LEGO Robotics Activity Day

A LEGO Robotics activity in your school using programmable LEGO. Can be based around a particular theme and can be tailored to computing/science/maths as required.

A brief description of how the workshop would be run:

• Up to 18 robot kits for the pupils to use (in pairs), plus challenge “arena” for testing.

• Build a basic robot and program it to do some simple tasks.

• Modify the robot to their own design for the challenge(s) – graded easy/medium/hard for differentiation.

What age groups?:

• Works best for ages 10-14 but anything between 8 and 18 is fine.

Maximum number of children you can cater for:

• An ideal team size is 2-3 pupils with up to 15 teams so 45 pupils per session or 135 pupils in a day
• Usually 2 sessions of 2-3 hours although sometimes a third session depending on the school’s timetable.
• Shorter sessions are possible as are half days and/or after-school sessions.

The skills pupils will be using are:

• Follow instructions to build Lego robot (one between 2)
• Simple navigation/programming/debugging (move, turn, speed, stop)
• Estimating and measuring
• Simple sensor use
• Challenge set to extend older/more able

This lines up very well with many requirements of the primary KS1 and KS2 computing curriculum (published 2014/15) and KS3 computing curriculum (published 2013).

There are more general skills in use:

• Teamwork (in pairs/threes)
• Problem solving
• Perseverance

There are also lots of opportunities for scientific discussion around the themes of the challenge sets – for example Mars exploration, the Human Body, Natural Disasters, Food and Farming, Recycling.

If you are also considering the Kit Rental Service with free classroom video lessons , this activity day is an ideal kick-start. https://www.stem.org.uk/enrichment/stem-directory/activity/lego-robotics-kit-rental 

If you are looking for something for younger pupils (age 6-9) then try: https://www.stem.org.uk/enrichment/stem-directory/activity/lego-wedo-robotics-younger-pupils-activity-day

The STEM Directory is provided as a service to support you in finding enrichment opportunities. The activities are offered by external providers and are not endorsed by STEM Learning. We are not responsible for their content or delivery.