By Crystal WettingfeldSupported by Lamar University, a Broadening Participation Grant from the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0634288, and a

grant from ExxonMobil.

INSPIRED ProgramThe INSPIRED Program is a National Science

Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing Project.

The purpose of INSPIRED is to increase the participation and retention of women and minorities in computing.

INSPIRED hosts middle school and high school academies to attract students, especially those from underrepresented populations, females and minorities, to increase diversity in computing.

Goal: Teach students to program LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots graphically .

The materials guide students through a hands-on lab to create simple programs and combine them to create a program to autonomously follow a maze.

The materials instruct the students step by step using snapshots taken from the graphical program.

Teaching Materials

The graphical program allows the students to easily click and drag icons representing a function of the robot or conditional statement onto a sequence track.

The program follows small building steps:Moving Forward

Turning LeftTurning a Corner

Bumping into a WallFollowing a Wall

Navigating a Maze

Forward

The first task for programming the NXT is to move forward. This will be accomplished in small simple steps.

First, open a new page. Save it as Forward. Then select the move button, this will create a new move block.

Once you select a move box, move it onto the track. It will appear like this.

Once you have a move box on the track, you will find the options at the bottom left of the screen. At the top right side, you will see a power meter.

For smooth movement, change the power meter to 50 percent.

Next, change the duration for 5 seconds.

Now you can download the program.

The frame can be readjusted by using the map tab. The map tab can be found in the bottom right corner, under the download button. It will open by clicking on the magnifying glass.

The frame can be refocused by clicking on the central area you want to have displayed.

Final Program

AcademiesThese materials were used in 2 one day middle

school academies in May 2008.

The students worked in teams of 2 or 3 on the robotics session, and individually on the remaining 2 sessions.

The academies focus on exposing students to algorithm design and programming using basic Computer Science concepts:

SequenceSelectionRepetition

The first session was on May 17th. This group had 12 female students and 1 chaperone.

The second session was on May 31st. This group had 14 students, 6 females and 8 males.

Pictures and information can be found:cs.lamar.edu/inspire/outreach/middleschoolacademy2008.htm

Academy ScheduleEach academy was held from 8:30 until 3:00.

8:30 – 9:00 Registration9:00 – 9:30 Opening Session9:30 – 11:30 Programming Lego

Robots11:30 – 12:30 Lunch12:30 – 1:30 Scratch Workshop1:30 – 2:30 Web Workshop2:30 – 3:00 Closing Session

AssessmentThe students were tested with a qualitative self-

rating questionnaire and open ended content based questions based on each session.

The content based questions were graded by 2 people using a scoring rubric. The reliability of the results were moderate to strong.

The inter-reliability between graders for the robotics pre-workshop test was .849, while that for the post-workshop test was only .341.

Questions from Self AssessmentPlease rate yourself 1 (low) to 5 (high) in the

following areas:Interest in Computer ScienceKnowledge of Computer ScienceInterest in programmingInterest in roboticsKnowledge of roboticsInterest in Computer AnimationKnowledge of Computer AnimationInterest in Web page developmentKnowledge of Web page developmentAbility to succeed in Computer Science

Questions from Robotics1. When a robot’s front side-mounted sensor detects

that it has reached a corner, why should the robot move forward before turning the corner?

2. An Ultrasonic Sensor bounces sound waves off a wall and measures the time that it takes for the wave to bounce back. How can a wall-following robot with an ultrasonic sensor mounted on its side determine that it has moved beyond a wall?

3. What is the purpose of the repetition control structure in programming?

4. What is the purpose of the sequence control structure in programming?

5. What is the purpose of the selection control structure in programming?

ResultsScale of 5 – 25, self-rated interest in Computer Science:Pre-academy: 20 Post-academy: 21 t=1.474, p=.154

Scale of 5 – 25, self-rating of knowledge:Pre-academy: 11.04 Post-academy: 19.36

t=8.296, p<.00

Scale of 1 - 5, self-perception of ability:Pre-academy: 4.0 Post-academy: 4.48

Content-based questions showed that the students received a significant increase in knowledge from the

academies.Knowledge in robotics programming increased

significantly. t=5.493, p<.00

Comments from the StudentsThe robotics session was reported by 50% of the students to be

their favorite activity.

“I loved the Inspired summer academy. I loved that we got to play with robots. I’ve never played with robots before and i was kinda scared. the robots were my favorite by far and the most fun i’ve had at a school since i was little.” ~ Lauren

“I had a lot of fun today. inspired is taught me so much. I now know things about computers and robotics. i recommend that you come. it is fun but educational. we worked on robots first. we learned how to program then to do things like bump into walls, follow walls, turn left , and go through a maze. We had a lot of fun. we worked on scratch and we made these web pages. I can't wait to see what happens next. You would have a lot of fun. I met a lot of knew people and learned a lot of knew things. i hope i see you here soon.!!!” ~ Daijah

ConclusionsThe students showed a significant increase in

knowledge. However, the increase in interest in Computer Science was not significant. This may be because the students already had a high interest in the area.

The inter-reliability results for the content questions show that the graders may benefit from a training session, or a more detailed rubric.

ResourcesInstructional materials developed by Crystal

Wettingfeld.Robots and NXT development environment

by LEGO.Assessment materials developed by the

INSPIRED team.Assessment directed by Lamar University’s

Dr. Judith Mann.