Finally, at the end, I ask the kids to take apart their projects, painful as it may be. It’s pretty amazing to see what creations the kids devise. A contest usually motivates the kids to keep building and coding. Then I challenged the kids to keep building their cars, name them, and, at the end of the program, see which one can drive the farthest in a rally. For example, we built a simple car (“Drive,” found in the Model Library) together. Ideally, this leaves plenty of time for independent exploration. I aim for a very simple, quick project, with a simple coding piece so that everyone has baseline knowledge of how to build and code. I project the directions on screen and also build with the pieces. To start, we run through a guided project as a group. I can also switch out parts in the event of technical difficulties. Each kid gets their own kit (but I know some programmers and teachers prefer kids to work with partners). I keep two for staff use: one to build with during a program, one for a completed project model to show the kids. As I mentioned before, we have 12 WeDo sets. They’re open to 10 kids because that’s how many laptops we have. Because I like paper and because I found the support to be confusingly organized, I printed out the toolbox and a couple of the sets of instructions. There are many guided projects online and within the software (Model Library was most useful to me). The toolbox was useful for gaining an overview of the pieces and coding. I also familiarized myself with Lego’s support documents. Syncing and labeling the hubs, ultimately, was worth the trouble. BUT it gets harder to sync the hubs when multiple computers are running at the same time–I didn’t want to risk doing that during a program. After the computer recognized the hub, I gave the hub a name in the software and physically labeled the hub accordingly. Don’t store them in the hub, lest they run out of juice! (Lego sells rechargeable batteries, but I didn’t want the additional expense.) Ahead of the program, I synced each hub with a laptop, setting up one computer up at a time. That’s no guarantee that the pieces won’t get mixed up or lost, but it does help. Once the sets arrived, I labeled and numbered the container compartments. (Lego does offer information about grants and funding.) I also ordered two replacement packs right away. As far as I could tell, no warranty was available, nor was an educator’s discount. You can use the bricks from WeDo 1.0 with 2.0 and vice versa, but the software and the electronic parts are not compatible either way. ![]() The software is free and easily downloadable. There isn’t much in the way of paper instructions, though, and if you’re like me and you prefer some things to be tangible and all in one place, you’ll be doing a lot of printing. ![]() There’s plenty of online support, plus lots of ideas and directions that can be found within the software. The bricks and other pieces themselves vary slightly from the originals, and the guided projects are new. Beyond that big change, each set comes with a nice compartmentalized container, instead of a big open bin, with stickers to label the compartments, making sorting pieces much easier. And the hub snaps on to the rest of the project.) That is, you no longer have to plug the hub into your computer. (The hub transmits data from the computer/iPad to the electronic parts of a project. Most excitingly, it has a “ smarthub” that runs on Bluetooth. The current version, WeDo 2.0, came out in 2016. ![]() Here’s my practical take on using Lego WeDo 2.0 in library programs.įirst things first. WeDo involves building a Lego contraption with moving parts and then using software to program it. At our February meeting, we looked into Legos and Lego robotics.
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