Using LEGO NXT Robotics, Vernier Sensors and Imagination to Build An Integrated Freshman Engineering and Service Learning Program

Over the past six years, freshmen in the Swalm School of Chemical Engineering at Mississippi State University have “practices” chemical engineering fundamentals and reached out into the K-12 community to engage future engineers using systems built from their own imaginations with  LEGO NXT™ robotics, Vernier^® sensors and small-scale pumps, pipes, tanks, etc.   Now a regular feature of our K-12 outreach, these activities are enthusiastically embraced by students—elementary through high school, and are proving to be a relatively-inexpensive means of providing a significant number of students (e.g. 50-60) a simultaneous engineering design experience in small groups of three to four each. Such hands-on activities in a high-energy “studio” environment lead to numerous learning opportunities among our chemical engineering and K-12 students alike.  In this paper, we report on several attractive features of this program including: 1) improved techniques for recruiting students to engineering studies, 2) stronger “visualization” of engineering concepts among our engineering freshmen and 3) a stronger sense of the need for life-long learning and community service among our engineering undergraduates.