robotics summer program...

Well I was spoiled the last couple of summers having gone to the Educator Space Academy and then the advanced program. But this summer I am going to actually get to put what I learned at Space Camp to real use - I am creating and running a robotics program for my school district. Our community education department approached me to see if I would do this and I said yes as long as they purchased the materials that I needed to do it right. Well I turned in my wish list and 3 weeks later, I had all of the kits sitting in my room - $4000 worth!!!

Even though I did get exposed to robotics at Space Camp, it is a whole lot different when you are supposed to teaching it to paying customers. Well I spent a big chuck of my Spring Break building all different kinds of robotics from the Legos Mindstorm NXT kit and teaching myself how to program them. THIS IS A BLAST!!!

I also just found out that as an additional benefit, I am going to be able to take my class on a field trip to the Mars Education Program at Arizona State University. Here they are going to learn how NASA uses robots right from the people who are actually involved in the monitoring of the rovers that are running around Mars right now.

This should be a lot of fun and I will make sure to let everybody know how my program progresses. Wish me luck...