Lego Education announced at NIWeek yesterday it teamed with
National Instruments on the creation of a new product designed
to draw children into engineering and science. Known as Lego
WeDo, the new product uses robotics hardware and simple
graphical programming software to help children learn creative
thinking they can apply to subjects ranging from math to art to
literature. Lego representatives described WeDo as a cousin to
Lego's well-known Mindstorms robotics toy, but said its use of
simpler hardware and software is geared toward a younger
audience ranging from 7 to 11 years of age. "The significance of
this is that it brings robotics to a younger age," said Lego
spokeswoman Helle Winding. "At that age, the children don't know
they're learning math and science. They just know that they're
playing." WeDo enables children to build a robotic crocodile,
monkey or soccer player. When the hardware is ready, kids can
program their robot to walk or kick a ball using a simple
graphical interface made up of so-call