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LEGO Education changes owners
By Andrew Nash
The Morning Sun
May 17, 2013
PITTSBURG, KS - While it may seem like a major change, business will continue as
usual for LEGO Education employees in Pittsburg.
As part of an announcement Wednesday, the LEGO Group is buying Pitsco’s share of
their joint venture in LEGO Education and entering into a service agreement
between the two companies for many of the services related to LEGO Education.
“We are sorry to see the LEGO Education joint venture as we know it come to an
end, but we are excited about the future of Pitsco and our new partnership with
the LEGO Group,” said Harvey Dean, Pitsco CEO. “Very little will change in
services we provide to more than 8 million students each year. Pitsco will be
positioned to better focus efforts on the K-12 education market in the U.S. and
its broadening markets internationally.”
Confused? Here’s the longer version: LEGO Group and Pitsco have had a joint
venture in LEGO Education since 1997, but LEGO Group is now buying Pitsco’s 49
percent ownership effective January 1, 2014.
“North America is LEGO largest market for education,” said Pitsco President Lisa
Paterni. “It’s gorown through the partnership to be their largest market. They
wanted to be closer to their market and be better leveraged in North America.”
The second portion is that LEGO Group and Pitsco have entered into a service
agreement that will see LEGO Education products for North America shipped out of
and serviced through Pitsco’s facilities. LEGO Group will purchase warehousing,
order entry, customer service, technical support, purchasing, graphics
production and educator insights from Pitsco. The business and operations
functions for LEGO Education will still be delivered by Pitsco employees in
Pittsburg. To sum, the logistics end of LEGO Education will continue being
provided by Pitsco.
However, all 28 LEGO Education North America sales and marketing staffers now
working for Pitsco will be offered jobs in the new LEGO Education North America
company as potential employees of the LEGO Group. Paterni said that it will be a
little bit strange, sad and different for Pitsco to change roles, but that they
are happy to continue in partnership with the LEGO Group.
“It’s a change in the fact that we had an impact and a voice in the joint
venture, and now we won’t,” Paterni said. “We felt we impacted millions and
millions of students because we had a voice as an owner. Although nobody will be
losing their jobs, there will be a difference since we’ll be providing a
service. We’re happy to be a part of being able to service teacher and schools.
We’ll continue to provide great service in the days ahead, but it will be sad
because we won’t be able to be as big a part of it as wee have been.” Current
LEGO Education North America President Stephan Turnipseed will take on a new
role in business development and strategic partnerships for the LEGO Group while
a new president is projected to be on board in August.
From: MorningSun.net
LEGOEducation.us
Pitsco.com
-end of report-
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OK, so I got roped into going to a meeting of a fledgling Robotics League in
Orange County, California. They invited me because one of the founders of the
League knew I was into Lego. There were several FIRST and FLL coaches,
mentors,and club organizers from other areas of SoCAL present. The idea was to
use their expertise to help start up new teams in my area. But while there was
plenty of talk about involving local schools, afterschool programs, churches,
etc. no one had any idea ADULTS were into this stuff.
Huh? I've never been involved with FLL before, and I've been out of the AFOL
scene entirely for years now, but I thought AFOL groups and FLL were intimately
connected. When I told these people there were internantional conventions, LUGs,
websites, Lego trains run by RCXs, GBCs, Moonbase, etc., they looked at me like
I was speaking in tongues. Then after humoring me for awhile they went on with
the "real" organizing...
Has this been the normal reaction most of you have experienced getting into FLL?
Or is FLL something AFOL are just aware of and not really interested in?
Anyone in OC (or anywhere, for that matter) know how to root out some closet
AFOL who might be interested in starting up/mentoring new FLL teams? Evidently
there are only FOUR teams between LA and SD county!
Darrell
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In lugnet.edu, Duane Collicott wrote:
> nobody pockets money from Brick Bash... and nobody pays admission
> for Brick Bash.
And, at least from my experience, *everybody* has a very good time at BrickBash.
Congratulations Duane on this! It's great news.
--
Brian Davis
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In lugnet.edu, David Laswell wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Duane Collicott wrote:
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains
(www.BricksForBrains.org) has just received word from the IRS that our
application for tax-exempt status has been approved.
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Congrats! Now, does this mean that when you run BrickBash, you aren’t
allowed to keep any of the gate proceeds? I mean, seriously, what does
happen to all the monies we fork over for admission? I propose that you
start divying it up amongst displaying attendees.
Hopefully by the time BB rolls around again you’ll have forgotten all about
this and won’t remember to make good on your
threat. ;P
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It means next year admission cut in half.
