LEGO® Education has added two new robotics products to create a continuum of LEGO robotics sets, software, and curriculum designed to provide a complete robotics engineering experience for students from second grade through university level.
Since its introduction in 1998, the LEGO MINDSTORMS® Education robotics system has helped countless numbers of middle school students grasp science, technology, engineering, and math concepts while it emphasizes creativity, problem solving, and teamwork skills.
Now those same concepts are brought forward to both elementary and high school students with the development of two new age-appropriate robotics systems.
LEGO Education WeDo™ Robotics serves as an early introduction to robotics for elementary students. Through a series of cross-curricular building and programming activities, the system integrates science, math, and literacy concepts while teaching the basics of control technology.
The new robotics system will be available by January 2009.
TETRIX™ by Pitsco, a revolutionary metal building system, is geared for high school students and was developed as a partnership between LEGO Education and Pitsco, Inc. The system is fully compatible with LEGO Technic, the building system used with LEGO MINDSTORMS, and includes a unique LEGO connector that joins the metal with LEGO elements.
The metal system will be available in August 2008 for use in the FIRST Tech Challenge and in January 2009 for implementation in schools.
Like LEGO MINDSTORMS, both of the new systems were developed in conjunction with LEGO Education’s partners in industry and education: National Instruments, Carnegie Mellon University, HiTechnic, Pitsco, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and FIRST.
“The strong relationships we have with our partners enable us to pool our resources, knowledge, and unique skills to produce the very best robotics tools for education,” says Jens Maibom, General Manager of LEGO Education in Billund, Denmark.
“We can now provide a consistent and seamless progression of robotics instruction from early elementary school to universities.”
The LEGO Education robotics continuum of sets, software, and curriculum provides for district-wide adoptions of robotics in schools to teach both core concepts and skills necessary to succeed in a global society.
“Because it is so exciting for students, robotics is an excellent vehicle for teaching key concepts while also emphasizing 21st century skills like critical thinking, teamwork, innovation, and communication,” says Maibom. “We’ve seen how robotics motivates students to do better in school and pursue science and engineering careers.”
The new development gives students access to the latest in robotics hardware, software, and future-relevant curriculum at all age levels, with the goal of preparing them for life after school and for careers in the science, technology, and engineering industries.
“Robotics is not the end,” says Robin Shoop, who directed the development of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT curriculum and is now developing curriculum for TETRIX.
“Our goal is not to produce a generation of roboticists; it is a means to produce a mathematically competent, technologically literate child.”