Ok I called and talked to a woman. She said that the LEGO kit is one put together by All About Learning. You get a password to log onto for the course. THere is a number you can call for assistance. I think we might do it! She said they've had many kids take the course and never a bad review yet lol.

onthegomom - do you know the cost of the Northwestern LEGO Robotics I class?

Ok it's $450???????

Dazey

Wow, thanks all for your feedback. I am getting excited about starting this with my daughter.

Anyway, I am not worried about age. When she was 5, she had done electronics kits, programming and robotics rated 8+, although with some guidance. And it's true that they don't check age for the cont. ed. classes.

I found it originally on our district school activity website, at http://activenet11.active.com/evergreenp...vityframes.sdi.
If the link doesn't work, try http://www.egreen.wednet.edu, then Community Ed, then classes, then register online, then activities. Scroll through to "Online Elementary Engineering Using LEGOS". The text is virtually the same on at least 3 or 4 other ed. state's websites I have found, and NONE goes more in detail on what's involved with the online part.

Even though the name is similar, it doesn't look like the box they send is one for the Engineering I, as the guide refers to the Motorized Simple Machines Set which has less than the 1000+ pieces advertised.

Dazey, you might be right about the Engineering II, which uses a different set, the Technology set with 1,100+ pieces. But the website says that Eng. II builds on concepts taught in the Elementary Engineering I workbook, so I am still missing something here...

Anyway, I hope the online classes are not just videos, but have some printed material and manuals, otherwise I will have to buy some guides online.

--> I am likely to go ahead with this course, so if I do, I will share with you what came with the course. You might want to shop around, as I found prices from $125 to $179. For our local Washington Evergreen school district, it's $128.60, so I'll just go there.

On a side note, there has been several threads about programming, and I would highly suggest to check Scratch from the MIT lab. It's a GREAT resource to introduce young kids 5-9 to programming, MUCH better and more widely recommended than the easy route to start with Basic/Visual Basic. Alice 2 is an alternative, but more confusing I think. I have been doing programming for 25+ years, and after a couple of hours with Scratch, I can tell this is a GREAT software, seeing how excited my then-5yo daughter was. Also, when I was reviewing Lego resources for hours last night, I came across one of the Lego software that looked like the Scratch programming interface, and also I found some Scratch online classes to make simple video games with it, so that's some big pluses. And did I mention Scratch is FREE?

Max

MaxPat - can you post a link to the Wash School district w/ $128? Will you be signing up soon? If so, I'll let you be the guinea pig.

We've played w/ ALice 2 adn we may have played w/ Scratch. I'll have to check and see what's on the harddrive.

We do LEGO NXT-G to program LEGO MINDSTORMS robots. My 5yr old was surpisingly good at programming as well as debugging.

Capt_Uhura

Dazed,

Our WA edu. link is on my previous post, just follow menu directions above. Because the web pages are dynamically generated per session, I cannot give the link to a final page (I guess same pb. with my very 1st link), so you have to navigate there from the main page.

I might sign her up this weekend, but she has to stick to her part of the deal of work/play time management, and tonight she didn't... I'll let you know if/when I sign her up.

Since the Mindstorms robot kit is rated 12+ yo, and there are so many other things I am trying to have her do, I was going to wait until she's at least 8-9 to buy our own set. I was afraid that if she does robot programming first, she would get bored doing more basic stuff like the online engineering course with pulleys and gears, not even a motor included in that Lego ed. pack.

Oh well, maybe we'll get a Mindstorms for xmas 2010, if I can figure out the RCX vs. NXT vs. NXT-G vs. Robolab vs. Labview...

Max

Wow Scratch looks great. I was wondering if you down load the program do you need to go to their website? I'm concerned about content for my kids? has the website content been an issue for you?

Add supplies/kit to the tuition fee for Northwestern.

Maxpat

my then 5yr old loved programming and building robots. But they still love the LEGO engineering kits. THey still love playing w/ pulleys and gears and building machines etc. But you know your DD so go w/ your gut.

The engineering kit does come with a motor. Personally I wouldn't buy it w/ out the motor. There are two kits for most of them, one w/ the motor and one w/out.

Regardubg RCXvsNXT. RCX is the old system. Some people still buy it but I wouldn't. There is no support for it and no upgrades to the software. NXT-G is the software which comes w/ the NXT. It based on the Labview platform. Most start w/ NXT-G and if needed, move on to something else such as RoboLab or Labview or any of the other programming languages. I know some view NXT-G as limiting but there are some guys like Jim and XXX (forgot his name) who do some amazing programming in NXT-G. It just takes learning it and figuring out work arounds.

There are 2 software options for NXT-G. The education version and the retail version. The retail version doesn't have the data logging capabilities and real-time graphing that the education version has. I own both programs. My son wrote a great program to measure temperature in old NXT-G but it's really nice to have all the data logging done for you and see the data acquired in real time. I think it was great for him to program the data acquisition from scratch to see what's happening behind the curtains but after that, for quick and easy data acquistion, I like the education version. The retail version though comes with the instructions for building cool robot models.

Then there are two kits. THe retail kit and the education version kit. The sensors are a bit different. AND then there is a new version of the retail kit with zamor shooters, tracks, and other cool things.

Dazey

The website for Scratch is http://scratch.mit.edu/

I don't remember any issue at all on that site, although I didn't spend a lot of time there after downloading the software and some PDF documentations.

Max

For the previous poster who had questions regarding what kits you need or what might be best for their child:

There are LEGO Education Representatives for different regions of the United States. These are people who market the products (often to schools) and can answer any of your questions via telephone or email regarding which kit(s) would be best for your child's abilities or interests. You can look up their contact information online at http://www.legoeducation.us/support/ContactSalesRep.aspx?retest=1&bhcp=1

A poster already linked to the activities that are available online through LEGO Education. If you are looking for classes to attend that are officially offered by the LEGO company:

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area: http://www.legoeducationcenters.us
Charlotte, North Carolina: http://stores.lego.com/en-us/Concord/LandingPage.aspx
Hanover, Maryland: http://stores.lego.com/en-us/Hanover/LandingPage.aspx

It is not clear to me if the following center is officially affiliated with LEGO Education:
Branchburg, New Jersey: http://www.stormingrobots.com/prod/default.html