Wed O Maker: A Comprehensive User Guide

LEGO WeDo 2.0 is a hands-on classroom kit of building bricks and electronics for kids aged 7 and up. The kit includes a smart hub that connects to motors and sensors, allowing students to create moving models. The WeDo 2.0 Maker Lessons provide various projects, such as making a dancing robot, a sound machine, a digital accessory, and an amusement park ride. The lessons aim to foster creativity, problem-solving, and engineering skills. Additionally, the WeDo 2.0 kit can be used with programming platforms like Scratch, Tickle, Tynker, and Open Roberta to introduce students to coding and robotics. These platforms offer visual programming and block coding capabilities, enhancing the learning experience and making it more engaging and interactive.

Building instructions

LEGO WeDo 2.0 is a hands-on classroom kit of building bricks and electronics for children aged 7 and up. The kit includes an electronic smart hub that connects to motors and sensors, and a drag-and-drop coding interface that allows users to create something that moves. The WeDo 2.0 Smart Hub can be connected to a tablet or desktop computer.

• Open the box with bricks: The box with bricks opens from the top.
• Access Scratch: Type "scratch.mit.edu" into your browser to access the Scratch main page. From there, proceed to the editor.
• Set your language: Click the globe icon in the top left corner and select your preferred language.
• Prepare the interface: Below the block categories, find and click on the blue "Add an Extension" icon. Then, select the "LEGO Education WeDo 2.0" extension.
• Install Scratch Link: Download and install the Scratch Link app on your device. This app is necessary to connect the WeDo 2.0 Smarthub with Scratch, so ensure it is always running in the background while programming.
• Connect Smarthub with Scratch: Enable Bluetooth on your device. In Scratch, click on the exclamation mark icon to open the Smarthub search window. Press the green button on your Smarthub until the LED starts flashing, then click "Start Searching" in the Scratch popup window. Wait for the confirmation message that the connection is established.
• Test the connection: Return to the editor and activate a few blocks from the WeDo 2.0 blocks category to check how the motor and sensors connected to your Smarthub are functioning.
• Build your robot: Before programming, you need to build your robot and understand its mechanisms. The friendly Gorilla robot from the robotics lesson is a great place to start.
• Program your robot: The robotics lesson with Gorilla includes programming the motor and the motion sensor. The lesson is divided into several parts: Consider, Create, Check, Code, and Celebrate, where you can freely play and experiment with the robot.
• Explore lesson plans: Visit the LEGO Education website for various lesson plans and ideas, such as creating a dancing robot, a sound machine, a digital accessory, or even an amusement park ride.

Getting started

WeDo 2.0 is a hands-on classroom kit of building bricks and electronics for children aged 7 and up. It includes an electronic smart hub that connects to motors and sensors, and a drag-and-drop coding interface that gives students a fun introduction to robotics.

To get started with WeDo 2.0, you'll need the following:

• WeDo 2.0 Core Set: This includes 280 parts, a smart hub electronic building brick, and a medium motor.
• Power Source: You can use 2 AA batteries or a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack.
• Programming Device: This could be a tablet or a desktop computer. The WeDo 2.0 app is compatible with iPad and iPhone.
• Software: You can use the dedicated WeDo 2.0 programming software or Scratch 3.0, a visual programming language created for educational purposes. Scratch is free and widely used, with over 66 million users worldwide.

Once you have your hardware and software, you can begin to build and program your robot. The WeDo 2.0 kit includes lesson plans and building instructions to help you get started. These include creating a dancing robot, a sound machine, a digital accessory, and more.

The first step is to brainstorm ideas and simple problems that your robot can solve. Then, you can start building and programming your robot, testing and analysing your design as you go, and making improvements.

There are also additional resources and compatible third-party software, such as Tickle, Tynker, and Open Roberta, that can be used to enhance your WeDo 2.0 experience and take your robotics skills to the next level.

Compatible software

The LEGO Education WeDo 2.0 kit is compatible with several third-party software programs, including Scratch, Tickle, Tynker, and Open Roberta Lab.

