LEGO Education

LEGO Education Robotics podcast

The Apple Learning Interchange has posted a podcast recorded during the Texas Computer Education Association conference this past February. Ron Hudson, a technology director for his school, describes how he and other teachers in his school use LEGO Education Robotics to inspire students and teach problem solving skills. The podcast is about 12 and a half minutes long, and includes images from the booth on the conference show floor. Be sure to take the time to visit the site and listen! Apple Learning Interchange: LEGO Robotics podcast

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 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.

Reader Response Question 2

To teachers/educators: What is your impression of the NXT? How are you implementing it into your classroom (or how would you if you had a set or a few)?

MINDSTORMS Education Video

Students and teachers in Dorking, UK, got to use the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT and share their opinions and experiences. CLICK HERE to check it out!

LEGO MINDSTORMS Education Pilot Program

Would you like to use the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT in your classroom? Would you like to know you’re one of the first to implement LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT into your curriculum? Would you relish the opportunity to influence the development of future curriculum for the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT? The LEGO MINDSTORMS Education Pilot Program may be looking for you. The purpose of the Pilot Program is to get the NXT hardware, software, and curriculum into the hands of passionate and innovative teachers and their students. LEGO Education is offering such early adopters a reduced price in exchange for evaluation and feedback on the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education curriculum. LEGO Education will then use the teachers’ feedback to guide future software and curriculum development. In the future, pilot classrooms may also be featured as model classrooms for educators who are interested in using LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT in their schools. More details below the jump. LEGO MINDSTORMS Education (LME) Pilot Guidelines Potential Pilot Program participants must:

• Fill out an application and be involved in education (the application deadline will be May 31st). Applicants to the program will be notified by June 30th of selection or non-selection into the program.
  • LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT Pilot Program Application
• Agree to at least one visit from a LEGO Education consultant in your area in order to gain feedback.
• Be able to issue Purchase Order or Credit Card payment for a total of $600 for four LME Base sets, one classroom license of LME software, and the Mobile Robotics and Engineering Projects Curriculum (retail value $1690).
  • LME Base sets – MINDSTORMS Education NXT (retail value $250)
  • LME Software – Classroom license of LEGO MINDSTORMS Education software (retail value $240)
  • Curriculum 1 - Mobile Robotics CD set – includes six weeks of activities including an exhaustive introduction to robotics, programming, and building, while addressing math, science, and tech concepts. (retail value $225)
  • Curriculum 2 - Engineering Projects – includes twelve weeks of guided research and applied engineering robotics projects. (retail value $225)
• Be willing to communicate with and share feedback with other Pilot participants as well as with the LEGO Education corporate offices via a secure blog/forum environment (the blog will breakdown the curriculum by activities so participants can post their feedback to the blog after completion of each activity).
• Use the LME set during the pilot timeframe and abide to the completion dates for the curriculum as follows:
1. Mobile Robotics CD set finished and feedback posted to the blog no later than October 6th.
2. First 3 weeks of the Engineering Projects CD set finished and feedback posted to the blog no later than November 3rd.
3. The rest of the Engineering Project CD set (or just as much as is it possible to finish) completed by Dec 1st and feedback posted to the blog.
• Fill out an evaluation form and submit before Dec 10th.

Other Details:

• Pilot program runs from August 15, 2006 through December 1, 2006.
• LEGO Education will work with Pilot group participants to obtain proper releases for testimonials from teachers and students.
• LME Pilot program will consist of 50 education sites.
• Pilot group participants must teach in the US.
• If participants develop activities for use with LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT system and would like to share them with other educators, they are welcome to submit them to the LEGO Education Activity Submission Page.
• Any additional sets not included in the pilot may be purchased at regular price. More information regarding individual sets and other LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT products is available here.

Please direct any questions regarding the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT Pilot Program to NXT@LEGOeducation.com.