Get Your Kids into Robotics

Have you got kids? Kids that you know are bright, yet are bored to death with the math and science being taught in their school?  It’s unfortunate because the number of jobs that require skills in math, science and technology is growing rapidly. Who’s going to fill these sought after, high-paying jobs? Don’t let your kids be passed by, by their more educated and determined counterparts in countries like India and China. It’s a competitive, flat world now, and others are out to eat your kid’s lunch, literally.  But you can get them educated, and more importantly, excited, in science and technology by getting them into the cool hobby of robotics.

In Rochester, Minnesota, companies are helping with their involvement in FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization and program that matches professional engineers with teams of high school students. The teams compete to build a robot with certain design requirements. The winners are chosen by not only whose robot performs the best, but also by sportsmanship, teamwork and the ability to work under pressure. Interestingly, FIRST students are more likely to say they expect to pursue a career in science and technology, and nearly four times as likely to desire a career specifically in engineering.

But, what can you do for your kids if they are not in Rochester, and if you cannot find a similar program where you live?  Easy. Buy them a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot building kit.  It’s the best $250 you will have ever spent on your child’s education. It’s the easiest way to start learning robotics.  A simple robot can be built in as little as 30 minutes.  Yet it’s no mere toy either.  Your child will be able to build incredibly smart and advanced robots as well. The product comes with an NXT Intelligent Brick with a 32-bit processor, servo motors, a visual sensor, a touch sensor, a light sensor, 519 LEGO TECHNIC elements, 4 input ports, 3 output ports, a display, speakers, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth support, and software that works with both the PC and Mac.

And your son or daughter needn’t work alone.  There is a huge community of kids through adult LEGO hobbyists online, and likely in clubs in your town, that are always willing to help, share ideas, and show others their creations.  Working with others, or on their own, LEGO Mindstorms NXT will inspire and educate your child while offering excitement and loads of fun.

You can easily spend $250 on a toy or electronic gadget. Don’t waste it something just offers play time, or something that just blows out your kid’s eardrums.  Buy something with some educational value that just may be what it takes to propel a child into an exciting and rewarding field of study and work.

Oh, and it’s not just for kids, mom and dad.

LEGO Mindstorm NXT Zoo

Have you got child that enjoys building things?  Well, do his or her future a favor throw out that regular set of LEGOs and replace it with LEGO’s Mindstorms NXT. Instead of building objects that just sit there and do nothing, they’ll be building simple to complex robots that are not only fun to create, but educational as well.  The robotics industry promises great careers and financial rewards for any young person going into the field and you’ll be doing your son or daughter, or any child you know for that matter, a great service exposing them to this field now. We mention this today because just last month No Starch Press released their new 336-page book entitled The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Zoo!: A Kid-Friendly Guide to Building Animals with the NXT Robotics System, which promises “you’ll have hours of fun with these animal-like models that walk, crawl, hop, and roll!”

The book first introduces you to the NXT kit and reviews the parts you’ll need in order to begin building. Then, you’ll learn how to program with the NXT-G programming language, including how to make miniprograms called My Blocks that you can use to build larger programs. Finally, you’ll learn how to build each robot and program it to act like its real animal cousins. What kind of animals?

1. “Ribbit", a jumping frog
2. “Bunny", a hopping rabbit
3. “Sandy", a walking camel
4. “Spiderbot", an eight-legged spider that avoids objects and walks forward and backward
5. “Snout", a walking alligator that opens and closes its jaws
6. “LEGOsaurus", a lumbering dinosaur
7. “Pygmy", a walking elephant that raises and lowers its head
8. “Polecat", a rolling skunk that swings around, lifts its tail and shoots a dart
9. “Strutter", a rolling peacock that avoids objects, turns and flutters its tail feathers

The book comes with a companion web site that shows how to substitute parts and other information like downloadable instructions for making animal sounds for the book’s robots.

Fay Rhodes is co-author of The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: Design, Invent, and Build (No Starch), a 2007 member of LEGO’s MINDSTORMS Community Partners (MCP), and the only female contributor to the NXT Step Blog.

Psst!  You don’t need to be a kid to get into Lego Mindstorms NXT.