Lego Mindstorms comparison?

[ABO Mama]

My mom wants to get my boys a Lego mindstorms set for Christmas. They have taken a class with mindstorms last year at their old school, but there aren't any classes like this at the new school. Looking online I see this

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-MINDSTORMS-EV3-31313?p=31313&track=checkprice

but there is also an educational version https://shop.education.lego.com/legoed/en-US/catalog/product.jsp?productId=5003479&isSimpleSearch=false&ProductLine=LEGO-MINDSTORMS-Education-EV3

or this https://shop.education.lego.com/legoed/en-US/catalog/product.jsp?productId=5003464&isSimpleSearch=false&ProductLine=LEGO-MINDSTORMS-Education-EV3 .

Any experience with any of the sets? I'm not sure what components and combinations will give the most fun and learning and won't collect dust for my 12yo twins and 9yo.

[ABO Mama]

Anyone....?

[ccather]

My son has the regular EV3 (he saved for it and collected birthday money) He enjoys it. It's currently configured as a guitar. There are other things you can build besides the robot that come with it. I believe my son found the guitar on you tube along with information on how to program it. He tried out for his school's First Lego League, but didn't make it (which is a whole rant for the BP :P) so we don't have any experience with it in an academic sense. He did use the older NT system in an after school lego robotics program, which is what lead us to purchasing the EV3 for him.

I would compare the motors, sensors, and servos that you get with the education vs. the commercial version. You may be just fin going for the commercial version, then adding additional components.

[Percycat]

I cannont see the first link in your email. I have been a First Lego League coach for the past 5 years. My husband and I are currently coaching 2 teams -- my son's team of 12/13 year olds and my daughters team of 10/11 year olds.

For each team, we have the EV3 Core Set with Software Pack (#5003462) and the EV# Expansion Set (45560).

Based on the product descriptions, I think the EV3 Core Set with Software Pack is the same product as the EV3 Homeschool Set with Software -- perhaps named differently for marketing. The EV# Homeschool Set with Design Engineering Projects Pack is the EV3 Homeschool Set with Software plus the Design Engineering Projects Pack curriculum.

I expect your first link is the the home Lego Mindstorms EV3 31313 for about $350.

If price is not a big deciding factor -- I suggest you go with one of the EV3 education kits over the commerical kit. The education software is included in the education kits -- it is also available separately for $99.00. The education software includes fantastic tutorials to programming skills. The tutorials start with an animation to show what you will learn, step-by-step building instructions to build a robot if you don't already have one, and then step-by-step instructions on how to write the program to do that particular skill. The tutorials teach basic things like moving or using sensors, to more advanced things like switches and loops, to conducting experiements and using math blocks. When the kids on my lego teams have a question on how to do something, I always have them go to the tutorials first.

I am not familiar with the kit that includes the Design Engineering Projects. From the description, I understand it is curriculum providing 30 hours of classroom instruction and costs an additional $320. I would not get this. In addition to the tutorials included in the education software, tons of free instruction is available on the internet. There are also several very good books you can purchase on Amazon.

This site provides a good comparison between the education kit and the home kit.
http://robotsquare.com/2013/11/25/difference-between-ev3-home-edition-and-education-ev3/

I hope this helps.

[geochick]

Can you buy the Education EV3 if you aren't a coach? I thought you had to have a coach's login to buy that one.

[Percycat]

You can purchase the education kits from the Lego store. FLL teams can purchase the 2015 EV3 Robot kit (5003463), which includes the EV3 education kit, software, and expansion set, for $499.00. You can purchase the same thing by purchasing the EV3 Core Set with Software Pack (5003462) and the Expansion Set (45560) for a combined price of $543.90.

I would think any kid who wants and EV3 would be thrilled to have just the EV3 Core Set with Software Pack. -- the expansion set just provides additional lego parts.

This link provides free building and programming instructions for robots you can build with the EV3 Core set (as opposed to the home set or commercial set available in the toy store). You can see the models which can be built with the Core set and the additional models you can build with the expansion set:

https://education.lego.com/en-us/preschool-and-school/secondary/mindstorms-education-ev3/teaching-resources/hardware/inspirational-models

I think you can build these robots with the home/commercial kit:
http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/build-a-robot


There are also a lot of other plans you can download for robots and of course your kids can come up with their own.

I hope they have fun!

[ABO Mama]

Thank you so much for the info! Off to compare the sets some more. The educational version seems like the way to go...