Scratch is a visual programming language with text elements that can be used by very young children to code by creating games, animations, or interactive forms. Scratch 2.0 and 3.0 are compatible with WeDo 2.0, with the former being a natural progression from the horizontal icon-based block coding of the WeDo 2.0 app to vertical text-based block coding. Scratch 3.0 also offers tutorials for even more experiences.

Tickle is an app for iPad and iPhone that allows users to control many devices, including WeDo 2.0, with its vertical text-based block coding. It can wirelessly connect all devices so they can interact with each other.

Tynker is another vertical text-based block coding platform and a natural progression from the WeDo 2.0 app. It offers self-paced online courses and an engaging programming curriculum for schools and camps.

Open Roberta Lab offers visual programming for WeDo 2.0, as well as for LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 and NXT. It is cloud-based, completely open-source, free, and adheres to strict EU data protection guidelines. The platform communicates with the brick via WiFi and USB cable and is available in 14 languages. It also includes an integrated 2D simulation, making it easy to integrate coding into the classroom.

Programming

The WeDo 2.0 is a beginner-friendly robotics kit by LEGO that can be used to familiarise younger students with the fundamentals of programming and mechanics. The kit comes with a programming app that is easy to understand and use.

The WeDo 2.0 Maker Lessons include several projects that can be programmed using the kit. These include:

• Make a Dancing Robot: Design and program a robot that performs a cultural dance, tells a story through dance, or dances in pairs or groups.
• Create an invention to solve a simple problem: For example, something to help with waking up in the morning, household chores, or reminders.
• Make a Sound Machine: Design a sound machine and explore programming variables that make soft sounds, loud sounds, environmental sounds, rhythms, and melodies.
• Make a Digital Accessory: Invent a digital accessory to ease your daily life.
• Create a wearable that solves a daily challenge.
• Make a Classroom Helper: Create something to help teachers in the classroom.
• Create and personalise a mascot.
• Create your own animated cartoon.
• Make an Amusement Park Ride: Invent an amusement park ride that uses a simple machine.
• Make a Mechanical Friend: Create a mechanical friend to do fun things with.
• Make a Simple Machine to Move Something: Design a simple machine that can move things.

The WeDo 2.0 kit is also compatible with third-party software such as Scratch 2.0 and 3.0, Tickle, Tynker, and Open Roberta Lab, which can be used for programming.

Lesson plans

Official LEGO Education Lesson Plans:

The official LEGO Education website offers a range of lesson plans for WeDo 2.0, including:

• Milo, the Science Rover: Students learn about rovers used by scientists and engineers to explore places humans cannot go. They build and program Milo, a science rover, using the WeDo 2.0 software or app.
• WeDo 2.0 Maker Lessons: A series of lessons that encourage students to make inventions, such as a dancing robot, a sound machine, a digital accessory, a wearable device, and more. These lessons integrate Maker, STEAM, and Engineering concepts.

RoboCamp Lesson Plans:

RoboCamp offers a course called "Programming WeDo 2.0 Robots: Beginner to Advanced", which includes 25 lesson plans for the entire school year. This course familiarizes students with programming and mechanics using friendly robots made with WeDo 2.0. Students build and program a variety of machines, animals, and insects. Some specific lessons include:

• Butterfly: Students select a beautiful butterfly species, print and color its wings, and bring it to life as a robotic specimen.
• Ferris Wheel: Students program a colorful Ferris wheel and learn about amusement park rides.
• Car Race: Students build and program a race track simulator, learning about engineering solutions used in racing.
• Dragonfly: Students build a robotic dragonfly that always faces forward, even during turns. They create a program to activate and control its flight.
• Motorcycle: Students create a robotic motorcycle and explore using tires for traction, gears for drive, and programming blocks to control its motor.

Robots Got Talents Lesson Plans:

Robots Got Talents provides building instructions and tutorials for various WeDo 2.0 projects, including:

• Bowser from the Super Mario universe
• Easter Egg
• Marvel's Iron Man
• Santa's Sled
• NASA's Rover Perseverance
• Alien from Trick or Treat Camp 2022

These lesson plans provide a wealth of educational content and hands-on activities to engage students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) topics, fostering creativity and problem-solving skills.

Frequently asked questions