Page navigation

 | What is it?  | What did you do? | images  | I'll tell you more.. | Did you enjoy it? |

 What is it?

Lego Mindstorms comprises of standard Lego building bricks, motors, gears, pulleys, light and touch sensors and an RCX programmable brick. Students use Mindstorms software to program how the model is to move. The software uses drag and drop icons and simple procedures which are downloaded to the model via an infrared tower.

Students decide on a theme and then plan the models they want to build. Construction involves the integration of the parts and electronic components to make a robotic model which can then be programmed to move as the students decide. The process develops design and construction skills and students have to think about the problems they encounter in making the model perform as they want it to. By using sensors the model can be programmed to perform a variety of functions. Allied to the robotic models the students construct a set from a variety of materials in which the model will perform.

I'll tell you more.. and why not view some examples of our work

Click here to access the YouTube multiplayer - (4 videos)

Reflection:

"one of the most surprising aspects was, the children who were considered academically weak, were very often the children who were more apt and adaptable in this whole area of hands on and in the whole area of technology. Those children were the ones that could physically man-handle the materials to solve the problems, while the more able children were the ones that were able to report it and write it down." - Anne Dempsey

"the children fully enjoyed taking part in it, they got really involved. Many many things came out of it, not only curriculum wise, the hidden curriculum of working together, problem solving, lots of thinking, cooperation, and all that sort of stuff. It was great" - Ann Bracken