So I just finished teaching my Introduction to Robotics (IROB) course at the CTY camp in Baltimore. The students were rising 7th graders. For the last day, I asked the 14 students to write some advice to future students of this class. As I expected, their responses were fabulous. Here are some excerpts:

“Don’t feel down when you fail. It’s normal, it takes hard work to succeed. You feel awesome when you succeed. You’ll want to quit, but don’t. It’s worth the work.”

“In IROB, the classes aren’t just fun, they are HARD fun. If you learn to enjoy the hard parts as well as the fun parts, you will LOVE IROB. Do not get upset when you fail, learn from it. If a light sensor isn’t working check and see it is plugged in. As Thomas Edison said, ‘I didn’t fail. I found 10,000 ways it didn’t work.’ Don’t give up and do your best.”

“One important thing to remember is that Simple is always better. Also remembering that if you add a lot of things your robot will be less stable. I do think that it is fun to learn some lessons the hard way because you remember the lessons better.”

“IROB is a great course. However, I need to tell you few things to make it even better. First, learn the phrase ‘hard fun.’ You also need to learn to not get frustrated easily. If you are a type of person that gets frustrated easily, you may have a tough time.”

“If you like building with legos and Scratch without instructions, this will be twice the fun. For sumobots keep the center of gravity in the middle and low. For everything but dragbot and the mountain climber use at least 2 motors. Gear ratio is very important sometimes.”

“You have made a good decision to take IROB. The first few days are easy, but the rest is not difficult but frustrating. You will fail a lot, because getting a piece or program just so is extremely annoying. That makes getting it right all the more rewarding. Good luck, and build on.”

“During the course, it’s not completely difficult, but it’s not easy. Hard fun, one of Mr. Bob’s favorite terms, is true. But even if you find 10,000 ways that don’t work, not getting frustrated easily will help. Think of NAO, Stanley, Atlas, and Asimo. I guarantee the 1st versions all failed. As long as you don’t give up, the result is completely worth it.”

“In this course of IROB, you should take these next few statements very seriously. You must always make your robot stable, so it doesn’t fall over. You must program your robot exactly what you wanted it to do, step by step, because robots aren’t very bright. Finally, don’t get frustrated in this course if your robot doesn’t do what you want it to do right away. We have a saying in IROB: fail early and fail often.”

“Always continue to improve your robot, but remember that simpler is always better. When designing your first robot, if it doesn’t work, keep trying before you come up with new ideas. Fix every problem one step at a time, so you can learn the causes of the problems and how to prevent them in the future. Most importantly, robotics is a perfect example of hard fun.”

“Within this course, building your own robots may be difficult, if not very difficult. Always make sure to never give up, as the solution to your problem may follow. Also, if you don’t contribute enough work and effort, a mediocre robot will inevitably follow. Also make sure to have hard fun, because it’s only three weeks. Make the best out of it!”

“IROB is a very fun class where you learn a lot about robots. You do a bunch of fun activities like sumobots and dragbots. In the last week you get to build a robot that does whatever you want, but remember to keep it as simple as possible.”

“I know sometimes, you feel like you want to rip your bot apart, LIMB from LIMB, but it’s okay. Things will get better, just because you failed doesn’t mean you can give up. Just keep swimmin’. Remember, it’s fun, but hard fun.”

“In IROB, you will encounter a lot of strenuous testing and failures. You will come close to fainting from exhaustion by thinking about how to fix or improve your bot. But there is so much fun also: the feeling of having accomplished something, the excitement of participating in competitions, the relaxation of watching a robot YouTube video for a break. But with persistence and hard work, you will enjoy IROB like no other class you’ve ever taken before. Just make sure you follow the rules.”

If you were a 12 year old with a techie bent, and someone offered you the chance to spend 3 weeks of the summer at a camp where you got to build and program robots pretty much all day, what would you say?

If you’re like the 14 students I have at just such a camp, you’d probably say, “Well, all right!” We are now in week two of Introduction to Robotics at a camp run by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (known colloquially as just CTY). This is my 8th rodeo, and I can tell you from the instructor’s perspective, it’s intense and intensive. We move fast.

I have three of my mantras on the board. The first two are standard. “Hard fun” is my mantra from my hero Seymour Papert, and I guarantee every student will have some of this. I don’t know where the second one came from (“Fail early, fail often”), but it’s a good way to set expectations. Students at this camp are bright (that’s where the “talented” comes in), and are often the top students in their respective classes. They are used to achieving academic success as defined by most schools. They are not used to failing: having their robots fall apart, not do what they wanted them to do, lose a race, or get pushed out of the sumobot ring. But that failure is an important part of the course, and life itself, of course. As Thomas Edison said “I didn’t fail, I just found 10,000 ways it wouldn’t work.”

The third is an acronym. HOLEF stands for “Hands Off Legos, Eyes Front”. It’s my magical word for focusing attention on something everyone needs to hear or see.