ELECTRIC HORSE PROJECT (EHP)
FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS

STUDENT INTEREST FOCUS QUESTIONS

1. Overall, what do you think of the concept of a team of high school
students designing and building an Electric Horse?

1b. Would you be interested in participating in such a project once the details have
been worked out?

1c. Would you be interested in an exploratory team that was charted to try different
ways of implementing this project?

2. Do you think other high school students would be interested and have
fun with this project? Why do you think they would? Why not?

How interesting do you think this project would be to other students?

3. What do you think about the type of student the EHP should target?
Where do you think we would find these students?

4. If you were back at your home high school, do you think a team could be
formed to work on the EHP?

5. Do you think students would be more or less interested in participating
in the EHP if:

How well do you think it would work for EHP to be

a.) participation was an extra-curricular activity (e.g. like a club or team, etc.)

more interested? why?

less interested? why not?

Just "Why?" will cover the above to with the suggested rewording above.

b.) participation would earn elective credit towards graduation
a high school elective with credit towards graduation?

more interested? why?

less interested? why not?

c.) participation would earn college credit

more interested? why?

less interested? why not?

a high school elective that could earn community college credit? Why?

6. Do you think the concept of high school teams competing against each
other to produce the "BEST" Electric Horse is important? Why or why not?

What do you think about the idea of high school teams competing against each
other to produce the "BEST" Electric Horse?

STUDENT SKILL/PREPARATION/BACKGROUND FOCUS QUESTIONS

7. What expectations do you think you would have of accomplishing an
actual end product (e.g. a working model, a computer simulation, a
functioning leg, etc.) in the:

* first year of participation?
* second year of participation?
* third year of participation?
* fourth year of participation?
* never?

One idea is that teams could pass the results of their project to a team that would take
over the following year.
What do you think about this idea?
How much do you think would be accomplished by the first team?
How much do you think would be accomplished by successor teams?

8. Do you think you are able to visualize an end product as a result of
the EHP? Why or why not?

What do you visualize as the end product of a team's participation in the EHP?

9. Do you think there are students who have the background skills in the
following areas to be able to participate?:

* Physics: Yes No If no, why not?
* Math: Yes No If no, why not?
* Engineering: Yes No If no, why not?
* Mechanics: Yes No If no, why not?
* Software: Yes No If no, why not?
* Hardware: Yes No If no, why not?
* Programming: Yes No If no, why not?
* Robotics: Yes No If no, why not?
* Electronics: Yes No If no, why not?
* Other:

What skills do you have that would apply to this project?
What skills might other students have?

(The above list could be retained by the facilitator but would only be used if the
students didn't think of some the key skills on their own.)

10. Do you think YOU have the background skills in the following areas to
be able to participate?:

(this question could be replaced by the two part alternative above)

11. Do you think you could learn as you progress with the problem of how
to build an ambulatory robot? Why? Why not?

How much would the need to learn new concepts and skills along the way hinder you and
your team's ability to successfully build all or part of a walking robot?

12. If you answered NO to the above question (#12), what foundation do you
think you or other students would need to have before starting the project?
Why?

What suggestions would you have that would help make the teams successful?

13. If you participated in the EHP, what do you think you would learn and
how would you apply it?

PRODUCTION/PROCESS FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS

14. Do you think the robotics project should be a horse that walks or
something else? If a horse, why? If not a horse, why?

15. What do you think would be a viable size for a team? Why?

16. Do you think it would be important to visit industry sites or other
locations where robotics is used? Why or why not?

How important do you think it would be for student teams to visit industry
sites or other locations where robots are used?

17. What is your opinion about a full scale horse (i.e. life size) vs.
something of a smaller scale? Why?

18. What is your opinion about building an ambulatory robot from a
ready-made kit vs. designing components from "scratch"? Why?

19. What is your opinion about beginning design of an ambulatory robot
with a computer simulation vs. designing and building a working prototype?
Why?

20. Do you have any other opinions or thoughts?