LEGO Education

National Engineering Week

Did you know that National Engineering Week is being celebrated during the week of February 18-24? Are you celebrating this in your classroom? Are you using your LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT in a way that focuses on engineering concepts? Do you plan to? Share your projects and ideas in the comments!

LEGO Engineering Conferences

If you're looking for opportunities to get to know other NXT users and learn a thing or two, you're in luck! The fine folks at LEGO Engineering are partnering with various groups around the US to host conferences for all interested LEGO Education Robotics users. With confereces taking place on both the east and west coasts and in the midwest, there's likely one not too far from you!

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St. Paul, Minnesota March 10, 2007

• Arranged by INSciTE (Innovations in Science and Technology Education) and Benilde-St. Margaret's Advanced Competitive Science in cooperation with University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
• For more information, please contact Fred Rose or Dan Carlson.

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Enfield, Connecticut April 27, 2007

• Arranged by CEEO in cooperation with LEGO Systems, Enfield.
• For more information, please contact Christopher Wright or Morgan Hynes.

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Sonoma, California May 5, 2007

• Arranged by the Sonoma County Office of Education in cooperation with LEGO Education.
• For more information, please contact James Isom.

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Carlsbad, California June 23, 2007

• Arranged by LEGOLAND California in cooperation with California State University.
• For more information, please contact Lynn Crokett or James Isom.

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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania August 16-18, 2007

• Arranged by The National Robotics Engineering Consortium (Carnegie Mellon) in cooperation with the CEEO.
• For more information, please contact Norm Kerman.

ROBOLAB 2.9.3 Patch

For those of you using ROBOLAB 2.9 with your NXT robots, there's a new patch update available. The 2.9.3 patch fixes a few major issues with both the RCX and the NXT and also has a few new features.

LEGO Engineering - ROBOLAB 2.9.3 Patch.

Update, 2/16/07: The upgrade fixes some of the issues experienced with both the RCX and the NXT platforms and also provides a range of new features. The upgrade will for instance be relevant for FIRST LEGO® League coaches and others who need accurate robot control. Among the fixes and features of the new upgrade are:

• Smaller RCX firmware (more space for programs)
• Motor brake and motor float now work properly
• NXT Motor synchronization
• NXT On-Screen programming is enabled
• NXT 3rd Party Sensor support (HiTechnic and Mindsensors)

“The ROBOLAB 2.9.3 patch is part of LEGO Education and Tufts CEEO's commitment to supporting educators that are using the RCX as well as providing a great transition for those moving to the new MINDSTORMS®NXT platform”, says Marketing Manager Peter Thesbjerg from LEGOEducation. Bill Church, Physics Teacher, Littleton, NH, USA, is pleased with the support and commitment from LEGO Education and Tufts CEEO: " NXT and the new version of ROBOLAB have enabled me and my students to create new activities while hanging on to the classic and very effective RCX activities”.

LEGO Engineering Survey

LEGOengineering.com is working on an article on how educators organize and manage their LEGO Materials. To help gather ideas from teachers and after school program leaders they've put together a survey to find out how you store and sort your pieces.

http://www.legoengineering.com/content/view/69/65/

If you have a few minutes, please visit the site and fill out the survey. The article on the best ideas for managing LEGO materials will be published later this spring on the site.

NXT Meets the Governor

Missouri governor Matt Blunt got to see the NXT up close and personal on January 22, during a press conference at the Emerson Center for Engineering and Manufacturing. During the press conference, Blunt proposed that Missouri spend an extra $4 million next year to boost math and science education. The FIRST LEGO League competition is sponsored by St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley, and is going strong. The people who run the program felt that the demonstrating the NXT was a great way to showcase students using math and science skills to engineer their robots...and we agree!

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