"Do the difficult things while they are easy, and do the great things while they are small.

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

~ Lao Zi

LEGO® Mindstorms NXT & EV3 (Advance Robotic) For Kids

The LEGO® Mindstorms experience

LEGO® Mindstorms makes building, programming and commanding your own LEGO® robots smarter, faster, and more fun than ever. Follow the simple steps, you’ll be in control of robots that drive, shoot, slither, walk, slam, and spin.

1) Build your robot

It is everything you need in one box: bricks, motors, and sensors to build any of Mindstorms robots. Just make your pick.

2) Bring your robot to life

Use the Mindstorms NXT or EV3 Programmer App to bring your robot to life with your laptop. Write a program, press play, and watch your robot carry out the action.

3) Command and play

Use the remote control to steer your robots and challenge your friends to fun robot games.

4) Share your creation

Share your creations with other robot builders, and get inspired to create even more fun robots.

5) Rebuild for more adventures

Rebuild your robot and have fun with new actions and new missions.

Learning Goals

• Students will learn to build, program and integrate sensors (Ultrasonic/ Touch/ Gyro/ Color) to their NXT/EV3 robots in our Mindstorms Advance Robotic classes.

Class Details

Class Duration:

• 3 hours per class for 3 days

Age Group:

• 6 years and above

Location:

• Computhink Programming School, 203, Hougang Street 21, #01-83, S530203

Pre-Requisites:

• None required. These classes are meant for beginners.

Equipment

• A laptop and robotics kit will be provided for each child.

• If you would like to bring your own laptop (Windows 7 and above only), do let us know in advance!

Why Computhink?

1:6 Trainer to kids ratio in each class

By keeping the class small, we ensure that each kid gets the guidance and coaching he or she needs to create and bring their imaginations to life through programming. Besides allowing us to get to know your kid better, we also encourage the kids in our classes to also get to know one another and this is better facilitated in a small group setting.

Hands-on activity-based learning

We believe that kids learn best when they do it themselves in a fun environment. That is why we ensure that each kid is given a laptop to work their own respective projects and try their hand in the programming projects and activities. It is heartening each time we see the kids beaming and being proud of themselves when they could get the code to work as they want it to.

Our Teaching Philosophy

This idea that kids will learn anything that they want to when they are given the freedom to create, inspires and drives our teaching philosophy. In this, we are influenced by the work of Sugata Mitra (Educational Researcher) whose research demonstrates the effect that a child’s innate curiosity and interest have on learning complex subjects outside the normal school environment. The key word here is interest. By itself, it is a simple word and concept, easily understood, but not so easy to influence, especially with children.

At Computhink, our approach to this learning conundrum is three-pronged and can be described by these 3 questions by the child:

1. What can I do?

What is possible and achievable by programming? We approach this question by showing examples of fun projects that can be done with programming. These can include small mini-games or animations. In the beginner stage, the child would be unsure of what can be done, and it is helpful to be able to emulate and enhance something that is fun and cool.

2. How can I do it?

Secondly, we guide the children to ask open-ended questions. For example, “How can I make the character walk? Can it jump? Can it fly?” As we answer these questions, this is where the learning starts for the child as we guide them along.

3. What else can I do?

The Beginner Computhink class is, well, just the beginning. By the end of the 4 classes, the child would have grasped the basics of programming and computational thinking, and we want to show them what else is possible. By interfacing with other platforms (e.g. Arduino for robotics, Littlebits for home DIY projects), your child will be able to put their skills learned in this course to good use.

Follow-on Mastery Classes

What's next after this class? Like any learning, learning programming is best done through regular practice and with guidance from experts. And this is why we offer regular weekday/ weekend classes which provides regular weekly practice while exposing the kids to various programming languages such as intermediate Scratch, HTML, Python, and Javascript. Students can attend the intermediate/ advance ScratchThinker or Lego Mindstorm NXT/ EV3 Classes after this.

Building on the basic programming concepts from the holiday class, students will learn how these same basic concepts are applied and used in the other programming languages to do different things such as building websites and creating mobile apps and games. It is through regular and varied practice that promotes mastery and that is what we aim to do at Computhink. Our goal is to develop your kid’s interest in programming and guide him or her to reach a skill level to be comfortable enough to build their own websites or creating suitable apps to solve everyday issues and make things better.

Note: We may take photographs or videos of the students during the class. By registering your child's attendance, you agree to grant Computhink permission to use the photographs, videos or other materials produced during the class as part of Computhink's electronic or non-electronic promotional materials.