10-05-2020 7:48pm

Springboro Teacher Incorporates Virtual Student In Robotics Lab

Rick Amburgey Neighbor

A student works on the robotics lab. Photo Contributed.

Teachers have had to make adjustments with some students still learning virtually. One teacher who Rory Korzan, who teaches chemistry and AP Physics at Springboro High School. He was still able to do a robotics lab despite the changes. In addition to being a lesson of academic significance, Korzan said it is also a lesson that students enjoy.

The robotics lab allowed students to use robots to set up a transistor circuit with a diode and a relay. "We just wanted two lights to blink back and forth," he said, adding that the students wired it to get an idea of how the circuits work.

Korzan has one student enrolled in his AP Physics class who is learning virtually. He took a robot to the student's house to allow him to participate along with the rest of the class. "I put all the pieces in a plastic bag for him and made sure everything was disinfected," Korzan said. This allowed the virtual student to have the things he needed to participate in the robotics lab.

Korzan said he programmed a simulation in HTML 5 and JavaScript for all the students (whether they were in class or online) to follow so they would know where to put all the pieces. Without that, he said it would have been hard for his virtual student to know where to breadboard everything. "All of them in class and at home were able to place all of the pieces correctly and get the circuit to work correctly, "Korzan said. "Once that's done, it makes it really easy to explain what the circuit is doing and how the transistor works with the relay..."

Teachers at Springboro are currently using Google Meet for students who have chosen a virtual option to still participate in class sessions. Korzan said he uses Google Meet for his classes and he thinks it is important for students to be able to interact with one another. He said students can also use Google Breakouts for labs, adding that students are even able to ask questions.