Online Training Courses

Robot Programming for Absolute Beginners

There is a range of training courses and related support materials available for teacher’s online. The websites below differ in length, focus and cost, but all provide teachers (and sometimes students) resources and skills to make best use of the LEGO kits (EV3, NXT and WeDo) to teach engineering principles and related skills.

Tufts Teacher Engineering Education Program (Engineering, SPIKE Prime, EV3)

  • Tufts Teacher Engineering Education Program (TEEP) is a flexible, affordable, online, graduate credit-earning program from Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO), that takes any K12 teacher on an 18 month journey leading to a certificate in engineering education.

Carnegie Mellon CS-STEM Network (SPIKE Prime, EV3)

  • The CS-STEM Network (CS2N) is a certifying authority for CS and STEM subjects for educational institutions. CS2N started at CMU’s Robotics Academy in 2010 through a collaborative research grant from DARPA and continues to be updated based on ongoing research on: the motivational effects of badges, engaging students in computational thinking practices, and increasing exposure to CS via robotics classrooms and competitions.

Educational Robotics for Absolute Beginners (NXT, EV3)

  • Self-paced courses for EV3 and NXT that are designed specifically for K-12 teachers, but are free and open to anyone who is interested in learning about LEGO EV3 robotics. Created by Rowan University Laboratory for Educational Robotics with support from Google CS4HS.

EV3 Lessons (EV3)

  • Tutorials and resources intended for all students in classrooms learning robotics, robotics clubs, scouts, and robotics teams. Created by Sanjay and Arvind Seshan from the FIRST Lego League team Not the Droids You Are Looking For in Pittsburgh, USA.

Fun with Beginner LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Robotics (EV3)

  • A free Udemy EV3 course for absolute beginners. Created by Graeme Faulkner, Yaya Lu, and Ying Chen.

STEMcentric (EV3, NXT, RCX)

  • Tutorials for students and instructors covering EV3, NXT and even RCX. Maintained by FRC Team 1540, The Flaming Chickens.

STEMRobotics (EV3, NXT, Simple & Motorized Mechanisms)

  • A repository of educational materials with a robotics focus  for STEM teachers, including complete curricula (with lessons, assessments, instructor guides, etc.) and individual resources (e.g., videos, lectures). Developed and hosted at the Portland State University.

See also Blogs and other websites.

This post was originally published October 2014.

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Wayne Burnett

Wayne Burnett

Wayne Burnett, Ed.D., is a Canadian father of two boys (both of whom used the Mindstorms NXT) who teaches at an international school in Malaysia. In addition to teaching robotics, ICT, and information literacy, Wayne has recently completed a doctoral dissertation on using the LEGO WeDo to teach science.
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