National Instruments and LEGO Education continue their educational robotics collaboration with the new LEGO Education WeDo classroom robotics platform.
Powered by NI LabVIEW graphical design software, LEGO Education WeDo Software is a drag-and-drop, icon-based environment that students ages 7 to 11 can use to easily program their own robotics inventions. Using WeDo software, students learn basic programming skills while designing their robotics applications.
Teachers can incorporate the WeDo concept in a broad range of curriculum areas including science, technology, mathematics, language and literacy. When designing their robotics applications, students use creativity, teamwork and problem solving, which are crucial skills needed to compete in the global marketplace. WeDo software operates on the Intel Classmate PC running Windows XP, the One Laptop per Child XO running the Linux® OS, any PC supporting Windows XP or Windows Vista (32-bit) and any Mac running Apple Macintosh 10.5.
LEGO Education WeDo encourages teachers to issue curriculum-based challenges that students must solve. Working in teams, the children invent their own solutions by building LEGO models and programming them to perform certain tasks. Cause-and-effect learning is enhanced by the models remaining tethered to a computer; similar to scientists in working labs, children can test and adjust their programming in real time. After reflecting on what did and did not work, students can consult with peers, adapt programming, adjust models or begin again.
LEGO Education WeDo will be available from LEGO Education in January 2009. For more information on WeDo software, readers can visit www.ni.com/wedo.
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