Mustang Robotics

I am teaching an after-school program in robotics and technology to middle-schoolers at a small elementary and middle school.  Although it is private, the school has students from a wide variety of backgrounds and offers substantial scholarships to ensure that income does not inhibit enrollment.  For many of the students, this program will be a chance to experience a robotics program that would be too expensive to try independently.

The mission of our robotics program is to eventually develop into a team that can compete at First Lego League robotics events.  the work is programming an autonomous robot (using the LEGO MINDSTORMS robot set) to score points on a thematic playing surface.

The students will learn:
-how to problem solve
-how programming languages work and how to use them with robots
-about modern issues with technology and the new technology majors that exist today (we will visit an advanced robotics program at the high school level)

We are looking to buy an introductory set of materials which include:
-mats with special surfaces that have color contrasts for the robots to detect with light sensors
-specialized materials that will make up the physcial challenges for the programmed robot to overcome
-parts for the robot that go beyond the normal set that is sold as a toy
-practice fields for students to use when designing and building the robot
-software that will help with programming the robot for this specific challenge

Note: all materials will stay with the school and are not my personal possessions and the material we are looking to buy are on the Lego education website as a combo pack known as the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education NXT Green City Combo Pack.  The cost of that educational package explains how I arrived at the dollar amount of my goal.