Hasaf

I am not a minifig fan. I do understand how they can enhance "play" for children, but that isn't something I need or value. They also allow a consistent scaling of constructs. I do value that, however, as a piece in itself, I do not place much value on them. I have one minifig on display, it is Batman standing on the roof of a firehouse. With that exception, my mini-figs are in a couple of drawers on my lego storage area. I just don't value them much.

I was not aware of it. I teach robotics at a middle school and use the EV3; so I would be very interested in it. I would appreciate it if you would send me a link.

For those who are not aware, Lego sponsors a robotics competition called First Lego League. The first regional is in March and was last weekend. Frankly, we didn't do great. That being said, a lot of things went very well. We discovered, at the last minute that the files from Lego'd Windows IDE ire in a different format from the files on the Lego Chromebook IDE. We discovered that because all we had brought were Chromebooks, while the programs were developed on the Windows machines. We had to make a last minute change due to a rules-based issue. We found out that we couldn't. Another team saw this and let us used their laptop to make the changes we needed (the actual files were on a USB drive). In general, all of the teams were very supportive of each other. As you can see, we went with a forklift based design. We used several implements that were plugged into the front of the forklift. The gyrosensor, that is visible in the picture, is used to make the robot go straight (a constant source of frustration with the EV3 robots).

I see a lot of people saying that they don't like large themes. I would like to throw in my two bits. I am a teacher and I like the large sets because they make a good reward activity. e.g. "when you are done you can work on the . . . " Right now they are working on Hogwarts. There was a scale truck, the one with the crane, that actually took over one and a half years of reward work activity. They did get it finished though (now I am trying to make it go straight using the EV-3 controller, a gyro-sensor, and the medium motor controlling the steering). One thing I like, for my particular situation, is module based instructions. That way one student can be working on the dragon, another on the main hall, another on the . . . I am sure you get the point. Yes, my need is different than most, but it is something I look for.

Hello all. I am a teacher at a Title 1 (low income) middle school. I am certified in Technology Education and, along with my computer applications classes, I have a couple of sessions of robotics. I am also the Robotics Club coach and we attend the regional First Lego League competition every year since I have been here (oddly enough, the students didn't participate in it before I got here). To complete this year's challenges we built a forklift type of attachment. For educational robots, the school decided to go with the EV-3 platform. Until I started here I had not been super into Lego. As a child, I did not have Lego, however, I had played with them at friends houses (they were just too expensive for the house I grew up in). I needed to develop some Lego-fu, and quickly. As an example, right now my students are at "Build an attachment that will allow your robot to push, pull, or carry a load" (the photoshop books). I also have a "gears" module coming up. In it, the students will use Lego Technic gears to make their robot go faster. In the process, I developed a real level of enjoyment from working with the legos. So, Hello all.