The following is a letter from the principal of Bellview Elementary School in Ashland, Oregon, recipient of a grant from the Skyrman Techno Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation.

Dear Mr. Skyrman:

I want to thank you for creating an incredible opportunity for our students. With the grant, we purchased two NXT Lego Mindstorm Robots. Fourteen boys and girls in 4th and 5th grade learned to program the robots so that it successfully completed missions across the Mission Field (a purpose built table). Here are some quotes from the student learning logs:

"It works better if you keep your program simple."

"I found out that this is fun."

"Today I realized we get more work done if everybody helps."

"I learned to sort my lego kit and build a small robot."

“l learned how to read instructions and use that information to put together the beginning of a robot."

"You have to experiment to figure out a plan."

“Today we started blogging about our experience on the lego robotics team. We also started a second mission on the lego table. Today Rules!!!"

The kids have learned to build a robot, write a program that controls the robot, download the program to the robot, test what it does and then edit the program to do something else. They are learning classic computer programming and product development techniques including design, implementation and testing. Most importantly they are learning collaboration and teamwork skills. The program has been a huge success. In the 2010-2011 school year, in addition to First Lego League competition, one of our fifth grade teachers will integrate robotics into his classroom…

Thank you for making this possible.