Introduction
Engineering and robotics are growing more and more popular with today's youth. Many high schools and middle schools have robotics teams where kids come together and learn some of the basic aspects of engineering. This is greatly beneficial for a growing field, however, for those who do not get involved engineering remains a mystery.
Our goal is to create a robotics project using a Lego NXT robotics kit that first through fourth graders will be able to use. While there are plenty of activities for fifth through eighth graders, there is a surprising lack of activities for younger children. We hope that by designing an experiment for children of that age group we can spark interests earlier and give children a small taste of what engineering is about at a young age. We hope that by doing this we can increase interest, knowledge and enthusiasm about engineering.
Project Constraints
1- Design Constraint:
· Since our audience is first to fourth graders, the robot design should not be complicated, so kids would be able to build up a robot that is similar to our pre-built base by them-selves.
· Moreover, the function of the robot must be easy and interesting. Kids should be able to understand how the programming works.
2- Time Constraint:
· Since the kit will be delivered in week 4, an approximation of 5 - 6 weeks should be in consideration to finish building up the Robot.
3- Budget Constraint:
· The estimated cost should not exceed $300, so that schools can purchase it and get the benefit of it. Furthermore, parents would buy it and let their kids play with it.
Timeline
· Week 1: a group was formed. A project has been selected from the section themes. A blog was initiated with the group contact information and a brief introduction of the project.
· Week 2: we decided to purchase the NXT Lego, since it is has some features that may assist children to play with.
· Week 3: Design proposal was written
· Week 4: come up with an idea about the robot functionality
· Week 5: build up the robot and play with the programming
· Week 6: using NXT Lego software to develop simple codes
· Week 7: have children test the experiment
· Week 8: modify experiment based on children’s feedback
· Week 9: finalize the experiment and test it before the presentation
· Week 10: presentation
Materials
For the particular experiment, it was decided within the group to use the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit. This kit was chosen for its multiple functions that are provided by the kit; and can also be executed by a variety of age levels. The NXT kit was considered over the Lego WeDo robotics kit for several reasons. The WeDo robotics kit stated that it would be more appropriate for the grades of one through four, but the level of discipline was too simple for them to do and for the group to carry out a good experiment. The WeDo kit only involved building structures that have basic movements, while the NXT kit has a plethora of experiments and functions that can be utilized and carried out by the children. The NXT kit experiments can be made up simple enough by the group for children to work on. It's also advantageous for the group members because every group member had some experience with the NXT kit from last semester due to an engineering project. With all of the background knowledge and the amount of different experiments that can be carried out by one kit, there was no argument on which kit should be used to make experiments for the children, and the kit turned out to be the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit.
Figure 1: Lego WeDo kit that was Figure 2: Lego Mindstorms NXT that was chosen
considered an option for the project. for the experiment.
References
