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In lugnet.edu, James Trobaugh wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Duane Collicott wrote:
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains
(www.BricksForBrains.org) has just received word from the IRS that our
application for tax-exempt status has been approved.
This will open doors for us in areas such as facility usage, grants,
partnership with museums and educational institutions, donations, fund
raising, and more.
Bricks for Brains is an organization through which I do educational work
with LEGO. We have formed our board, achieved 501c3 tax-exempt status, and
now we move on to designing and implementing more hands-on exhibits and
other educational services and products.
We are quite excited!
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Congradulations, that’s very cool. Now is your Bricks for Brains and this
Bricks for Brains the same?
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Thanks!
No that’s somebody else. I had hoped he would stop using it after I brought it
to his attention last year.
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In lugnet.announce, Duane Collicott wrote:
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains
(www.BricksForBrains.org) has just received word from the IRS that our
application for tax-exempt status has been approved.
This will open doors for us in areas such as facility usage, grants,
partnership with museums and educational institutions, donations, fund
raising, and more.
Bricks for Brains is an organization through which I do educational work with
LEGO. We have formed our board, achieved 501c3 tax-exempt status, and now we
move on to designing and implementing more hands-on exhibits and other
educational services and products.
We are quite excited!
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Congradulations, that’s very cool. Now is your Bricks for Brains and this
Bricks for Brains the same?
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains (www.BricksForBrains.org)
has just received word from the IRS that our application for tax-exempt status
has been approved.
This will open doors for us in areas such as facility usage, grants, partnership
with museums and educational institutions, donations, fund raising, and more.
Bricks for Brains is an organization through which I do educational work with
LEGO. We have formed our board, achieved 501c3 tax-exempt status, and now we
move on to designing and implementing more hands-on exhibits and other
educational services and products.
We are quite excited!
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Lego Bible Study went well. Though folks were very eager to learn more about
our construction clubs, I managed to keep us focused on the textual
deconstruction at hand. Unfortunately, a young person showed up, so I couldn’t
spend as much time on the bawdy stuff as I would have wanted. Oh, well. If we
had everything, where would we put it? And how long would it take to sort it
all?
I threw together a Moses amongst the bullrushes play set:
and a Jesus of Nazareth minifig:
He rode along in my nametag all Easter morning.
Happy Easter, all!
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In lugnet.technic, Edward Welsh wrote:
> > The internal angles on a 3-4-5 right triangle
> > are 30, 60, and of course 90 degrees.
>
> And now a teachable moment! You've made my week!
Yeah, about 5 minutes after I submitted that I realized just how stupid I've
become as of late (I plead mercy due to a very nasty sinus infection... but dang
it, I should have caught that even if I was unconcious). What will make it even
funnier (for you) is that I'm a physicist by training, so it's not like I don't
know this stuff. Groan...
--
Brian "ignorance always looks better in public" Davis
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In lugnet.technic, Joe Strout wrote:
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I’m trying to make a largish... octagon or hexagon out of
technic parts.
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A 12-12-17 triangle is very nearly right, and has angles of about 44.9 degrees.
I used four of them in making a stop sign:
Note that all eight corners are nicely studded down.
Joe and Brian wrote:
Well whaddaya know! I’d always assumed those things were 135 degrees. Looks
like I learned something today. Brian, many thanks for the terrific Lego
geometry links I did not know about. You made my day.
Brian Davis wrote:
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The internal angles on a 3-4-5 right triangle are 30, 60, and of course 90
degrees.
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And now a teachable moment! You’ve made my week! As DaveE alludes elsewhere in
this thread, a 3-4-5 triangle has angles of about 36.87, 53.13, and 90 degrees.
Making one of these triangles is a great way to build a strong right angle. A
triangle with angles of 30, 60, and 90 degrees is a different animal: half an
equilateral triangle. It can help in making a regular hexagon. Unfortunately,
at least one of its sides must have a funny (irrational) length, so it isn’t the
easiest thing to build in brick or technic.
