This short VIDEO shows you why schools are using RobotBASIC to motivate and excite their students.  The information below shows why RobotBASIC appeals to all levels of education.  This PDF document provides detailed information on the advantages of using RobotBASIC for both introductory and more advanced programming classes.

Home Schooling: Because of its motivational nature and the support we provide, RobotBASIC is ideal for teaching programming, problem solving, and logical thinking in home-school programs. (See our support material below.)  On a separate topic, home schools might consider adding coursework on investing and financial planning.  If you wish to do so, John Blankenship has a book you should consider that covers these topics in a manner suitable for high school or college level students. 

Distance Learning: RobotBASIC has many features that can benefit distance-learning curricula (for both programming and engineering). For example, the robot simulator allows students to explore complex algorithms at home without equipment.  In addition, RobotBASIC's simulation and animation capabilities  (see all our VIDEOS) allow the development of high-level simulations of mechanical hardware that allow control applications to be carried out at home without a laboratory.   This Distance-Learning-Video shows how RobotBASIC can be used to simulate four different types of motors, all of which can be controlled just like a real motor (complete information will be coming in a future book Hardware Interfacing with RobotBASIC).  This LINK will allow you to download all the programs shown in the video. Furthermore, RobotBASIC has the ability to perform data acquisition and remote control OVER THE INTERNET (with both TCP and UDP protocols). This allows you to create programs so students at home can communicate with real equipment in a university laboratory.  We invite colleges, universities, and individuals to submit their applications and simulations so that we can make them available to everyone.  If you are new to simulation programming, study our examples to see how to use RobotBASIC to perform FLICKER-FREE animation.  RobotBASIC's ability to mix real pictures with computer animation makes it easy to create exciting material quickly (see the Distance-Learning Video above).

College Courses:RobotBASIC has many features that make it suitable for college level courses and laboratory projects.  Things like matrix mathematics, statistical functions, image processing and I/O port manipulation - you’ll find specialized functions that calculate Correlation Coefficients, perform Linear Regression, and even some that can capture pictures from a web cam and help you give your robot Vision.  Many colleges start their students with Java or C++.  We think that approach has many problems.  This PDF document can provide some insights you might not have considered.

Pre College Courses: RobotBASIC has been specifically designed with a syntax structure that can GROW with the student (see this VIDEO for more information).  Because the basic functions are so easy to learn, RobotBASIC is being used in a private school in Atlanta to introduce Middle School students to programming.  High School students are easily motivated by the Robot Simulator as well as RobotBASIC’s ability to easily write simple video games and simulations.

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Support Material

For the experienced programmer, the RobotBASIC HELP file provide complete information on the system.  We also offer Robot Programmer’s Bonanza (McGraw-Hill) to support RobotBASIC at the college level.

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Our two beginner's books ( RobotBASIC Projects For Beginners  and  Robots in the Classroom ) have chapters suitable for students of programming at any grade level.  In many cases, one of these book alone is the only resource you will ever need for introducing students to programming fundamentals.

In some cases though, we have found that additional help is needed.  Often science or math teachers that are experts in their own subjects lack detailed programming experience.  The same is true of parents of home-schooled children.

In order to provide extra support for these areas, we have provided six lesson plans that correlate with the first portion of our Beginner’s book.  We also know that even a few minutes of one-on-one instruction can be invaluable to someone totally new to a subject.  To that end, we have created six SHORT video lectures that help introduce the subjects in Chapters 1-5 of our Beginner’s book.  These videos DO NOT cover everything in the chapters.  Their purpose is to help those new to programming and RobotBASIC get up to speed quickly.  They are especially helpful for Teachers without a background in programming and Home-School students wanting to learn programming.

The lesson plans below are in MS WORD (.doc) format so that they can be easily modified to fit your needs.  The associated video (linked from YouTube) for each lesson is shown on the right.  Some people will find it advantageous to give the Chapter a quick read before watching the video. Others might find it beneficial to watch the video first.  Try it both ways and see what works best for you.  Don't SUBSTITUTE the video for the book though.  The Chapters contain far more information than the short videos.

        Lesson Plan 1: Coordinate Systems (Chap. 1)         Video 1

        Lesson Plan 2: The Simulated Robot (Chap. 1)       Video 2

        Lesson Plan 3: Variables (Chap. 2)                          Video 3

        Lesson Plan 4: Loops (Chap. 3)                               Video 4

        Lesson Plan 5: Decisions (Chap. 4)                          Video 5

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        Lesson Plan 6: Using the Mouse (Chap. 5)               Video 6