Learning with Legos: Robotics in the Classroom

In September of 2010, we had two people from the USA come to present to the CLC team about engineering. Engineering is the application of science to design things: how to design, plan, and construct things like buildings and machines. After the presentation finished, we thought that it was a really good project for the students because they can improve their critical thinking skills, work in a team, make plans for their project, learn how to fix the XO laptops that we use, learn how to use the Lego robot program, design games with Scratch, make simple machines, and other activities. We decided to start two engineering clubs, one club for grade 8 and another for grade 7. Each club has 16 members and meets for two hours per week.

The first week, we told students in each class about engineering clubs and explained to them about engineering and then we provided them with an application form to fill out. After we had all the application forms, we selected 32 students and divided the students into two groups. Both groups did the same project.

The second week, we had an introduction about engineering, set up the rules and time for a project, gave them the pieces of robot and let them build what they wanted to build. After the activity, each group presented to the whole class about their final product.

During the third and fourth weeks, we introduced the students to Lego and let them build the Legos and program them. Afterward they presented their robot project to other groups. We also introduced to them how to fix XO laptops. Students learned about software and hardware of XO computers. Then each group divided the computer into parts we explained the importance of each part and then they put the computer back together.