I like to do teach the students about the differences between the brain and a computer. Here is an interesting article about memristors and how they will revolutionize computers. They will be more brain-like in the future.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/moneta-a-mind-made-from-memristors
If you want to do an image processing lesson, you might want to do a CSI-like activity. Here is a great article on forensics and the tools they use. The example of matching foot prints is interesting. I did a lesson like that once. I gave the students a set of possible matches for shoe prints. I also gave them the crime scene foot print and they had to use image processing techniques to see if they could find the match! It was pretty good. It’s hard to find the right balance between making it too hard or too easy that you can eyeball it.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/beyond-csi-the-rise-of-computational-forensics
1. http://www.inpharmix.com/jps/PID_Controller_For_Lego_Mindstorms_Robots.html – Very detailed explanation of how to do it but doesn’t really have the code. The video shows that the method works great though!
2. http://www.techbricks.nl/My-NXT-projects/nxtlinefollower.html – Nice short write up and working NXC code.
http://www.exploringcs.org/resources/cs-teaching-resources
List of links to computer science teaching resources
http://enchanting.robotclub.ab.ca/tiki-index.php
Enchanting is an open-source graphical programming environment for children to program their LEGO Mindstorms NXT robots
(and, in the future, possibly other devices.) Enchanting is based on Scratchfrom the MIT Media Laboratory. Scratch is an excellent tool for empowering children to program, and familiarity with it will be very valuable for anyone using Enchanting.
http://mindstormsmadeeasy.com/other_resources
Great list of useful robot designs.
I went through the list of line followers and found some interesting ones:
VosSniff – The 10 Minute Line Follower!
It uses a motor on the light sensor and “sniffs” from side to side.
Simple Line Follower (Calibrate)
Has a My Block to calibrate. Otherwise uses standard method. Does point out that where the light sensor is relative to the motors has a significant effect on how well it works!
Tribot Line Follower Program
Says it can do 90 degree turns
Super Accurate line follower – I haven’t tried it yet.
Uses very short duration turns while following.
LFR V1.0 – building steps
Program looks sophisticated compared to others. Need to look at it some more.
Beastly Line Follower
Also has light sensor far from the motors.
Linefollower
Very simple program. Does not use switch structure!
http://us.mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Community/NXTLog/Default.aspx
This is the place for you share and archive your LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT projects, and get inspired to build with NXT from the MINDSTORMS Community!
You can share as little as one picture and description of your project or fully document your step-by-step creative process.
NXTLOG is a fully moderated community
http://www.macworld.com/article/156758/2010/12/harddriveevolution.html
The history of the hard drive, through pictures from Macworld.
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 94,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 4 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 107 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 656 posts.
The busiest day of the year was September 20th with 530 views. The most popular post that day was Block diagram of a computer and parts of a computer.
The top referring sites in 2010 were search.conduit.com, google.com, google.co.in, search.dogreatgood.com, and en.wordpress.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for block diagram of computer, block diagram of a computer, computer diagram, computer parts diagram, and computer diagram for kids.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Block diagram of a computer and parts of a computer October 2007
7 comments
Examples of bad user interface design March 2008
Text to 8-bit ASCII converter October 2006
3 comments
Tutorials for GIMP April 2007
Data logging in Lego Mindstorms NXT 2 February 2009
1 comment