-Teddy
p.s. I must admit that when I first read Brian’s statement, I made a noise so
horrible my colleagues here in the math department wondered if I was ill. Don’t
worry. I’ll be fine. Eventually.
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In lugnet.edu, Edward Welsh wrote:
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Last spring, my colleagues got funding for two shiny display cabinets for my
math department. Appropriate displays were just slow enough in coming that I
could (quickly) haul out several of my Lego math demonstration models and
fill an entire case with them:
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Awesome... I love seeing Lego used in manners such as this. Spotlit.
Janey “Math is hard, lets go shopping, Red Brick”
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Last spring, my colleagues got funding for two shiny display cabinets for my
math department. Appropriate displays were just slow enough in coming that I
could (quickly) haul out several of my Lego math demonstration models and fill
an entire case with them:
Home Plate
This familiar-looking shape does not actually exist. Look at the triangle on
the bottom. (Use the dashed black line as its long side.) The side lengths of
12, 12, and 17 do not obey the Pythagorean Theorem—check 12^2+12^2 and 17^2.
However, it’s very, very nearly a right triangle, so we let it slide.
Turned Squares
Here are two squares. Look at the larger one. If you include the white dotted
lines, you can see that the larger square is made up of four right triangles
whose sides are very, very close to 12-12-17. These numbers were obtained using
a continued fraction.
The smaller square is made up of four 6-8-10 right triangles and one 2 by 2
square. The yellow and blue triangles are illustrated with dotted lines. Of
the five polygons in the display, this is the only one whose linear measurements
are all integers.
Equilateral Triangles
Here are two equilateral triangles. The triangle with sides of length 9 does
not work well in Lego. Its altitude is about 7.794—not an integer value—so its
top vertex (where yellow and red meet) is not near a grid point, so it cannot
connect to the gray baseplate.
The triangle with sides of length 15 does work well. Its altitude is about
12.99—very close to 13—so its top vertex (where blue and yellow meet) connects
solidly to the gray baseplate.
Blue Wave
This wavy object is generated by the function z=5cos(x^2+y^2)+6. In Calculus
II, we learn how to find the size of one slice; in Calculus III we learn how to
slice up the entire object and find its volume.
Attention: Dr. Masi, Dr. Masi to the fourth floor.
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I'm cross-posting this to .robotics for you.
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http://www.legoengineering.com/content/view/78/65/
LEGOengineering.com's newest survey focuses on how educators manage LEGO-based
learning.
We want to know how educators facilitate student learning in activities that use LEGO materials. How do LEGO activities help you meet academic requirements? How do you choose activities? How do you introduce activities? How do you keep students on task during a LEGO activity?
Take the latest survey and help us summarize how educators are managing LEGO
learning in the classroom.
Survey results will be published in Fall 2007.
Merredith Portsmore
merredith@legoengineering.com
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To all,
It is time for my annual (3rd year) Summer LEGO Camp through my local Parks and
Rec program. Since the last camp http://news.lugnet.com/edu/?n=247 I have
relocated from Cedar City, Utah to Spanish Fork, Utah.
After the move, I found that Spanish Fork had a more advanced Parks and Rec
program than Cedar City! I presented the camp about 5 months ago to the
organizers and they agreed, after the customary jiggles about Adults and LEGO.
Part of the agreement was that I assumed the risk of pre-purchasing the sets.
No problem, one can always use more LEGO.
Another round of laughs were generated when I presented my available time slots
for the camp which included three 5-day sessions with 9 participants in each
session.
The laughs shortly ended after the first 2 days of registration; 27 children
signed up filling all three classes and a waiting list was generated. I am
hoping for a 4th class in August.
Anyway, please read the thread too, http://news.lugnet.com/edu/?n=247, for a
better idea of the previous camps.
Once again, I am using the “Creator” line for the bulk of the sets. 3 of the
days and the take home set are from “Creator”. I am going to try Andrew Cross’
suggestion http://news.lugnet.com/edu/?n=251 to create a city on one of the
days.
Again, I am pre-separating the models for ease of building.
