NorthStarNerd.Org

MindDroid (Lego Mindstorms and Android)

It's Saturday morning, and in case you're wondering what to do with your Lego Mindstorms, look no farther than your Android smartphone! Why not ditch the old controller and use MindDroid?! Of course you could build some Angry Birds out of Legos!

  

If the ancient Greeks only had Legos!

This is so very cool. The ancient Greeks developed a mechanical computer which they used to predict celestial events. All knowledge of their computing device was lost for over 2,000 years. In the year 1901, a shipwreck is discovered along with the Antikythera Mechanism. Fast forward a bit over 100 years and some Apple Computer engineers replicate and build a copy of the device using Legos! Read the full story in the magazine Nature. (video link)

and a photo of the real McCoy

Lego Engineering and Robotics

Last week I posted about the Google Lego Engineering and the Lego Engineering initiative at Tufts University. Although not strictly Legos, Stanford has an undergraduate robotics course which is worth a look for your advanced First Lego League student. The course is offered via Stanford's Engineering Anywhere initiative. I also added the robotics course to my Lego Robotics Educational Search Engine.

Google Lego Engineering

I've been quiet with respect to Legos for much to long! However, as anyone who is involved with First Lego League knows, it's tournament time! It seems strange after all these years of coaching S.N.I.P (Super Nerds In Pink) to be a spectator on the sidelines ... however my boys are all off to engineering colleges around the USA. Thus, I decided it was time to do a few updates to my Google Custom Lego Educational Search Engine. After a few queries, I discovered that Google itself has finally caught the Lego bug. Here are the latest additions:

• Lego Engineering at Google
• NXT Unplugged (also Google content)

and finally a lecture that took place at Google

• Lego Engineering: From Kindergarten to College

The Lego Engineering lecture was given by the folks at Tufts University, who first defined this domain. To learn and see more with respect to Lego Education, link to my special section of my Engineering Learning Wiki, or just try the custom Google Lego Search Engine which I created last year.

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Project Polar Bear

For years I have tried to make education (science and engineering) a bit more fun via my work with Lego League. Well, these folks from Ely, Minnesota ... make the Northstar Nerd proud. Read, watch (video link) and learn about Project Polar Bear (Hundred mile journey by dogsled and ski to Hudson Bay and Churchill ... but linked to the classroom):

• Project Polar Bear
• Expedition Blog
  
• Boundary Waters Blogger

Project Polar Bear on PhotoPeach