Convergence 2013

"As a math teacher I was accustomed to hearing “why do we need to know this?” I’m sure most teachers are tired of this question, mostly because the answer usually boils down to “you’ll just have to trust me, it’s important.” Which is unfortunate because our students have a point: people learn best when they can directly relate concepts to real-world, meaningful models. In fact, even more effective is when students are constructing tangible, manipulable objects where they must learn and apply new understanding directly in the real world. This is the essence of Constructionism.

Now back to the problem, “why do we need to know this?” It was hard for me as a teacher to build a truly real-world project that was age appropriate and do-able within the constraints of my classroom and budget. That is, until I discovered Lego Mindstorms Robotics. I have never had a student working with a robot ask me “why do I need to know ____?” Instead they ask me “why isn’t my robot doing what I told it?” That’s the golden moment. Now I know learning is about to take place, and it will be meaningful learning situated in a real, tangible problem that the student is highly motivated to solve.

This presentation has 2 main objectives:
1. Introduce you Lego Mindstorms Robotics. The Lego, motors and sensors of which many wondrous robots can be constructed. More importantly the symbolic programming language that allows students to convert their logical problem solving ideas into a robot that “thinks” for itself.
2. Convince you of the benefits of using Lego Mindstorms as a learning tool in the classroom. This will include tangible examples of how to teach curricular topics using Lego robots."