Ali in OR Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I'm perusing my Lego catalog. I'm wondering if the Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 is equivalent to what gets used if you are in a FIRST Lego league? I do not have a tech-loving dd (9 yo), but I do have a tech-loving dh and I think it would be good for my dd to try robotics. I could see dh and/or myself getting involved in teaching this in a home school co-op or forming a FIRST team if we could dd at least mildly interested in it. But I wouldn't want to invest in a Mindstorms NXT AND then have to buy something else for FIRST if we went that way. Ideally we could use Mindstorms to teach dd about robotics AND use the same system for a co-op class and then see if there are enough kids who would want to do a team. I do not know of any exisiting class or team for home schoolers in this area. Anyone have experience with this? What's the easiest way to try this out? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hscherger Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I think they are the same legos that are used in the First Lego League. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Yes, the NXT 2.0 is what is used in FIRST LEGO League (FLL). I recommend that you take a look at http://www.legoeducation.com before you choose which set to buy. There is an educational kit that contains everything in the retail kit, minus the software but plus the rechargable battery (which is expensive). By buying the software separately, you get a license to put it on up to ten computers (the same as the maximum # of people that can be on an FLL team). There are some great resources out there that you can use to help start a team. Send me a pm if you'd like more information on those (we are a fourth year team, my husband coaches & I take care of details, details, details). If you do start a team, you will find that you will need to have at least one "team owned" robot. You just take the total cost & split it evenly by the number of team members. The bot stays with the team as members leave & new members join. There is always new equipment to buy and software upgrades, so each year the team ends up costing about the same. It is better if each team can have two team robots, that way there isn't as much time lost waiting. We had one bot our first year, two our second year and three from then on. The problem with having the robots being privately owned is that the kids have a sense of ownership over their bot (rightfully so). They are often hesitant to let other kids use it, they want to use it when the team isn't using it, so they take it apart and often can't get it together the way it was (causing all sorts of mechanical and programming issues) and they may be absent one day, which means the team has no bot to work with. Like I said, PM me if you want more information on starting an FLL team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Thanks so much! Very helpful. Not sure where we'll go with all of this, but that was what I needed to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.