Welcome to LEGO Robotics Tutoring!
All skill levels are welcome! My aim is to help your student become inspired and self-sufficient as a young engineer/inventor. There's a steep learning curve with LEGO Mindstorms, and oftentimes students will become frustrated once they start trying to invent contraptions of their own. I enjoy helping students to develop their mechanical/analytical skills so that they can set the instruction manuals aside and trust their instincts.
I now conduct all tutoring via FaceTime or Skype, even for local students. Tablets and smartphones allow students to flip between the front and back cameras and move around to show me their designs.
I'm happy to meet with teams or with individuals. Ideally, an adult will be present to help hold the camera and/or take notes.
I've been offering these private sessions since 2009! Individualized tutoring is fun for me because I get to learn about students' specific interests and issues and help them to move forward.
General format of tutoring sessions: I'll ask you questions until I have a good idea of where you are in your understanding of robotics. Next, I'll answer any questions you may have prepared (not required) and I'll do my best to challenge you with new ideas and concepts. If you're in the FIRST Lego League, I'm careful not to give you specific solutions for missions or to "tell you what to do". However, I will certainly help you to look at the missions differently and I'll make sure you're using FLL "best practices" effectively.
Cancellations 24hrs in advance are fine.
I'm looking forward to working with you/your student!
-Michael Vawter (a.k.a. The Robot Guy)
Michael Vawter was lead programmer, builder, tester, and handler for the MindStorm Troopers FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team. They competed for four years, becoming the first team to win 1st place Robot Performance at the FLL World Festival two years in a row (2005 and 2006). The team also won the 2nd place Champion’s Award in 2005 and 3rd place Champion’s in 2006 at the World Festival. Michael co-founded the Robot Academy in 2006 and has since taught thousands of students how to master LEGO robotics. He's been featured in Popular Science Magazine, was on TV with Bill Nye the Science Guy, and was inducted into the National Gallery for Young Inventors. He published peer-reviewed psychophysics research at Denison University in 2011 and went on to earn a master’s degree in entrepreneurship and innovation.
Michael has continued to contribute to the FLL community by serving as a judge and referee at the state and world level. He has also coached and mentored teams of his own (some of whom have won international titles of their own) but has now retired from that and prefers to help teams via his online course and FaceTime/Skype consulting.
In his ongoing career as a robotics teacher, Michael helps students and teachers to analyze and solve technological problems more creatively by integrating their right-brain and left-brain capacities.
Questions?