Workshops

Workshop Sessions 11:20 – 12:20

Teaching STEM Using LEGO Mindstorms NXT Mr. Golod

Participants, should work with students from K-12, and be educators, administrators, or parents who wish to learn about a program that supports and integrates learning across the elementary or high school curriculum.  Participants may or may not be familiar with Lego Mindstorms, but it is anticipated that they will have no real exposure to Mindstorms NXT.  Participants will learn the basic features of NXT-G (an icon-programming environment) and how to instruct a pre-built NXT robot.  In groups of twos, participants will program a working robot and experiment with both mechanics and programming.  After this session, participants will gain an understanding of deploying programs and will experience first-hand the fun that children experience as they learn STEM concepts utilizing robots.  This session is limited to 12 participants.

Teaching STEM Using Tetrix, RobotC, and LabView Mr. Sottile/Mr. Manley

Participants should be familiar with Mindstorms NXT or have prior experience.  This session will include an introduction to the mechanical and programming features of the popular Tetrix robot platform.  Participants will learn how to assemble Tetrix robots and do some basic programming using RobotC software.  In groups of threes, participants will walk-thru code and have the opportunity to change the code and see the results.  Session-completed robots will be demonstrated accomplishing a variety of tasks.  This session is limited to 15 participants.

Teaching STEM Using Robotics: Mindstorms Plus Real-World TopicsDr. Meyer

Participants will hear about a course utilizing the basic LEGO Mindstorms tribot, open-ended assignments and lectures, in-class and on-line discussions, and library research on real-world topics. Videos will be shown. It is not a hands-on workshop but we hope for audience participation in the discussion.  This session is limited to 25 participants.

STEM with LEGO Education in Elementary Schools Ms. Abaid/Ms. Mamasheva

This workshop illustrates how LEGO-based activities can address elementary school standards on mathematics, scientific inquiry, and measurement by introducing students to concepts of planar geometry. A wheeled robot is used with tires of various radii to explore relationships between tire radius and circumference, as well as tire circumference and total distance traveled by the robot for a fixed number of axle rotations. This session is limited to 10 participants.

STEM with LEGO Education in Middle and High Schools Mr. Yuvienco/Mr. Baker

This workshop will illustrate how LEGO-based activities can address middle and high school standards on mechanics concepts, specifically, using LEGO components; sensors; and NXT module concepts such as gear ratios, friction, potential energy, kinetic energy, and oscillations.  This session is limited to 10 participants.