Side note to those who don’t get the jokes but really have a need to know these
things: nobody pockets money from Brick Bash (except the pizza delivery guy),
and nobody pays admission for Brick Bash.
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In lugnet.announce, Duane Collicott wrote:
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains
(www.BricksForBrains.org) has just received word from the IRS that our
application for tax-exempt status has been approved.
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Congrats! Now, does this mean that when you run BrickBash, you aren’t allowed
to keep any of the gate proceeds? I mean, seriously, what does happen to all
the monies we fork over for admission? I propose that you start divying it up
amongst displaying attendees.
Hopefully by the time BB rolls around again you’ll have forgotten all about this
and won’t remember to make good on your threat. ;P
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In lugnet.edu, James Trobaugh wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Duane Collicott wrote:
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains
(www.BricksForBrains.org) has just received word from the IRS that our
application for tax-exempt status has been approved.
This will open doors for us in areas such as facility usage, grants,
partnership with museums and educational institutions, donations, fund
raising, and more.
Bricks for Brains is an organization through which I do educational work
with LEGO. We have formed our board, achieved 501c3 tax-exempt status, and
now we move on to designing and implementing more hands-on exhibits and
other educational services and products.
We are quite excited!
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Congradulations, that’s very cool. Now is your Bricks for Brains and this
Bricks for Brains the same?
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Thanks!
No that’s somebody else. I had hoped he would stop using it after I brought it
to his attention last year.
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In lugnet.announce, Duane Collicott wrote:
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains
(www.BricksForBrains.org) has just received word from the IRS that our
application for tax-exempt status has been approved.
This will open doors for us in areas such as facility usage, grants,
partnership with museums and educational institutions, donations, fund
raising, and more.
Bricks for Brains is an organization through which I do educational work with
LEGO. We have formed our board, achieved 501c3 tax-exempt status, and now we
move on to designing and implementing more hands-on exhibits and other
educational services and products.
We are quite excited!
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Congradulations, that’s very cool. Now is your Bricks for Brains and this
Bricks for Brains the same?
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I am very proud to announce that Bricks for Brains (www.BricksForBrains.org)
has just received word from the IRS that our application for tax-exempt status
has been approved.
This will open doors for us in areas such as facility usage, grants, partnership
with museums and educational institutions, donations, fund raising, and more.
Bricks for Brains is an organization through which I do educational work with
LEGO. We have formed our board, achieved 501c3 tax-exempt status, and now we
move on to designing and implementing more hands-on exhibits and other
educational services and products.
We are quite excited!
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Lego Bible Study went well. Though folks were very eager to learn more about
our construction clubs, I managed to keep us focused on the textual
deconstruction at hand. Unfortunately, a young person showed up, so I couldn’t
spend as much time on the bawdy stuff as I would have wanted. Oh, well. If we
had everything, where would we put it? And how long would it take to sort it
all?
I threw together a Moses amongst the bullrushes play set:
and a Jesus of Nazareth minifig:
He rode along in my nametag all Easter morning.
Happy Easter, all!
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In lugnet.technic, Edward Welsh wrote:
> > The internal angles on a 3-4-5 right triangle
> > are 30, 60, and of course 90 degrees.
>
> And now a teachable moment! You've made my week!
Yeah, about 5 minutes after I submitted that I realized just how stupid I've
become as of late (I plead mercy due to a very nasty sinus infection... but dang
it, I should have caught that even if I was unconcious). What will make it even
funnier (for you) is that I'm a physicist by training, so it's not like I don't
know this stuff. Groan...
--
Brian "ignorance always looks better in public" Davis
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In lugnet.technic, Joe Strout wrote:
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I’m trying to make a largish... octagon or hexagon out of
technic parts.
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A 12-12-17 triangle is very nearly right, and has angles of about 44.9 degrees.
I used four of them in making a stop sign:
Note that all eight corners are nicely studded down.
Joe and Brian wrote:
Well whaddaya know! I’d always assumed those things were 135 degrees. Looks
like I learned something today. Brian, many thanks for the terrific Lego
geometry links I did not know about. You made my day.
Brian Davis wrote:
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The internal angles on a 3-4-5 right triangle are 30, 60, and of course 90
degrees.
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And now a teachable moment! You’ve made my week! As DaveE alludes elsewhere in
this thread, a 3-4-5 triangle has angles of about 36.87, 53.13, and 90 degrees.
Making one of these triangles is a great way to build a strong right angle. A
triangle with angles of 30, 60, and 90 degrees is a different animal: half an
equilateral triangle. It can help in making a regular hexagon. Unfortunately,
at least one of its sides must have a funny (irrational) length, so it isn’t the
easiest thing to build in brick or technic.
