Would you like to create a LEGO robot that can search for victims? Would you like to make a LEGO Textrix robot that can be used for the High School FIRST Tech Challenge? Would you like to direct characters in your own 3D movie? You can do this using drag-and-drop programming with free software called Alice. For more information on LEGO Tetrix see http://www.legoeducation.us:80/store/detail.aspx?CategoryID=159&by=9&ID=1760&c=1&t=0&l=0. For more information on Alice see http://www.alice.org.
15 minutes explain the LEGO NXT kits (explain that 2x means 2 of that part, explain the sizes are the number of studs on the lego parts and show how to measure axles, show the 3 different black connectors that look similar and explain how to tell them apart, show how to use the parts list to find which bin a part can be found in)
1.5 hours try some easy things building and programming projects listed at http://nxtprograms.com/projects1.html. Scroll to the bottom to see the difficulty ratings. Try things like the top spinner, mini-golf, baseball batter, and spin art.
lunch 12 - 1pm
1 hour build the robot that matches the instructions in the kit (up to before you add the sensors)
1 hour do the first 7 challenges that come with the software and try to program the robot to go through coures outlined in blue painters tape - First NXT challenges
30 minutes - Let the students add the light sensor, do challenges 16 and 17, and try to follow a black line on white foam board.
lunch 1 hour
30 min - Introduce the kids to the rescue competition from RoboCupJr. and challenge them to try to identify the victims (by stopping and playing a tune) as they navagate through the course following the black line. They will have to try to find the line again when it disappears.
30 minutes - Show them how to do more than one thing at a time (Do Together). Show them how to change the duration of the animation. Show them how to create their own methods in Alice http://ice-web.cc.gatech.edu/dl/?q=node/276
30 minutes - challenge the students to create their own methods and show them
30 minutes - talk about storyboarding (planning your story and breaking it into methods) let the kids work on storybording
1.5 hours - challenge students to work in groups to create a story with several characters and have them each work on the methods for one character and save that character out as a new class and then combine the saved classes into one Alice world to tell the story.
