A style and tool for group exercise of introductory programming with LEGO robot control as pre-education event

Abstract

We have proposed a group exercise for beginners using LEGO Mindstorms robot kit. It is pre-education for introductory programming lesson. The educational purpose is to promote problem solving skill by control programming. It also aims to keep learning motivation during group collaboration works. We summarize some educational practices for college freshmen and high school students. We construct communication support system LegoWiki based on PukiWiki. It helps to raise group activity with strategy discussion and progress report. We offer some plug-in tools for friendly user-interface. Moreover, we discuss some project support functions about planning by road map and task control by ticket.