Learning through Lego Mindstorms EV3: MYP Design Update by Mr. George Carrington

In approaching teaching and learning MYP Design it is necessary to have a Problem-Focus, Solution Focus mindset that;

Boosts Empathy and awareness; for example, “What type of problems do you face in daily life?” “Are there more people who are facing the same problem?”, and “What can we do to solve it?”.

Challenging students with such questions helps young learners begin to think about their surrounding conditions. This helps them think about the problems they would like to solve, these can be as simple as having a robot retrieve an item across the room without having the programmer needing to leave their seat”.

Nurtures Imagination and Creativity

When posing such inquiry questions to students you will get a room full of energy and 100 possible answers, this is the time to ask students how their potential solutions will be done. For example, if you need to retrieve an item from across the room, “what will you need?” You will likely need something with wheels on it to move and arms to pick it up. “Do you have these useful materials available and the know how on how to program such a piece of technology?”.

Introducing Engineering

Lego Mindstorms encourages kids to build with more variety like gears and levers. It provides the opportunity for authentic engineering where students can take the different plastic pieces to construct robots, buggies, or devices while making sin order to operate over and over again to complete a job. Some experts share the opinion that the best way to stimulate the maximum opportunity to create interesting new things in robotics is to first take away the option of using the wheels!

Emphasizing teamwork

Building a robot is not an easy task for students to finish on their. We encourage students to work collaborative in groups to complete robots design, assembly, and testing.  ISD design teachers help them identify their strengths, as well as start to think about strategies for leadership, delegation of duties, and building successful teams. 

Teaching programming concepts

When building a robot, it is important that students are aware that computers do not and can not think for themselves. All technology is based on code, no matter how complex it is. Lego Mindstorms runs on visual programming, which is ideal for our learners because they simply need to imagine what their robot will do, and drag-and-drop plain language blocks into correct sequences using logic. There are on-screen technologies to do this like Scratch, however, these lack the physical interaction and very interesting multi-sensory experience that students get in creating and using a robot.

Product, System, Services, and Solutions

The programming ideas allow students to develop their own set of computer instructions that allows them to attempt to solve real-world problems by developing products, systems services, and solutions.

Present a solution

Presenting a solution is just as important as finding a solution! A student’s reflection on their experience strengthens and deepens their understanding as well as celebrating the learning of important soft skills and taking pride in their work.