We use Lego Mindstorms introduce you to a variety of concepts and skills, including: introductory computer programming, object-based programming, project design and planning, group work, engineering, and working with your hands. You will have the opportunity to complete multiple robotics investigations involving inquiry and guided research, problem solving, working in teams, and documentation as they investigate how robots make decisions and navigate their environment.

Robot Building Guides

All good base robots for challenges

NXT Five Minute Bot

Robot Educator Model

Taskbot

Presentations and Challenges

Typically used as as an intro as part of the Tech Ed class

Challenge 1 - Forward and Back

Challenge 2 - It's the Robot's Turn

Challenge 3 - Things That Go Bump

Challenge 4 - The Maze 

In our Robotics Careers class, we use a complete multimedia curriculum and do a different set of challenges.

Our main curriculum is the NXT Video Trainer 2.0. This multimedia curriculum designed to teach behavior-based programming using the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT Software. In a classroom or workshop setting, it is also designed to act as the teacher’s assistant, driving primary instruction with over 70 short videos, animations, and built-in Check Your Understanding questions that allow learners to work at their own pace. The curriculum is also available online at http://www.cmuroboticsacademy.com/solt/lessons/nvt2.0/content/

Ideas for Projects

• http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Community/NXTLog/default.aspx is a great resource for ideas for our building challenges. Remember, some models found there are good solutions and some are not. They can always be improved upon. It also important that you understand how the solution works - this understanding is part of your grade. Youtube can also be a great resource for ideas.
• http://www.nxtprograms.com/index1.html is another great resource with lots of completed models that are a good starting off place for our building challenges.
• http://laurensvalk.com/nxt-1_0-only and http://laurensvalk.com/other-nxt - All kinds of cool models including a self parking car and cars with steering
• http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/p/building-instructions.html - Links to lots of models
• http://tiltedtwister.com/tiltedtwisterbuildinginstructions.html - A Rubic's Cube solver (requires a NXT v2.0 - We have v1.0 in the classroom)

Links

• http://www.ortop.org/NXT_Tutorial/html/essentials.html - Great intro tutorial complete with videos
• http://www.ortop.org/NXT_Tutorial/html/advanced.html - A good set of videos on advanced techniques
• http://www.centraltexasfll.org/
• http://www.firstlegoleague.org/
• http://mindstorms.lego.com/
• http://www.lego.com/education
• http://www.nxtprograms.com/index.html
• http://www.domabotics.com/resources.php
• http://www.legoengineering.com/ 
• http://static.robotclub.ab.ca/pages/nxt/InventoryComparison/nxt_1_vs_2_vs_edu.html - Lists all the parts (with names) + the number of teeth in all the gears

Video Tutorials

There are many, many video tutorials available on YouTube. Several are shown below (but there are lots of others). 

To view a tutorial, select one from the list and press Play (or simply click the video). To view the tutorials full screen, click the full screen  button at the buttom of the video.