I have 3 robot crazy 13 yos here

[Heather in the Kootenays]

We'd like to add it to their curriculum next year. Does anyone have any suggestions. We have Mindstorms and they love it - we just wants to formalize it a bit.

[Anne/Ankara]

Carnegie Mellon University has a Robotics Academy for young people, and they offer quite a bit of free curriculum and programs for that age group. We have done some of their stuff-- it is very well done. Look under the "curriculum" toolbar, and the "educator" one for lots of ideas...

 

http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/index.htm

[Michelle in MO]

B.E.S.T. (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Competition for two years in a row. It is a very demanding challenge, but for the kids who are really into robotics, it's great!

 

Here's a link to the B.E.S.T. website; I believe they have different "hubs" around the United States, so if you check out this main web page, I believe you might be able to find a hub close to you:

 

http://www.bestinc.org/MVC/

 

Good luck!

[TRILLIUM]

My dd is doing FIRST Robotics Compitition this year---as a matter of fact we're in the middle of the St. Louis Regional competition Feb 28-March 1. We contacted two local school and both welcomed my homeschool daughter. We chose one of the school based on location and meeting times. That is a high school competion. So that's an option if you kids will be high schoolers next year. First also has the FIRSTTech Challenge thats a smaller scale high school competition.

 

If your kids will still be in middle school you can do a First Lego League team (FLL). With 3 kids and an NXT you are well on your way to a team. I was A First Lego League Coach this past fall. The downside of putting together a FLL team is your kids will be getting to old soon.

 

For FIRST (For Inspirstion and Recognition or Science and Technology) stuff go to http://www.usfirst.org

 

Other things you can search ard Botball, Best (that one requires you to be part of a "school" homeschoolers need to get funding through some kind of an umbrella) and finally Robofest.

[TRILLIUM]

Wanted to add you can now get intoduction to Mobile Robots for the NXT with a homeschool licence, and now that I've looked for the link I've discovered that they are offering single licenses for RobotC and Teaching Robot C. Here's the link to the store.http://store.robomatter.com/soforle.html

Some of the pages with info on these programs only give you the Class license price.

[Heather in the Kootenays]

Now I'm going to set my computer geek dh to figuring out what to do next year. The boys are really excited.

[Nikita]

Just wanted to add another recommendation for FIRST's FLL program, especially since you mention you already have the Mindstorms robot which is what they use. I have coached this program for 3 years now and it's been a great experience. Kids can still participate even when they are in high school - you just need to check the exact ages because they age out in the year they turn 15 so it really depends on their birthdate.

 

Also, with FLL, you can choose to attend a competition (which is loads of fun) and that gives the kids the opportunity to work on their research and presentation skills as well. Or, you can register and work on the robotic challenge on your own and not worry about the competition part of it.

 

You can contact someone in B.C. to find out what happens locally, by checking the official website.

That website also has a Resources page with some good links to some of the best Mindstorms materials on the web.

 

Nikita

[Bassoonaroo]

FIRST woudl be the way to go if you have one nearby that welcomes you. We have two FIRST teams nearby but neither welcomes homeschoolers. I guess I could start my own, but I am running (whew!) a 24-family weekly co-op and that takes enough of my time. I'd have to quit running it to run a FIRST team.

 

However, we ARE satisfying my dds' (11 and 13 yo) desire for robotics through a homeschool Science Olympiad team. My daughters have entered the Robo-Cross competition with a homemade robot. So, they are getting some robotics BUT I think FIRST would be better. I brought up Science Olympiad because it's a good resource if you can't get into a local FIRST team.

 

Hope you find the right solution!

 

Kelly

[TRILLIUM]

I just wanted to make a comment on the post about not being able to find a FIRST team. I assume they are talking about a FIRST Lego League team. The age of the kids mentioned was not high school. First Lego League teams are much smaller than First Robotic Teams which is the big high school teams. I have a First Lego League team (ages 9-14) and there is an official size limit of 10 kids. Even 10 is hard unless you have enough adult help and really organize your team well. The First Robotic Competition (FRC) has much bigger projects and bigger teams. The dynamics of adding extra kids is totally different. The building season for FRC is just 6 1/2 weeks long in Jan and Feb. Right now the teams are in competitions. If you have a kid interested in Robotics see if there is a competition near you coming up. All FIRST competitions are free and open to the public. Also most teams are connected to a high school making it easier to find someone to contact.

 

Oh I'm a coach of a FLL team in part because I could not find a team for my fifth grade son. My 10th grade dd had no trouble finding a FRC team. So don't let the difficulty of finding a FLL team discourage you from looking for a FRC Team.

 

edited to add links http://www.usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx

 

This will allow you to find out what is happening in your area