of construction possible.

My brief for the workshop building process was as follows:

You will be given a box of junk that you can use to build your racetrack.
This is an entry level racetrack. In racing games, the first track you compete on is always the easiest. That’s the kind of track we are building.
Each team has a section of track. You may only build inside your section.
You may place no more than three obstacles in your race track. Everything else can be perimeters or decoration.
You must be able to fit the width of a Robot Racer through every section of the course.
Race Officials will do a final check of each section of the course. The officials have the right to amend the course if it is found to have breached track rules. The decision of the racetrack officials is final.
You have 10 minutes to build your course.

Example of a junkyard track created by participants at State Library:

Step 8: Robot Racers Tournament

(3:50 - 5:00)

Now, the moment we have all be waiting for as finally arrived. It is time to complete for fame and glory in….

THE ROBOT RACERS TOURNAMENT

Crowd goes wild. Etcetera.

For this part of the workshop, like to take on the the role of Racetrack Official and Master of Ceremonies, facilitating the process in a way which is slightly different to what they have experienced in the workshop so far. This is the fun bit of the workshop that everyone has been working hard towards, so it’s good to be playful in your approach. I also use music and sound effects to help punctuate the structure of the workshop and set routines, in a way that feels light and fun. I chose to use the soundtrack from Nintendo’s Super Mario Wii as the background and racing music.

That said - participants having too much fun can also be a problem! Excitement and good times can quickly descend into chaos, so it’s important to be clear about your racing rules and protocols.

The main races in the tournament structure are Time Trials. These are one on one races where the goal is to get through the course as much as possible.

Ground rules for Time Trials include

Every participant will have the opportunity to race in a Time Trial.
At the beginning of each race, I will announce the competing groups. At that point, nominate one group member as the driver, and one as the Pit Crew.
Pit Crew are responsible for taking the Robot Racers from the Pit Area to the starting line.
Drivers are responsible for testing that their Racer is working (joystick test) and competing in the race.
ALL other group members are to sit in their grandstand seating area as spectators. Participants who are not in their seating area will be penalised.
At the beginning of the race your team names will be announced. Competing teams and their supporters need to do their team gesture for bonus points.
When the race is about to begin will hear the 3,2,1 GO. On GO, the race is underway.
Pit Crew should stand back until they are instructed to step in by race officials. Pit Crew can only step in for two purposes; to pick up debris that has fallen off their Racer, or to perform maintenance on their Racer if the Racer is broken to the point it cannot move.
In some instances, the Race Officials can step in to physically help stuck or broken robots, at their own discretion.
In the event that a Robot Racer is destroyed and cannot complete the track, they will be awarded the finishing time of their competitor minus 15 seconds.
A timekeeps (staff if possible) records the time of each racer, and records it on the whiteboard.
At the end of each race, the Pit Crew takes their Racer back to their pit area, an can quickly do any repairs required before the next race. Both the pit crew and the driver should be sitting back down as spectators before the next race begins.

Officiating the Tournament

The winner of the time trial is decided by taking the fastest lap from each group, and subtracting or adding that groups positive or negative seconds that they have been accumulating throughout the workshop as either penalties or prizes. This process can take some time. Whilst one staff member does the maths, I often use this moment in time to do some reflection with the group, sharing together their favourite parts of the workshop, and suggesting ideas to make things better.

This process is ALOT of fun. There is yelling, screaming, chanting, Cries of joy, and sometimes sadness. This is an important time for the facilitator to try and manage everyone's expectations in a high energy environment. Encouraging good sportspersonship will be essential - particularly when announcing the winners of the the Time Trials. A reminder that the real reward is having fun, making amazing things, and learning some new skills is the real prize does not go astray.

At the very end of the Time Trial, if there was time I would get participants to pack up the racetrack an nominate one driver per group to compete in one of the following.

Snacks - A game in which a driver from each team has to collect balls from the centre of the track, an move them back into their own racetrack section.
Royal Rumble - Where the goal is to destroy your opponents Racer an be the last to survive.

At the end of the workshops, I instruct participants to leave their Racers in their pit area. If they, or their parents have phones with them, I welcome them to take a photo of their creation.

THE END

That is the end of this Robot Racers workshop resource. We hope you find it useful!

For questions in regards to this resource please contact the Young People and Families team at State Library of Queensland on ypf@slq.qld.gov.au or on 07 3842 9876.