Here is the outline of events:
Day 1: Mini Pod Collection
5 Minutes – Micro Building (Cutebot)
5 Minutes - Introductions - Get to know the participants and me
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo - I hand out a paper with printed LDraw parts and
we discuss how to ask for and name a part, such as, 2 x 3 plate, 2 x 2 cone,
etc. 40 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-4 Models from the set)
Day 2: Wild Hunters
5 Minutes – Micro Building (Seagull) (Optional)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo
10 Minutes – Speed build. Time Participants on building a frog made of 11
pieces. 30-35 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-3 Models from the set)
Day 3: Highway Haulers (4891)
5 Minutes – Micro Building (Car) (Optional)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo
15 Minutes - Back to Back Building. Two participants are given two different
models. One model is completed and the other model is just pieces. They sit back
to back and one participant using the completed model and Parts Lingo tells the
other participant how to put their pieces together without looking at the model.
Then they trade roles. It is a blast to get back together and see how the models
turn out. 20 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-2 Models from the set) 10 Minutes
- Double Elimination Racing. I bring in some planks of wood and we race the cars
down the planks. Most times the wheels are too small and the model too light to
race in a straight line every time. Anxiety is high just trying to get past the
finish line!!
Day 4: City Building (5482)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo
45 Minutes – I will design a city using LEGO road plates and then ask the
participants to create buildings, houses, etc. to populate the city
Day 5: Robo Platoon (4881)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
15 Minutes - LEGO Part Quiz - Follow-up from the Part Lingo. I hand out a paper
with new printed LDraw parts and the participants need to match the part with
the name. 30 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-3 Models from the set) 15 Minutes
- Free Building (Participants can use the remaining bricks to MOC)
I will be taking pictures but I am unsure, at the moment, where I will place
them.
Suggestions and Feedback are appreciated.
Thank you,
Brian Pilati
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LEGOengineering.com is working on an article on how educators organize and
manage their LEGO Materials. To help us gather ideas from teachers and after
school program leaders we've put together a survey to find out how you store and
sort your pieces.
http://www.legoengineering.com/content/view/69/65/
If you have a few minutes, please stop by and fill out the survey. An article
summarizing the results will be published later this spring on the site.
Thanks!
Merredith
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LEGOengineering.com is working on an article on how educators organize and
manage their LEGO Materials. To help us gather ideas from teachers and after
school program leaders we've put together a survey to find out how you store and
sort your pieces.
http://www.legoengineering.com/content/view/69/65/
If you have a few minutes, please stop by and fill out the survey. An article
summarizing the results will be published later this spring on the site.
Thanks!
Merredith
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Saturday Academy just got our shipment of 12 NXT's. I've got 2 one-week summer
classes this week and next that I can test these on. Of course, I still have
our tried and true RCXs to fall back on. And so I wonder.
Sorting, installing software then building the "quickstart" model to it's full
compliment and running it (along with the learning curve) took me a few hours.
It would probably take me the better part of the weekend to build and program
the next three models.
In the process, I keep wondering how "pile-it-on" 10 year olds will deal with
no-studs-holes-based construction, linkages, visual object oriented programming,
programming blocks with at least half-a-dozen variables, wire-wrapped argument
passing with data typing, etc.
I suspect we'll have lots of "broken wires".
It's a brave new world! Forward and onward!!
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In lugnet.edu, Dan Bee wrote:
> This is a follow on camp to one the participants were involved
> in as 7th graders.
So they have *some* background, and you can just jump in? I'm wondering how
basic a start you need.
> missions must be performed sequentially and one robot will
> trigger the next sequence etc. until all are completed.
Well, a *really* simple way of doing this is to have four robots sitting at
the corners of a rectangular enclosure. Start one, and it has to do until it
hits a second. At that point the first one stops, and the second one has to
start moving and continue around the rectangle until it bumpbs the next, etc.
This ends up requiring wall following (or line following; there are obviously a
lot of variations), and well-designed bumpers (because everybody's robot is
going to be different, you have to make sure you can sense an impact from a
variety of directions from a variety of different shapes). This could be
expanded to more robots, different shaped tracks, and the ability to "reset" the
robot (after it moves and 'tags' the next robot, it has to get ready to sense a
'tag' from behind... the net result being a continuous cycle of robots around
the course).
