Lego NXT Robot workshops

Last week, Y5MD and Y5JM took part in Lego NXT Robot workshops. 

Rowan from London Connected Learning Centre (CLC) was our tutor and showed us how to programme the robots using Mindstorm software. 

We thought it would be really easy to programme our robots to follow our instructions, how wrong we were! We learnt that we had to programme very specific instructions like how fast we wanted the robot to travel, what direction to travel in, which wheels to power turns and lots more. We were given three challenges : 1) programme the robot to move forward and around the Lego man without knocking it over, 2) programme the robot to go around the outline of a square and 3) programme the robot to complete a maze – this was hard!

The workshops were fun and they have been an extra boost for our group of children who are preparing for the IBM Robo Challenge which takes place in March this year. 

Here are some quotes from the children: 

“When I heard that we were going to work with robots, I was so excited that I wanted to start the activity straight away! I enjoyed programming the robot and learning what to do when the instructions didn’t work” 

“I found this workshop to be lots of fun! It was tricky sometimes but I loved it when my robot did exactly what I wanted it to do.”

“It was fun!  Some bits were hard but my partner and I worked it out. Can we do this everyday?”