Classroom Activities for the Busy Teacher: EV3

Progress in robotics is expected to have revolutionary impact on human society in the century (self-driving cars, drones etc) so it is clearly important to teach robotics in schools. I chose this text as the basis for a robotics course that I taught to students aged 13-16 with great success. I like the strong emphasis on the students doing the programming themselves rather than being spoon-fed. The themes are well chosen and motivational (planetary exploration, assisting the infirm, mini-golf…) and the use of a standard robot base simplifies the teacher’s work. The book presents a 50 hour course but many teachers will need to make a selection of exercises to fit tighter time restraints, as I did. The students get lots of experience writing programs and working with different sensors but the book does not present some of the more advanced programming concepts such as data wires, variables and arrays. I hope there will one day be a sequel aimed at older kids. Note that the book is also available in PDF form in French from the author’s website.

Bought this for my nephew in Holland as a Christmas Present, so not sure how popular it's proved! He had this EV3 kit, but his father wanted help teaching him how to use it & thought that this might be just the job! Slightly disappointed that it only came as a paper-back book & didn't have more content. Seemed expensive for what it was, but didn't seem to be anything else like it on the market. No problems with delivery, packaging, etc.

An excellent and very timely book on LEGO Education's new MINDSTORMS EV3 product series. I'm finding the building and programming instructions very clear and easy to follow, and a great help in enabling me to learn how to use the graphical programming blocks - which are very different to those in NXT-G. This book is a real bargain at less than £10 per copy (I paid £25 for mine!)

I thought there was a bit more!