Elementary-aged students studying mechatronics? Iowa State Professors Larry Genalo and Charles Wright made this complex engineering concept easy enough for first graders to understand.

It all started after the two became involved in a research project that studied educational projects for engineering students. They focused on a topic in engineering called mechatronics, which are mechanical and electronic systems that deal with computer controls and making decisions. Fifteen to 20 years ago this topic would have only been covered during a college student’s senior year in engineering.

The goal of their research project was to make mechatronics understandable for a freshman level class. Capitalizing on their academic specialties—Genalo, a professor of materials science and engineering and Wright (now deceased), a professor of computer engineering—this goal was accomplished by designing and building computerized LEGOs®.

Professor Genalo looks on as students involved in Iowa State's OPPTAG program work in the Toying With Technology lab. “Now they have computerized LEGOs®, but 15 years ago they didn’t,” Professor Genalo said. “So Charlie designed them and we built computerized LEGOs. We took the LEGOs® that had motors on them and we put them in the computer so we could program them to do things. So now you had a mechanical object with the electronics that you programmed to do stuff. This was stuff that freshman year students could do.”

Their next step was to make the information understandable for high school students who participate in outreach events on the Iowa State campus.

“We thought this would be fun for them, it’s a hands-on project,” Professor Genalo said. “Pretty soon we had programming simple enough for high school students, so why not junior high students?”

Introduction to engineering

Since the focus of the Toying With Technology program is to reinforce engineering ideas through the use of math and science, the concepts were able to be applied at the elementary school level. As the program migrated down it wasn’t long before first graders were building and controlling engineering systems.

“How many times have you said it yourself or heard people saying this—‘why do we study this math and when are we ever going to use it?’” Professor Genalo asked. “[Toying With Technology is a way] to explain how it’s being used.”

OPPTAG students present their egg drop project to the class. Take for instance a third grade classroom that is learning about fractions for the first time, they can build a gear ratio for a LEGOs® car and have it climb a hill. Along the way the students learn fractions because that’s what gear ratios are.

“It motivates the learning—that’s the overall concept of Toying With Technology,” Professor Genalo said. “Besides learning an engineering concept, students learn math and science problem solving techniques, logical problem solving techniques, design, working in teams, and communication—a lot of skills you need in a modern engineering firm.”

Expanding interest

So many people became interested in the Toying With Technology program a course was started for elementary education majors. These Iowa State students spend a month of the class at local schools facilitating Toying With Technology exercises with the students. The Toying With Technology course is now offered year-round with the summer session composed of practicing teachers working on their graduate degrees. Professor Genalo estimates more than 2,000 kindergarten through 12th grade students are exposed to Toying With Technology each year.

Professor Genalo works with a student assistant in the Toying With Technology lab. The program also inspired the creation of Iowa’s FIRST LEGO League. The statewide robotics competition is held every January at Iowa State and was started by Jenny Golder, one of Professor Genalo’s former students.

“The first year we had four or six teams,” Professor Genalo said. “This year there were hundreds and hundreds of kids here doing this competition.”

The goal of FIRST LEGO League is to inspire interest in science and engineering among students age 9 to 14. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a multinational, non-profit organization that aims to make science, math, engineering and technology cool for kids.

“The TV stations came to cover the FIRST LEGO League tournament and some of the students who were in that video I had last fall in my freshman engineering class,” Professor Genalo said. “One of the joys of being at Iowa State for a long period of time is that you get to see the fruits of your work. Having a seventh grader in an outreach activity show up in your class as an Honors engineering student six years later brings a rewarding continuity to the work you’re doing at various educational stages.”
In-CY-tful Info

Larry Genalo
Professor
Materials Science and Engineering
Ph D., Iowa State University, Applied Math/Systems Engineering
M S., Iowa State University, Applied Math
Assistant chair of the department
Co-creator of Toying With Technology literacy course for future K-12 teachers

How do you see Toying With Technology growing in the next 5-10 years?
More and more we do engineering exercises that aren’t LEGO® programming. We still do that and it’s still most of the course—but we do other things including boat building and rocket launching. We have other things that we do that are engineering activities besides robotics, which is one area of engineering.

I’d really like to be able to do this at a distance and that’s hard to work out because it’s a very hands-on thing. Distance education works well if it’s a lecture, because it doesn’t matter if people are sitting in the room with you or if they’re 1,000 miles away watching you on a monitor. If we can provide enough kits for everyone and if I’m here and they have a way of saying, ‘I’m trying to get this to work can you see it?’ ‘Here is what my car is doing and here is my problem.’ Then I could answer their questions.

How have the advancements in technology impacted the courses you teach?
You have to consider the changes in the technology and also how technology has changed the students. In the today’s world of instant messaging and constant contact you really have to catch them quick. When I was a kid we were told to turn the TV off and do your homework. Today they multi-task—students are on their emails, they’re listening to music, they’ve got their TV’s on, and they’re studying.

You also have to work that into your teaching philosophy. People have different learning styles. Some learn well by listening to a lecture, not many, but some. Some learn well by reading the book on their own. Some need hands-on activity. Some need graphical images. You can do all of those and that’s what feeds into this multitasking person who receives input from lots of places, but it also feeds into those people who have different learning styles. If they don’t learn from listening, they can learn by reading, graphics, etc. If you give them all of that input they have a better chance of learning.