Lego NXT Mindstorms Robotics for High School

First I wanted something that would spark their interest and that would be something they could do at home, on their own to start with. Both boys had participated in a Lego Mindstorms class through a local homeschooling group a few years ago and it was a big success. We were able to borrow from the teacher a Lego Mindstorms set to use at home over the summer. They enjoyed every minute of it.

Secondly, I wanted to see how the boys would handle a course that would basically be self-taught and handled on their own. One of our goals in our homeschooling is to encourage the boys to be motivated on their own to dig deeper and to go farther than what I could plan for them. Robotics is the course that will totally test that quality.

They are assigned a portion in the book to read and then to follow the instructions to build a specific model. We started off with the Unofficial LEGO Mindstorms NXT Guide, working our way chapter by chapter. This book gives you every step and the programs to use so your child will get some experience with the pieces and the software.

After they build the model they get on the computer and write the programming using the step by step instructions in the book. This is where the child will either decide he likes this sort of project or not. It is fun to build the models but it takes a certain tenacity to work through the bugs in the programs, testing and fixing things as problems arise.

There is still quite a bit of room for creativity within the instructions so it is interesting to see how each son completes the task in his own way. We always started off with the models from the book and then after accomplishing the task I would ask the boys if they could come up with a way to improve the model. They usually had an idea or two and they would be off to see if they could improve the design or the programming.

After they have programmed the robot, they give a demonstration of what the robot does and we take a photograph.

Sometimes they get it right on the first try but sometimes they have to go back to the computer and figure out what they did wrong. I love the skills and qualities that this complete process brings out and then hones in my boys. They have learned a lot of great things besides model building and programming while using the NXT robots.