* (a) (b) (c) Figure 1. Three robot kits: (a) VEX, (b) Fischertechnik, and (c) LEGO Mindstorms. (Photo courtesy of Steven Canvin from LEGO Mindstorms.) (see above) that are required by curriculums around the world. By using the robot as a tool in a specific lesson plan, educators are able to actively engage and motivate their students, giving tangible and observable representations of the concepts they are teaching. For example, the concept of pi becomes far more relevant to students when they are required to move their robot to a certain distance. Figure 2. Main LEGO Mindstorms hardware. Embedded Within the Curriculum Robotics provides the opportunity to learn a wide variety of STEM concepts Extracurricular Activity In addition to its direct use in the curriculum, robotics has also found its Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2011.943505 18 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE * DECEMBER 2011 place as an extracurricular activity in lunchtime or after-school clubs. These tend to be less explicitly focused on the curriculum and more focused on the creation of a final product, be it for a competition or for a display and demonstration to the student's immediate community. Competitions The First LEGO League (FLL) and RoboCupJunior are two significant education competitions that focus on robotics. The FLL restricts the competitors to the LEGO robotics products