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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Are We Like Robots?

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students explore the similarities between how humans move and walk and how robots move, so they come to see the human body as a system from an engineering point-of-view. Movement results from decision making (deciding to walk and move)...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How Does a Robot Work?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
This lesson introduces electricity, batteries and motors using a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot. The associated activity guides young scholars to build a simple LEGO NXT set-up and see the practical implementation of the concepts discussed....
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How Do Human Sensors Work?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
This instructional activity highlights the similarities between human sensors and their engineering counterparts. Taking this approach enables students to view the human body as a system, that is, from the perspective of an engineer....
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What Is a Motor? How Does a Rotation Sensor Work?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students learn about electric motors and rotational sensors. They create a basic program using the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT interface to control a motor to move a small robot.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How Does a Touch Sensor Work?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students look at human senses and their electronic imitators, with special focus on the skin and touch sensors. They have a chance to handle and get familiar with the LEGO touch sensor, including programming LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robots to...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How Does a Light Sensor Work?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
A mini-activity, which uses LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT intelligent bricks and light sensors gives students a chance to investigate how light sensors function in preparation for the associated activity involving the light sensors and taskbots.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Grand Challenge: Simulating Human Vision

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students are introduced to the Robotics Peripheral Vision Grand Challenge question. They are asked to write journal responses to the question and brainstorm what information they require to answer the question. Their ideas are shared...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How Do You Store All This Data?

For Teachers 11th - 12th
During this lesson plan, learners start to see the data structure they will use to store their images, towards finding a solution to this unit's Grand Challenge. Students are introduced to two-dimensional arrays and vector classes. Then...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Foucault Pendulum

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students learn about the Foucault pendulum, an engineering tool used to demonstrate and measure the Earth's rotation. Student groups then create small experimental versions, each comprised of a pendulum and a video camera mounted on a...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Timing a Speedbot!

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Students strengthen their communication skills by first learning the meaning of base units and derived units. Then, working in groups, students measure the time for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robots and calculate the robots' average speeds at...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Claw

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn about gear ratios and power by operating toy mechanical cranes of differing gear ratios. They attempt to pick up objects with various masses to witness how much power must be applied to the system to oppose the force of...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Fence That Farmland!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students develop and solidify their understanding of the concept of perimeter as they engage in a portion of the civil engineering task of land surveying, using the technology of a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot to automate this task.
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Website
Other

Intelligent Autonomous Systems

For Students 9th - 10th
University of Amsterdam research information focused on robotics and neuroscience, including visual and sound perception.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Projectile Motion

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students are introduced to the concept of projectile motion, of which they are often familiar from life experiences,such as playing sports such as basketball or baseball, even though they may not understand the physics involved. Students...
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Squishy Robot Simulator

For Students 3rd - 8th
Robots come in many shapes and sizes. Everything from the Mars Rover to a toy dinosaur is a well planned machine designed to suit its purpose. In this experiment you will test different robot designs with an online simulator.
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Website
Other

University of Bradford: Bradford Robotic Telescope

For Students 9th - 10th
Allows students to submit a request for a telescope in England to view a portion of the sky. The telescope is robotically controlled via the internet.
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Activity
Harvard University

Harvard Robotics Laboratory

For Students 9th - 10th
Research projects on computational vision, neural networks, tactile sensing, motion control and VLSI systems. Plus general info, Harvard and robotics related pages.
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Website
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Programming a Robot

For Students 3rd - 8th
In this video segment from Cyberchase, the CyberSquad breaks down an action into a series of steps in order to program a robot to do what they need it to do. [4:50]
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Unknown Type
English for Everyone

Reading Comprehension Assessent: "Robots" [Pdf]

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Read Theory provides a free reading comprehension assessment that is designed for reading students in elementary grades. Six multiple choice questions and one extended response question are included on the nonfiction reading assessment.
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Online Course
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mit: Open Course Ware: Mobile Autonomous Systems Laboratory

For Students 9th - 10th
This course guides students through the design and production of an autonomous robot that must face a series of competitive challenges.
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Article
Penguin Publishing

Penguin Random House: Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino

For Students K - 1st
This is an introduction to the children's novel Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino, a science fiction book for young readers. It includes a brief summary, links to about the author information, book reviews, and other books by the author....
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Website
PBS

Nova Online: Bomb Squad

For Students 9th - 10th
Information on robots that are used for hazardous duty, such as patrolling beaches to find land mines, is found here.
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Website
Other

Welcome to Genetic Programming: Homepage

For Students 9th - 10th
A very comprehensive site from genetic-programming.org that has theses, essays, articles, and links all relating to genetic programming.
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Website
Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University: Robotics Institute

For Students 9th - 10th
Robotics research at Carnegie Mellon University includes links to projects, research, and events.