What do you do when you have 24 students on their way to a Robotics Club meeting and you find out from a technician that your laptop hard drives have mutinied and need to be re-imaged? Â If you are like me, you consider asking the technician if he would like to switch jobs for the afternoon. Â The kids have spent three meetings building the robots and are eager to start programming. Â I had kind of promised that the laptops would be ready for action yesterday, so I wasn’t looking forward to breaking the news that it would be at least two more weeks before the students could start.

But then I remembered something.
During a recent Twitter chat (#kidscancode – 8 PM EST on Tuesdays), @reesegans mentioned a Lego programming app. Â I’m not embarrassed to admit that I immediately downloaded it, and spent two hours trying to climb through the levels. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I almost tweeted @reesegans at one point to ask her how in the world to solve one of the levels (and it was not a very high one). Â I am really proud to admit that I made it through 23 levels. On. My. Own.
I’m waiting for just the right moment to conquer the last level, 24.
Anyway – back to 24 students about to be disappointed…
I have enough iPads so groups of 3 could share. Â Thankfully, Lego Mindstorms Fix the Factory is free, so it was a quick download.
As soon as I demonstrated the first level, one of the students asked for a piece of paper so he could write down the name of the app to play it at home.
Fix the Factory fixed my problem. Â The students still got to practice programming a Lego robot. Â They were helping each other, engaged, and using creative problem solving skills. Â Thank you, @reesegans!!!!!
It’s not the perfect app for a school setting, as you can’t set it up for different players on the same device. Â But you might want to consider it for next week’s Hour of Code if you are planning to participate. Â I would recommend Fix the Factory for 4th grade and up. Â There are a few jumps in the scaffolding of skills, so you really need to guide the kids through thinking things out and persevering. Â It’s similar to Cargo-Bot, but has the added bonus of an actual robot to program.
Speaking of the Hour of Code, check in tomorrow for a last-minute round-up of resources!