Work Units and Lesson Plans for the NXT

I have put together a series of Units of Work, Lesson Sequences and accompanying Lesson plans for use by Teachers (and Students). There are Junior, Middle and Senior School units, all lasting approximately 6-8 weeks. Some lessons overlap across the 3 levels of schooling – but there are a number of new lessons at each level. The lessons are all based on NXT-G and are designed to follow on from specific activities in Robot Educator.
Of particular note is:

- “Four Poles Challenge” - one of the most successful resources I have used for introducing Robotics to students and teachers alike.
- A learning based approach to Line Following using one and two light sensors (as opposed to the more prescriptive approach in Robot Educator).
-A very simple, yet effective “Remote Control” for the EduBot that you can use in the classroom.
-Reference to other robotics resources such as PowerPoint ideas, Robot films, excursions and NXT Books.
- Whilst the program objectives, understanding goals, essential outcomes etc. are specific to the Tasmanian Curriculum in Australia, they can be easily adapted and tweaked for other systems.
-Most (if not all) lessons have been trialed and tested at Teacher workshops and in class with teachers and students.

They can be found on my website http://www.proactivepd.com.au/ and are freely available for use in class by teachers and students. I do however value any feedback or suggestions related to them (and naturally ask that Intellectual Property and Copyright be respected).
Cheers
Chris

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 2

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Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we take a trip through history. Please also visit ROBOTMAK3RS Community every week as we highlight different projects all through 2023 in celebration of the anniversary. Some of the early history is based on the content shared by Coder Shah in our MINDSTORMS EV3 Community Group . Some of the text and links may have been edited from his original posts for consistency and clarity. 1984 - Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen watched a TV program called "Talking Turtle," where MIT professor Seymour Papert demonstrated how children could control robot "turtles" using LOGO, a programming language he developed. 1988 - The collaboration between MIT and LEGO resulted in LEGO TC Logo in 1988, which allowed students to control LEGO models using computer commands. The video shows Papert demonstrating TC Logo. 1990 - LEGO TC Logo was hampered since the robots you built had to be tethered to a personal computer. LEGO and MIT

MINDSTORMS Retires!

2023 is the 25th Anniversary of the MINDSTORMS brand. For 25 years, MINDSTORMS has educated and inspired a generation of robot builders, both children and adults. Unfortunately, the LEGO Group decided to end the line on December 2022. Many ROBOTMAK3RS have been passionately involved with the development of MINDSTORMS through the MUP and MCP programs. Even with the newest Robot Inventor line, several ROBOTMAK3RS were invited to submit additional bonus models that were included in the official app. Regardless of the retirement of a major LEGO robotics product line, ROBOTMAK3RS continue to MAKE-SHARE-INSPIRE using all LEGO robotics platforms available to us. Here is the official statement from LEGO. Since its launch in September 1998, LEGO MINDSTORMS has been one of the core ‘Build & Code’ experiences in the company’s portfolio, carrying with it significant brand equity and becoming a stand-out experience for the early days of consumer robotics and leading to current Build & Code

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