LEGO MINDSTORMS Practical engineering with high- school students

Admitted 6 students from three local high-schools, total of 6 girls and 12 boys Taught fundamentals in mechanical engineering and CS. Course ran twice a week in 3-hour sessions, for 3.5 weeks. Our goals: –Give students a foundation in engineering that’s easy to build up from –Enthuse students with engineering challenges, and give feedback on their approach to a solution –Give students a chance to learn with high-tech toys, make sure students begin to feel comfortable with high-tech Multiple group design competitions -Autonomous race car -Battlebots -Cleaner-bot

video! Making working robots was hard, but students had fun Everyone enjoyed the course and wished it would have been longer All schools were interested in buying mindstorms for themselves, felt like it was a very worth-while learning tool for African students