Construct is where the kids build the robot for that activity. The Activity Pack part of the software plays a little Lego minifig movie at this point, which my kids always love watching. Connect encourages the kids to get into the activity and see the problem to solve or goal to reach. The Teacher Notes for Activities section of the Teacher’s Guide helps you through teaching and building these 12 robots using the 4C Learning Process: Connect, Construct, Contemplate and Continue. They cover topics such as computer science, technology, engineering, mathematics and language. The 12 activities in the Activity Pack part of the software are theme-based covering cross-curricular topics. It also contains sections on curriculum, software help, Getting Started (a section detailing activities on individual mechanical parts), Teacher Notes for Activities (the 12 model activities) and various resources. It’s easy to follow along in the Teacher’s Guide as the kids are running through the activities. It also gives you questions to ask the kids as you go through the lessons, and describes what concepts are being taught with each activity. The Teacher’s Guide is an invaluable part of the set, as it gives you guidance and more information on everything, and has worksheet masters to copy for some of the building activities. This is quirky, but you get the hang of it eventually. Then if you try to fix it, it will save another file with the new name. But if the cursor floats off of the area, the file name will be whatever text you got in there before it floated away. You have to hold the cursor over the program name and the cursor will turn into a T shape. It took me a little while to figure it out. Saving them isn’t done in the usual manner, though. The software also allows you to save programs, and to load previously saved ones. If you leave a program sitting in the workspace when you quit the program, it will still be there the next time you run the program. Some of the program options include:turn motor, wait, play a sound, wait for keyboard input, random, countdown, repeat and many others. Link them up in a line to “write” a program. There is a little tab to click to get to the Activity Pack, or you can just dive in and drag program elements on to your workspace. Once installed, the program starts very quickly, and puts you at a blank screen for program design. The software was quick and easy to install. WeDo teaches you along with the children, and everything is described step-by-step. And don’t worry if you know nothing about robotics or programming. With those, you can have an in-depth study of the motor, the gears, the cams or some of the other parts. The Activity Pack also has lessons that teach what each part individually does. It steps you through building 12 different Lego WeDo models, each one teaching a specific building concept. One of the most valuable parts of WeDo, though, is the Activity Pack. If you’ve seen the drag-and-drop programming language Scratch, it is similar to that, except it is even more basic. All the programming is drag-and-drop just line up programming blocks to tell the robot what to do. The Lego WeDo system also has available software to program the robots, an activity pack to guide learning and an excellent guide for teachers to facilitate teaching.īy hooking the robots up to your computer via the included USB hub, the WeDo Software allows you to program the robots, controlling its actions, sounds and responses. The WeDo is designed to teach simpler concepts to slightly younger kids than the Mindstorms does, and it uses many recognizable Lego pieces. The pieces and parts all come in a sturdy, plastic tub that snaps securely shut. It has over 150 elements in the set including gears, cams, axles, a motor, motion and tilt sensors, USB hub and many other pieces. Put out by Lego Education, the WeDo Robotics Construction Set is a set of pieces and mechanical parts that can be used to design robots. Or maybe, like me, you’re trying to teach the kind of logical thought processes required for programming as part of your homeschooling lessons.Įnter the Lego Education WeDo Robotics Construction Set. Maybe you want to get them involved in robotics or computer programming from an even earlier age. But maybe your kids aren’t old enough yet for the complexities of Lego Mindstorms. It’s been covered before here at GeekDad, including the recent review of the Lego Education Homeschool version by Kathy’s son, GeekTeen John. It’s a very versatile programmable robotics system that you can design to do anything from sorting colors to 3D printing. The Lego NXT Mindstorms 2.0 gets quite a lot of coverage in the geek world.
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