Using LEGO Mindstorms in the undergraduate curriculum of IT

Abstract

With the development of the modern educational technology, more and more teachers are looking for efficient methods and creative ideas, both to get their ideas across and to hold the interest of their students. In this paper, we present our approach in incorporating LEGO Mindstorms robots as simulating instruments in an undergraduate course of Information Technology, which are used in the context of a series of Lab exercises and assignments, helping students construct models of real world situations - load their algorithms to the robots and test their behaviors. As we have seen, teaching IT with LEGO mindstorms is helpful for the students to understand concepts and learn programming in the curriculum.