LEGO Education Center(s)
On the LEGO Education website you can read more about the new LEGO Education Center that has opened in Texas (and apparently is coming to a city near you). You can read about the various classes they offer, starting at age 3 and moving up through age 8+. The robotics classes don't start until age 7, but it does appear that NXT will play a role in the LECs.
Check it out here.
Check it out here.
Comments
While I know there are some parents who will spare no expense when it comes to their children, I'm not sure how many of them are going to sign their kids up for LEGO classes the way they might sign up for swimming lessons or piano lessons.
And then there's the sticker shock. Taking the full year of robotics classes will set you back $1,764.
Ouch.
Our class sizes may be slightly larger than these other sessions (we accept up to 16 per class), but we are still able to run with class sizes as low as 6 or 7 students. Our child to robot ratio is 2:1.
I don't mean this as criticism of these other opportunities - the more options the better in my opinion. I simply want to give some food for thought for others who might want to start their own courses. The major reason we are able to keep our cost low is that we don't pay rent for the facility we use.
So, if you want to offer LEGO courses, think about places that might welcome you for free - schools, park districts, libraries (I'm going to do a few free sessions this December at local libraries), etc. Many of these will have computer labs that you could use. Most also have ready-to-go ways of publicizing your offering also without you needing to pay for that, which will also allow you to keep the cost down.
- Larry