Classroom Setup & Materials

Day 0 · prework

Hand out the Day 0 Prework (user interview) before Day 1 so students arrive with a person and a motion. Set up class login codes and confirm every student has a device.

Per student — the folder

• A physical folder (paper portfolio) — the app twin is My Work. Holds: motion sketch (Day 1), Day 0 interview notes, and paper Brief / FK Card / IK Solve Card / iteration log.
• Pencil + paper, a ruler and protractor (sketching motions, labeled unit circle).
• A scientific calculator with radians mode (Day 3 onward; arm reach 18+22 cm).
• A device to run the app (the Today flow, live arm diagram, angle entry, aimer).

Per table / crew

• A laminated Boost Card set (BC0–BC9), plus the three Extension Cards (EC1–EC3) for students who are ahead. Thirteen cards in the printed file. Print half-page, one set per table.

Arm stations — one per crew of four, plus a front arm · needed Day 4, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 14, Day 16, Day 17, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21, Day 26

• One physical 2-joint arm + end-effector per crew. Crews of four each get their own; that is the point of a crew, and it is why nothing queues.
• One more arm at the front, set up and homed before class: your demonstration machine, and the spare a crew moves to when their own arm will not home or connect.
• A device for the arm. Each arm broadcasts its own wi-fi network, and a device joined to it is off the internet until it switches back. If you have spare devices, give each crew one that stays on the arm. If not, only the OPERATOR switches networks on arm days — the rest of the crew keeps working on robotrig.org the whole time.
• A laminated Units at the Arm card at every station (RoboTrig_UnitsCard.html, one per crew). The panel starts on IN every arm day and does not remember CM. First job at the station, every time: set it to CM and check the links read 18 and 22. Left on inches, a target lands about 20 cm out and looks like a calibration fault.
• A tape measure or ruler at every station — measure tip travel and landing error in cm. Inch rulers are fine; the Units card carries the quarter-inch conversion.
• Markers for the end-effector if you demo tracing a path (a checkmark, not handwriting).
• A backup photo/video of a good run for the final demo (hardware-hiccup insurance).

Front of room

• A whiteboard (vague-vs-specific, triangle sketches).
• A projector for the slide decks and the app.
• Printed Teacher Daily Cards (Weeks 1–4), Brief exemplars, and skills-check papers.