Another think to look at if you are trying to work with cooperative tasks is
how FIRST robotics events (*not* FLL, but the older kids) are run. These are
usually teams of two robots, built by different groups. So they're are a lot of
different strategies, and picking your partner team becomes important as well
(strategies that complement each other).
> We are planning to buy the Mario Ferrari "Building Robots
> with LEGO Mindstorms" book for each camper as well as
> each of them will go home with an RCX kit.
One of the better books out there, in my opinion. Lots of tidbits to grow on
mechnically, as well as ways to solve problems, although a little thin on
programming. But, honestly, I'm not sure I've seen the programming complement to
it - certainly not in Robolab (I've not looked), and the closest I can thank of
in NQC is Dave Baum's book (is it still in print?).
--
Brian Davis
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Hi,
I'm in the process of developing a summer camp called Advanced STEPS (Science
Tehcnology and Engineering Preview) here at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
This is a follow on camp to one the participants were involved in as 7th
graders. We are planning to use the mindstorms RCX kits to have the campers
design and build autonomous robotic solutions to "rube goldberg" style of
problems. I liken these problems to missions within the FLL program. The twist
for us is that the missions must be performed sequentially and one robot will
trigger the next sequence etc. until all are completed.
We are developing ideas for curriculum about how to teach the campers how to use
the mindstorms to do some "gee-whiz" kinds of things. The topics we are going
to instruct in are: 1) mechanisms/build strategies, 2)programming using RoboLab,
3)control strategies, and 4)sensors use.
This will be a 4 day resident (on campus) camp and by the end of day 4, the
student teams will have displayed their working solutions, been judged by a
panel of engineers on their design creativity, programming creativity, teamwork
and overall performance of the tasks (yes this is modeled after the FLL system).
Are there any existing programs like this in existence? Does anyone have
recommended resources to use for the campers? We are planning to buy the Mario
Ferrari "Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms" book for each camper as well as
each of them will go home with an RCX kit.
Any help LUGNET can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan Bee
University of Wisconsin-Stout
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http://www.blackenterprise.com/yb/ybopen.asp?section=ybng&story_id=83307113&ID=blackenterprise
The LEGO Group, through its LEGO(R) Education division, has signed an exclusive
Master License Agreement with ALC Education Group, LLC of New York to bring the
LEGO Education Center concept to the United States and Canada.
The LEGO Education Centers will offer innovative educational enrichment programs
in early childhood, science, math and technology for children ages 3 through 16.
Classes will be offered to students both in the center and on-site at schools in
a mix of daytime, after-school, weekend and summer camp programs. Additionally,
the centers will provide staff development for educators in the use of LEGO
curriculum and materials to teach science, math and technology in their
classrooms.
...
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In lugnet.build.schleim, Anita Eenink wrote:
> In lugnet.build.schleim, Christopher Masi wrote:
> > In lugnet.build.schleim, Anita Eenink wrote:
> > > In lugnet.build.schleim, Didier Enjary wrote:
> > > > LEGO and chirality
> > > >
> > > > Chirality is the property of an object that can not be superimposed on its
> > > > mirror image. Examples includes both natural (biological) object such hands and
> > > > cultural (technical) object such screws.
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > > > Any thoughts ?
> > >
> > > I will never look at my bricks the same.... what a great idea for a lesson plan,
> > > I have written it down to tell my sister (a secondary science teacher), I am a
> > > training early childhood so chirality isn't on the curriculum :(. Is there
> > > nothing lego can not teach us. Thanks
> > >
> > > Anita
> >
> > Actually, you can model Lewis Structures* with LEGO too. I sent an article
> > describing the LEGO-Lewis Model to the Journal of Chemical Education, but they
> > rejected it :( A reviewer suggested that I re-write the "article" as an
> > "activity" and re-submit it. I am hoping to get back to that soon :)
> >
> > If your sister is interested, I'd be happy to talk with her.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > *Lewis structures are a very simple yet surprisingly powerful way to model
> > chemical bonds.
