George Mason University, in northern Virginia, has published plans for an open source robot designed for educational and research use.
The neat thing about this 'bot is that it is reasonably sophisticated for the cost, which they say is under $800. It makes a great platform for a high school vo-tech semester, as it allows students to get involved in fabrication of parts, electronics assembly, robotics design, and software programming. Groups of the 'bots can be managed as a group, a swarmbot, using wireless Bluetooth.
Here is my question: In community after community that I visit, community elders lament the brain drain of youth who leave after high school and never come back. If they are really serious about addressing this issue, why aren't community leaders and parents demanding that the school board and school administration transform high school shop, science, and mathematics classes to get kids involved in interesting and relevant projects.
These swarmbots could easily become the basis of a cutting edge, multidisciplinary set of projects spanning physics, math, general science, and shop classes. Kids could leave high school with marketable job skills, a great foundation for math and science in college, or be well prepared for a couple of years of community college.
Instead, what I see in many communities is a shrugging of the shoulders about the situation in the local schools, even though, in most communities, K12 education takes as much as 80% of the local tax dollars. Are you getting what you are paying for?