CHRISTOPHER SCHMITZ
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Portfolio

Collection of lessons, activities and PDs

SpheroEDU Activities

Below are a few of the activities I have designed for the SpheroEDU community. They are accessible to all users of Sphero.

​Sphero MakeyMakey Controller Activity

"The Martian" Quest for Pathfinder Activity

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Using makerspace supplies, students will build a controller powered by a Makey Makey board to drive a Sphero using the Sphero EDU Windows/Mac/Chromebook app. This can be paired with a lesson about conductivity, circuit boards or user interface designs.

Open Activity in Sphero EDU
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Recreating a scene from the novel "The Martian" by Mark Weir, students will use Sphero RVR and BOLT robots along with littleBit electronics to locate and retrieve the Mars Pathfinder lander.

Open Activity in Sphero EDU


RVR Guard Activity

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Students will create two programs, one for Sphero RVR robot to patrol and guard a student made gate. For the second program, students will code a Sphero BOLT to sneak up and disable the guard-bot using IR sensors and open the gate. The gate can either be a student-designed-and-constructed invention using maker supplies and littleBits, or it can be an instructor-provided device.

Open Activity in Sphero EDU

Painting with Sphero



​In this activity, students were asked to research their favorite artist and look at how we could program a Sphero robot to create art.

Using paint and canvas, students than collaboratively made a painting by programming their robot to move randomly, dipping it in paint and placing it on our canvas inside the frame.

We then signed our work and displayed it int the school for everyone to see!

Socially Assistive Robotics

Below is a video about the Innovation Center Socially Assistive Robotics project team and our Innovate to Elevate PLT. Our goal is to create a deployable robotic system that can be used for human-to-robot interactions to assist with social & emotional learning for students in special education programs.
Innovate to Elevate Website

Mars Exploration Program: A Digital Journey

Combining robotics, computer science and engineering, I have built a course for secondary students to create their own Mars Exploration Mission. Based on the novel "The Martian" by Andy Weir, student learn through a home-brewed gamified curriculum combining Sphero RVR robots, littleBits, micro:Bits and SparkFun electronics, Minecraft Education Edition, Kerbal Space Program and botany. Student design and build their own rover, sustainable colony and space vehicle. Below are some of the lessons and units I have created or remixed.

Gamification

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Kerbal Space Program is a simulation game that allows players to take control of a fictional space program. Using realistic physics and rocket components, players can explore a simulated solar system while learning about aeronautical engineering, orbital mechanics and space flight.  In the classroom, I use this game to teach students the fundamentals of rocketry and space exploration.

KSP Lesson Website
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Minecraft Education Edition allows students to create and explore a wide range of concepts. Using worlds and lesson ideas I have curated, my students use MCE to explore and colonize Mars, program an autonomous robot to build a fort and learn the fundamentals of computer science and coding.

Mission to Mars in MCE

Botany and Electronics

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Using a custom remix of resources from School Wide Labs Sensor Immersion Unit, students explore designing sensor systems to monitor the growth of crops to make a sustainable Martian colony. 

Mars and Beyond Botany

Courses I Have Designed

Below are linked a few of the classes I have designed and teach

Beginning Computer Science

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Mars & Beyond

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Intro to Cybersecurity

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Video Game Design

VEX Robotics

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Photo used under Creative Commons from wuestenigel
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