NEAT+2.4

Here's an idea for elementary school student robotics. Use the robot as a data gathering device. create a simple tribot or "domabot" and outfit it with a touch sensor configured as a bump/stop switch.

lay three meter sticks on the floor, with 3m being at the wall and 0 being a "starting line" 3 meters back. challenge each team or student work to discover the perfect setting to come as close to the wall as possible without touching. Instructions will specify that they must choose only one variable to adjust in the motor block's configuration pane. the only sensors in use should be the rotation sensor built-in to the servo-motor, and the timing sensor built-in to the NXT microcomputer ("SmartBrick"). Some might choose to program it to move forward for a fixed amount of time, adjusting the power setting between trials. Others might leave the power setting fixed and make (and document) successive adjustments to the amount of time the robot runs.

Other thought is to equip the 'bot with a forward-looking ultrasonic sensor and program it to display the distance from the wall every time it stops. A manual data collection method would involve the student following the 'bot with a clipboard, writing down the settings and results. Another student might be entering the data from physical observation of where the robot starts each time.

ALL ABOUT VARIABLES IN NXT-G: Creating a "MyBlock" is a way to compartmentalize a program in order to test and troubleshoot sections of it, or condense its footprint on the screen. The icon for a variable is a suitcase, because it is used both to store something temporarily and to carry it from place to place. A variable can be named and cloned, thus whatever it contains at one point in the program will be identical and available at any other point in the program, without having to pass its value along a wire. The blue block named "ambient light" is a "MyBlock" condensing the three display blocks below configured as shown