Twice a year a course, held by the youth organisation FDF, for approximately 300 young kids in the age span of 14-19 is held at The Outdoor Center Sletten near the city of Silkeborg, Denmark. All these 300 are sorted into groups according to their desire for learning about the world, philosophy or themselves. Each group is run by volunteers, called instructors for this purpose, who all love to pass on the knowledge they themselves have been taught or learned throughout the years.

We had a group of 19 young men and women who had decided they wanted to learn more about the essentials of games and playing (theory and practice). Therefore it was with great fondness we had thought of LEGO when we decided to implement it into our schedule on the course in the fall of 2008. Normal LEGO, however, would not do for a, to some degree, serious course. Also we feared traditional LEGO would not catch the attention of the group we had in mind. Consequently we stumbled upon LEGO Mindstorms NXT. It had all the things we were looking for, the basics of LEGO where you assemble the pieces in an easy to understand way. It had the looks to appeal our group and required the imaginative and ingenuity we hoped to inspire the group with. Unfortunately, the prize was slightly out of our reach, considering we would need around 10 complete sets to make sure everybody would be able to get their hands on this cool machinery. Luckily, a request was posted to the right people, and we were allowed to borrow 10 complete sets of LEGO for the benefits of learning and understanding it in practice.

There had been set several days aside, computers had been borrowed from friends, families and other instructors to run the LEGO Mindstorms NXT programs, to make downloading and creating programs as quick as possible. Then the day finally dawned, and my fellow instructors and I looked at each other nervously. Had we missed our mark? Would this even appeal in the slightest to this group of teenagers? A generation, infamous for its towering standards and from time to time unreasonable criticism of things earlier generations had no problem with. Had LEGO simply been a fad that we had loved and was now lost in the abyss of older generations? With great anxiety we waited for them to arrive, and most of all their reaction.

We were not disappointed. The group was overly ecstatic to learn what we had planned for them. Boys and girls alike were only not racing towards the big grey boxes placed alongside the computers out of politeness as we finished our introduction. When we allowed them, they actually ran to each box to delve into the mysteries of LEGO Mindstorms NXT. The girls were fascinated with the robot?s ability to recognize colour, and the boys were awestruck by the possibility to build humanoid robots.

After the first day with LEGO Mindstorms NXT, about eight hours of intensive work with the robots, we realized that we would not have enough time to learn them perfectly, as the possibilities and options seemed to expand rapidly as we learned more and more. In the end, the teenagers who had come to Sletten to learn about games and playing went home with so much more, thanks to LEGO Mindstorms NXT and the generosity of The LEGO Company.
Twice a year a course, held by the youth organisation FDF, for approximately 300 young kids in the age span of 14-19 is held at The Outdoor Center Sletten near the city of Silkeborg, Denmark. All these 300 are sorted into groups according to their desire for learning about the world, philosophy or themselves. Each group is run by volunteers, called instructors for this purpose, who all love to pass on the knowledge they themselves have been taught or learned throughout the years.

We had a group of 19 young men and women who had decided they wanted to learn more about the essentials of games and playing (theory and practice). Therefore it was with great fondness we had thought of LEGO when we decided to implement it into our schedule on the course in the fall of 2008. Normal LEGO, however, would not do for a, to some degree, serious course. Also we feared traditional LEGO would not catch the attention of the group we had in mind. Consequently we stumbled upon LEGO Mindstorms NXT. It had all the things we were looking for, the basics of LEGO where you assemble the pieces in an easy to understand way. It had the looks to appeal our group and required the imaginative and ingenuity we hoped to inspire the group with. Unfortunately, the prize was slightly out of our reach, considering we would need around 10 complete sets to make sure everybody would be able to get their hands on this cool machinery. Luckily, a request was posted to the right people, and we were allowed to borrow 10 complete sets of LEGO for the benefits of learning and understanding it in practice.

There had been set several days aside, computers had been borrowed from friends, families and other instructors to run the LEGO Mindstorms NXT programs, to make downloading and creating programs as quick as possible. Then the day finally dawned, and my fellow instructors and I looked at each other nervously. Had we missed our mark? Would this even appeal in the slightest to this group of teenagers? A generation, infamous for its towering standards and from time to time unreasonable criticism of things earlier generations had no problem with. Had LEGO simply been a fad that we had loved and was now lost in the abyss of older generations? With great anxiety we waited for them to arrive, and most of all their reaction.

We were not disappointed. The group was overly ecstatic to learn what we had planned for them. Boys and girls alike were only not racing towards the big grey boxes placed alongside the computers out of politeness as we finished our introduction. When we allowed them, they actually ran to each box to delve into the mysteries of LEGO Mindstorms NXT. The girls were fascinated with the robot?s ability to recognize colour, and the boys were awestruck by the possibility to build humanoid robots.

After the first day with LEGO Mindstorms NXT, about eight hours of intensive work with the robots, we realized that we would not have enough time to learn them perfectly, as the possibilities and options seemed to expand rapidly as we learned more and more. In the end, the teenagers who had come to Sletten to learn about games and playing went home with so much more, thanks to LEGO Mindstorms NXT and the generosity of The LEGO Company.