Robots today are roving Mars, collecting data in dangerous environments, hoovering our floors, lifting patients in hospital, building cars and entertaining us in films along with uses in surgery, in military surveillance and drones. The Japanese Robotics Association has made projections that the sales of robots will increase by over five times in the next 20 years. They predict that there will be an increasing demand for service and medical robots that could affect the job market for white collared workers in the future.
Children love ‘playing’ with robots especially when it’s something that they are familiar with such as Lego. The EV3 robots are very responsive and it’s extremely rewarding to see the delight on a child’s face when she or he runs their first program and the robot actually moves following their instructions. This really inspires them to write more complicated programs to further test their robot.
I first started running Robot Clubs about 20 years using the earlier versions of Lego Mindstorms, RCX then NXT, at Crofton Hammond Junior School. I found the equipment in the cupboard and the children (and I) just loved trying it out. Although I only had two or three kits, the children were hooked straight away. I always had a waiting list to join my Robotic Club and I ran clubs and assemblies with all year 6s eager to join.
I use Lego with Mindstorms software and, am so passionate about robots that in September 2013 purchased my own set of the latest Lego EV3 Robots and have run Robot Workshops / Clubs with over 2,000 children in over ten different Junior Schools.
Over the years, I have streamlined my workshops and lessons to ensure that children of all abilities and interests, achieve at the end of a session. The Lego equipment is very reliable and the lesson is totally focused on the building and programming objectives.
I am a scientist by background with a Chemistry degree and more recently a Masters Degree(MSc) in Information Systems. My MSc involved a substantial amount of programming providing a good understanding and a keen interest in developing and introducing robotics to children. With the children, I enjoy investigating robots in everyday life, especially robotic rovers and space missions, and comparing them with the robots they build. The children love it.
Before lockdown in the previous five years, I coached independent teams to enter the First Lego League Competition (FLL). FLL is a fantastic competition for youngsters (9 to 16 years old) as it is challenging and uses real life problems. The competition involves a team of ten pupils, in my case from different schools, working on FLL from September to December on Saturday mornings . Moreover I am thrilled because Agile ICT for Education sponsored my teams. As I work as a Freelance Educator, Agile’s support is invaluable to me when I run the team. FLL is an amazing journey for the youngsters. To find out more about FLL and if you want to see how we got on check out the FLL page on this website or Agile Panthers website
Finally, by introducing the workings and programming behind the behaviour of Robots, we can take advantage of our youngster’s enthusiasm for Robots. Hopefully this will produce a life-long interest and skill that can encourage them to code and program in many languages, in different areas and, possibly, build the Robots of the future. After all someone will do it and why shouldn’t it be our children?
Liz Stoneham
AKA Robot Liz-ii
Liz writes articles for magazines of her experience of using Lego Mindstorms and teaching robots with children. Here is a selection of Hampshire Computing IT User Friendly
Hampshire Computing ICT User Friendly Autumn 2015
Article ‘Robots with Sensors and Computational Thinking’
Hampshire Computer ICT User Friendly Autumn 2014
Article ‘Robot Clubs at Crofton Hammond Junior School’
Hampshire ICT User Friendly – Summer 2014
Article ‘Robot Clubs at Crofton Hammond Junior School’
……. And NASA even use the Lego EV3 Robots with students. The following YouTube video shows NASA working with students with Lego EV3 Robots. They have to rescue the stranded Rover on Mars. This is similar to the challenges that my lessons, workshops, clubs and First Lego League sessions work on.