Lego program schools grown-ups in robotics
Play with Legos. It’s for the kids.
Kids and adults alike are learning the science of robotics through the medium of Lego, The Boston Globe reports.
The FIRST Lego League is a robotics challenge, requiring kids between the ages of 9 and 14 to build their own robotic creations out of buckets of plastic bricks. In previous years, there has been a shortage of adult coaches to help the young engineers as the Lego challenges grow increasingly complex.
Earlier this month, The Globereports, that gap was bridged. The Coaches Connect initiative by the University of Massachusetts Amherst ran a workshop for a room full of parents and teachers to help familiarize them with the concepts necessary for the challenges of FIRST Lego League.
Colleen Shaver, assistant director of the Robotics Resource Center at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, told The Boston Globe, “The parents are concerned they won’t know enough… The kids are more open-minded. They’re less intimidated than adults by the idea of getting it wrong and trying again.’’
Renee Fall, of UMass Amherst, said that in the workshop, grown ups “realize that they can learn largely by their own exploration. They realize they don’t have to have all the answers [for students], but they can learn together.’’
Click here for the full Globe article and more on how adults and kids are learning robotics together.
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