Simulating LEGO Mindstorm Robots to Facilitate Teaching Computer Programming to School Students

Programmable robots like Lego Mindstorms have proven to be an effective mediator to teach computer programming to school children. Therefore several projects that aim at increasing the interest in computer programming and computer science in general use robots as a cornerstone in their course concepts. Handing out robotic kits to the school students who have participated in the courses is not feasible, thus the learning content cannot be repeated and enhanced at home. We developed a flexible multi-user simulation environment for LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots which is closely integrated into our pedagogical teaching scenarios. User tests show that this environment can be successfully used to increase the long-term outreach of our courses. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.