-Teddy
p.s. I must admit that when I first read Brian’s statement, I made a noise so
horrible my colleagues here in the math department wondered if I was ill. Don’t
worry. I’ll be fine. Eventually.
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In lugnet.edu, Edward Welsh wrote:
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Last spring, my colleagues got funding for two shiny display cabinets for my
math department. Appropriate displays were just slow enough in coming that I
could (quickly) haul out several of my Lego math demonstration models and
fill an entire case with them:
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Awesome... I love seeing Lego used in manners such as this. Spotlit.
Janey “Math is hard, lets go shopping, Red Brick”
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Last spring, my colleagues got funding for two shiny display cabinets for my
math department. Appropriate displays were just slow enough in coming that I
could (quickly) haul out several of my Lego math demonstration models and fill
an entire case with them:
Home Plate
This familiar-looking shape does not actually exist. Look at the triangle on
the bottom. (Use the dashed black line as its long side.) The side lengths of
12, 12, and 17 do not obey the Pythagorean Theorem—check 12^2+12^2 and 17^2.
However, it’s very, very nearly a right triangle, so we let it slide.
Turned Squares
Here are two squares. Look at the larger one. If you include the white dotted
lines, you can see that the larger square is made up of four right triangles
whose sides are very, very close to 12-12-17. These numbers were obtained using
a continued fraction.
The smaller square is made up of four 6-8-10 right triangles and one 2 by 2
square. The yellow and blue triangles are illustrated with dotted lines. Of
the five polygons in the display, this is the only one whose linear measurements
are all integers.
Equilateral Triangles
Here are two equilateral triangles. The triangle with sides of length 9 does
not work well in Lego. Its altitude is about 7.794—not an integer value—so its
top vertex (where yellow and red meet) is not near a grid point, so it cannot
connect to the gray baseplate.
The triangle with sides of length 15 does work well. Its altitude is about
12.99—very close to 13—so its top vertex (where blue and yellow meet) connects
solidly to the gray baseplate.
Blue Wave
This wavy object is generated by the function z=5cos(x^2+y^2)+6. In Calculus
II, we learn how to find the size of one slice; in Calculus III we learn how to
slice up the entire object and find its volume.
Attention: Dr. Masi, Dr. Masi to the fourth floor.
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I'm cross-posting this to .robotics for you.
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http://www.legoengineering.com/content/view/78/65/
LEGOengineering.com's newest survey focuses on how educators manage LEGO-based
learning.
We want to know how educators facilitate student learning in activities that use LEGO materials. How do LEGO activities help you meet academic requirements? How do you choose activities? How do you introduce activities? How do you keep students on task during a LEGO activity?
Take the latest survey and help us summarize how educators are managing LEGO
learning in the classroom.
Survey results will be published in Fall 2007.
Merredith Portsmore
merredith@legoengineering.com
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To all,
It is time for my annual (3rd year) Summer LEGO Camp through my local Parks and
Rec program. Since the last camp http://news.lugnet.com/edu/?n=247 I have
relocated from Cedar City, Utah to Spanish Fork, Utah.
After the move, I found that Spanish Fork had a more advanced Parks and Rec
program than Cedar City! I presented the camp about 5 months ago to the
organizers and they agreed, after the customary jiggles about Adults and LEGO.
Part of the agreement was that I assumed the risk of pre-purchasing the sets.
No problem, one can always use more LEGO.
Another round of laughs were generated when I presented my available time slots
for the camp which included three 5-day sessions with 9 participants in each
session.
The laughs shortly ended after the first 2 days of registration; 27 children
signed up filling all three classes and a waiting list was generated. I am
hoping for a 4th class in August.
Anyway, please read the thread too, http://news.lugnet.com/edu/?n=247, for a
better idea of the previous camps.
Once again, I am using the “Creator” line for the bulk of the sets. 3 of the
days and the take home set are from “Creator”. I am going to try Andrew Cross’
suggestion http://news.lugnet.com/edu/?n=251 to create a city on one of the
days.
Again, I am pre-separating the models for ease of building.
Here is the outline of events:
Day 1: Mini Pod Collection
5 Minutes – Micro Building (Cutebot)
5 Minutes - Introductions - Get to know the participants and me
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo - I hand out a paper with printed LDraw parts and
we discuss how to ask for and name a part, such as, 2 x 3 plate, 2 x 2 cone,
etc. 40 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-4 Models from the set)
Day 2: Wild Hunters
5 Minutes – Micro Building (Seagull) (Optional)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo
10 Minutes – Speed build. Time Participants on building a frog made of 11
pieces. 30-35 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-3 Models from the set)
Day 3: Highway Haulers (4891)
5 Minutes – Micro Building (Car) (Optional)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo
15 Minutes - Back to Back Building. Two participants are given two different
models. One model is completed and the other model is just pieces. They sit back
to back and one participant using the completed model and Parts Lingo tells the
other participant how to put their pieces together without looking at the model.