>
> Excellent Chris, what did you use for the bonds and what did you use for the
> atoms. And were you also able to show double covalent bonds. (which is something
> that would be hard to show) I would love to read the article if you want.
>
> I get so excited when people are able to incorporate manipulatives into the
> classroom (for too long hands on learners have been ignored in secondary
> education).
>
> Now I am off to try and build a lewis structure... although I might start small,
> maybe ammonia only three covalent bonds..... oh would I need to show the two
> remaining valence electrons.
>
> Anita
Well, if you want to show the lone pair of electrons you could.
http://wsc.ma.edu/cmasi/BBModel.pdf
Here is a link to a pdf. I didn't think that sending you a 385 kB e-mail message
was sucha great idea:)
I thought the model was a neat idea. Unfortunately, one of the reviewers hated
it, and the other two didn't think it rose to the level of "article". I will go
back and develop an activity based on the model, but I need to find the time to
do that.
Oh yeah, after creating all of the figures, I realized that for maximum
flxibility the only bricks that should be used are 1x4's and 1x1's. So, anywhere
there is a 1x3 or 1x2 brick replace it with the correct number of 1x1's.
Eventually, I'll redo the drawings.
Chris
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In lugnet.build.schleim, Christopher Masi wrote:
> In lugnet.build.schleim, Anita Eenink wrote:
> > In lugnet.build.schleim, Didier Enjary wrote:
> > > LEGO and chirality
> > >
> > > Chirality is the property of an object that can not be superimposed on its
> > > mirror image. Examples includes both natural (biological) object such hands and
> > > cultural (technical) object such screws.
>
> [snip]
>
> > > Any thoughts ?
> >
> > I will never look at my bricks the same.... what a great idea for a lesson plan,
> > I have written it down to tell my sister (a secondary science teacher), I am a
> > training early childhood so chirality isn't on the curriculum :(. Is there
> > nothing lego can not teach us. Thanks
> >
> > Anita
>
> Actually, you can model Lewis Structures* with LEGO too. I sent an article
> describing the LEGO-Lewis Model to the Journal of Chemical Education, but they
> rejected it :( A reviewer suggested that I re-write the "article" as an
> "activity" and re-submit it. I am hoping to get back to that soon :)
>
> If your sister is interested, I'd be happy to talk with her.
>
> Chris
>
> *Lewis structures are a very simple yet surprisingly powerful way to model
> chemical bonds.
Excellent Chris, what did you use for the bonds and what did you use for the
atoms. And were you also able to show double covalent bonds. (which is something
that would be hard to show) I would love to read the article if you want.
I get so excited when people are able to incorporate manipulatives into the
classroom (for too long hands on learners have been ignored in secondary
education).
Now I am off to try and build a lewis structure... although I might start small,
maybe ammonia only three covalent bonds..... oh would I need to show the two
remaining valence electrons.
Anita
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In lugnet.build.schleim, Anita Eenink wrote:
> In lugnet.build.schleim, Didier Enjary wrote:
> > LEGO and chirality
> >
> > Chirality is the property of an object that can not be superimposed on its
> > mirror image. Examples includes both natural (biological) object such hands and
> > cultural (technical) object such screws.
[snip]
> > Any thoughts ?
>
> I will never look at my bricks the same.... what a great idea for a lesson plan,
> I have written it down to tell my sister (a secondary science teacher), I am a
> training early childhood so chirality isn't on the curriculum :(. Is there
> nothing lego can not teach us. Thanks
>
> Anita
Actually, you can model Lewis Structures* with LEGO too. I sent an article
describing the LEGO-Lewis Model to the Journal of Chemical Education, but they
rejected it :( A reviewer suggested that I re-write the "article" as an
"activity" and re-submit it. I am hoping to get back to that soon :)
If your sister is interested, I'd be happy to talk with her.
Chris
*Lewis structures are a very simple yet surprisingly powerful way to model
chemical bonds.
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