1. 3-D Printing
The 3-D printer is definitely cool! They are all the rage in library world as part of the Maker Space trend. TinkerCad is a free online software for making 3-D printing designs. Try it out as one of your ILPs. If you are so inclined, there are places that will print your design for you (not free but fun).
https://www.tinkercad.com/
2. Oculus Rift
The 3-D virtual reality provided by the Oculus Rift offers many opportunities for instruction. But you don't need the expensive equipment to play. Google Cardboard is a 1.0 version that can be purchased affordably.
https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/
3. Sphero Robotic Ball
The Sphero ball is a great tool to introduce students to coding, a popular skill taught in many schools. But you don't need the robotic ball to learn coding. Here are two websites my Robotics Club students use to learn drag-and-drop coding. The first one toggles to java coding as well. Try your hand at coding for an ILP.
Hour of Code: https://code.org/learn
Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/
This bill just passed in Florida:
HB 0887 Computer Coding Instruction (Adkins) - credit in lieu of foreign language or math - passed, on House Calendar
If you really like the robotic ball, Ozobot is a small version:
http://www.slj.com/2016/02/opinion/test-drive/tiny-ozobot-gets-kids-into-block-based-programming-test-drive#_
Coding is half the fun of the Robotics Club. First, students build a robot with Legos. Then they program the robot to perform certain tasks. Here is a link to some sample projects.
http://www.nxtprograms.com/projects2.html
And finally, here is a video of my son's group's last project, a striking viper. They are beginners. Advanced robot designers make very complex programs and compete.
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