Notes from the robotics bench
These are plain-language notes for New Zealand teachers, parents and students who want robots in the classroom, the club room or the kitchen table. We cover choosing a first kit, running a club across a school term, how sensors and motors actually behave, and how to move from blocks to typed code.
Every note is numbered in the order it was written. Start anywhere: the numbers are only there so you can say "read N-03 first" to a colleague.
Index of notes
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N-01
Choosing a first classroom robot kit
Micro:bit buggies, LEGO Education sets or Arduino boards? What matters at each Year level, and how to choose without wasting the budget.
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N-02
Starting a school robotics club
Team sizes, roles, a ten-week term plan, and the unglamorous parts that keep a club running: storage, batteries and handover.
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N-03
How line-following robots work
Light sensors, thresholds, and the step from wobbly on/off steering to smooth proportional control, with a diagram and sample code.
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N-04
How robot soccer works, in general
Infrared balls, compass sensors, attackers and goalies: the general ideas behind school robot soccer, without any one competition's rules.
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N-05
Robots on stage: dance and theatre projects
Choreography by timing, servos that wave and nod, and how to combine art, music and code into a robot performance.
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N-06
From block coding to text coding
When students should move from Scratch or MakeCode blocks to Python, how to make the switch less painful, and what changes for robots.
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N-07
Robotics project ideas for home
Low-cost builds for the kitchen table, from a self-driving toy car to helper robots and nature-inspired designs.
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N-08
Build a soil-moisture sensor for the vege garden
A micro:bit or Arduino project that tells you when the vege patch actually needs water, plus why the cheapest probes don't last.
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N-09
A motion-sensor camera for the garden
Build a PIR-triggered camera to watch garden wildlife, spot wasp flight paths and visiting pests, and know when to call in a professional.
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N-10
Detecting damp and borer-prone timber with a moisture meter
How timber moisture meters work, what the readings can and can't tell you, and why damp wood is worth noticing, including for borer.
Three ways in
- Getting started
- Kits, clubs, budgets and the first few weeks.
- Programming
- Sensors, control loops, and growing from blocks to text.
- Competitions explained
- How school robot challenges generally work, in general terms.