Introduction to Programming provides a structured sequence of programming activities in real-world project-based contexts. The projects are designed to get students thinking about the patterns and structure of not just robotics, but also programming and problem-solving more generally. This curriculum includes videos, animations, and step-by-step lessons designed to help beginners learn behavior-based programming using the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 hardware and EV3 Classroom scratch-based programming software.

This badge is a free preview of the Introduction to Programming with Virtual EV3 curriculum. Learn how to access the full curriculum here.

The Introduction to Programming with Virtual EV3 curriculum features a programming interface and virtual robot embedded directly within the curriculum. Teachers and students can follow along with the included videos, animations, challenges, and step-by-step lessons designed to help beginners learn coding and computational thinking - and they can do so using a virtual EV3, the physical LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3 hardware, or even a combination of both.

The curriculum is broken down into 5 major units:

Introduction to Programming with Virtual EV3 is designed to encourage independent learning and problem-solving in pursuit of a goal. All lessons are self-contained, require a minimum of instructor supervision, and include many built-in opportunities to self-assess progress. The curriculum includes over 70 virtual environments so that students can follow along with all lesson content. The curriculum contains all of the material for both physical robots AND virtual robots, so educators that need to balance both (as is the case with many hybrid learning implementations) don’t need to also balance multiple curricula.

The virtual robot itself contains simulated versions of the programmable motors, sensors, and other components. A built-in sensor dashboard allows students and teachers to quickly inspect the values the robot sees, speeding up the process of developing and troubleshooting their code. Try these exciting tools out for yourself in the Virtual EV3 Sensabot activity included below!

Introduction to Programming with Virtual LEGO EV3 takes a just-in-time and embedded approach. As students make progress through the course (which the CS2N Learning Management System keeps track of), CS2N ensures sure that students are presented with the corresponding instructions, virtual environment, and programming interface. CS2N automatically saves student code progress with each activity so that they never lose it and teachers never have to track it down. Virtual activities can be run as many times as the student needs to foster their understanding, and their completion is automatically awarded so that students know when to move on. 

NOTICE: On 8/18/2021, Amazon AWS permanently discontinued support for network protocols used by Robot Virtual Worlds, Virtual Brick, and Expedition Atlantis. These products are no longer able to communicate with CS2N. Please see this article for details.

Introduction to Programming provides a structured sequence of programming activities in real-world project-based contexts. The projects are designed to get students thinking about the patterns and structure of not just robotics, but also programming and problem-solving more generally. This curriculum includes videos, animations, and step-by-step lessons designed to help beginners learn behavior-based programming using the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 hardware and EV3-G icon-based programming software.