Then they trade roles. It is a blast to get back together and see how the models
turn out. 20 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-2 Models from the set) 10 Minutes
- Double Elimination Racing. I bring in some planks of wood and we race the cars
down the planks. Most times the wheels are too small and the model too light to
race in a straight line every time. Anxiety is high just trying to get past the
finish line!!
Day 4: City Building (5482)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
10 Minutes - LEGO Part Lingo
45 Minutes – I will design a city using LEGO road plates and then ask the
participants to create buildings, houses, etc. to populate the city
Day 5: Robo Platoon (4881)
5 Minutes - MOC Presentations
15 Minutes - LEGO Part Quiz - Follow-up from the Part Lingo. I hand out a paper
with new printed LDraw parts and the participants need to match the part with
the name. 30 Minutes - Set Building (Build 1-3 Models from the set) 15 Minutes
- Free Building (Participants can use the remaining bricks to MOC)
I will be taking pictures but I am unsure, at the moment, where I will place
them.
Suggestions and Feedback are appreciated.
Thank you,
Brian Pilati
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LEGOengineering.com is working on an article on how educators organize and
manage their LEGO Materials. To help us gather ideas from teachers and after
school program leaders we've put together a survey to find out how you store and
sort your pieces.
http://www.legoengineering.com/content/view/69/65/
If you have a few minutes, please stop by and fill out the survey. An article
summarizing the results will be published later this spring on the site.
Thanks!
Merredith
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LEGOengineering.com is working on an article on how educators organize and
manage their LEGO Materials. To help us gather ideas from teachers and after
school program leaders we've put together a survey to find out how you store and
sort your pieces.
http://www.legoengineering.com/content/view/69/65/
If you have a few minutes, please stop by and fill out the survey. An article
summarizing the results will be published later this spring on the site.
Thanks!
Merredith
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Saturday Academy just got our shipment of 12 NXT's. I've got 2 one-week summer
classes this week and next that I can test these on. Of course, I still have
our tried and true RCXs to fall back on. And so I wonder.
Sorting, installing software then building the "quickstart" model to it's full
compliment and running it (along with the learning curve) took me a few hours.
It would probably take me the better part of the weekend to build and program
the next three models.
In the process, I keep wondering how "pile-it-on" 10 year olds will deal with
no-studs-holes-based construction, linkages, visual object oriented programming,
programming blocks with at least half-a-dozen variables, wire-wrapped argument
passing with data typing, etc.
I suspect we'll have lots of "broken wires".
It's a brave new world! Forward and onward!!
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In lugnet.edu, Dan Bee wrote:
> This is a follow on camp to one the participants were involved
> in as 7th graders.
So they have *some* background, and you can just jump in? I'm wondering how
basic a start you need.
> missions must be performed sequentially and one robot will
> trigger the next sequence etc. until all are completed.
Well, a *really* simple way of doing this is to have four robots sitting at
the corners of a rectangular enclosure. Start one, and it has to do until it
hits a second. At that point the first one stops, and the second one has to
start moving and continue around the rectangle until it bumpbs the next, etc.
This ends up requiring wall following (or line following; there are obviously a
lot of variations), and well-designed bumpers (because everybody's robot is
going to be different, you have to make sure you can sense an impact from a
variety of directions from a variety of different shapes). This could be
expanded to more robots, different shaped tracks, and the ability to "reset" the
robot (after it moves and 'tags' the next robot, it has to get ready to sense a
'tag' from behind... the net result being a continuous cycle of robots around
the course).
Another think to look at if you are trying to work with cooperative tasks is
how FIRST robotics events (*not* FLL, but the older kids) are run. These are
usually teams of two robots, built by different groups. So they're are a lot of
different strategies, and picking your partner team becomes important as well
(strategies that complement each other).
> We are planning to buy the Mario Ferrari "Building Robots
> with LEGO Mindstorms" book for each camper as well as
> each of them will go home with an RCX kit.
One of the better books out there, in my opinion. Lots of tidbits to grow on
mechnically, as well as ways to solve problems, although a little thin on
programming. But, honestly, I'm not sure I've seen the programming complement to
it - certainly not in Robolab (I've not looked), and the closest I can thank of
in NQC is Dave Baum's book (is it still in print?).
--
Brian Davis
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