NI CITIZENSHIP REPORT

Mentoring Young Minds

In-Classroom Mentoring

National Instruments employees around the world have a passion for introducing children to technology. Through mentoring, employees show children that science and technology are fun and teach children basic skills that could ultimately help them improve the world. NI collaborates with several successful nonprofit organizations that share this commitment to fostering children's enthusiasm for technology and science through mentoring and hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in schools.

LEGO^® MINDSTORMS^® NXT In-Classroom Mentoring
Through the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT program, technically trained NI employees serve as engineering mentors to second- through eighth-grade students who are involved in basic LEGO robotics experimentation as part of their STEM coursework. NI employees spend an average of three hours a week during the school year engaging students' interest in the concepts of robotics technology and providing guidance in building and programming the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot using NXT software, which is based on NI LabVIEW.

At NI corporate headquarters, employees spent an average of 10 percent more hours mentoring in classrooms in 2010. Nearly 7 percent of employees volunteered as mentors. In 2011, NI aims to focus on retaining more of its employee mentors at its corporate headquarters as well as increasing the number of mentors that work with underserved populations in Central Texas.

Mentoring Participation at Corporate Headquarters

	2007	2008	2009	2010
Number of Mentors	153	141	141	156
Hours Volunteered*	8,721	8,037	8,037	8,835
Mentors Retained (YOY)	62%	44%	52%	54%
Mentorship Growth (YOY)	53%	–7%	0%	11%

*This total is an estimate based on the number of mentors, the number of weeks volunteered during a typical academic year, and the number of hours that mentors typically volunteer per week.

NI branch offices also are implementing in-classroom robotics mentoring programs in their regions. In 2010, 10 employees from NI Hungary and 15 employees from NI Malaysia mentored local students through the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT program. Mentoring has proven to be popular among employees, with 25 percent of NI Malaysia employees currently serving as mentors while NI Hungary has a goal to double the amount of employees in their mentorship program in 2011.

To learn about how the technology NI develops helps empower future innovators, visit the Empower the Innovators of Tomorrow section of this report.

CASE STUDY

Integrating Robotics Into Curriculum

Davis Elementary in Austin, Texas, was one of the first schools with National Instruments employee mentors to integrate the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics program into its math and science curriculum. The school originally included the use of robotics in its first grade classes to stimulate creative thinking and teach problem solving and team building. After much success, the initiative now includes fourth grade classes and impacts approximately 200 students annually.

NI mentors volunteering at Davis Elementary work with the teachers to create new challenges for the students to meet with their robotics applications. For example, students are asked to program their robots to navigate to a specific spot in a custom-built parking garage. These types of hands-on, problem-solving exercises have resonated with the students, including those who have not historically excelled with traditional learning.

“The program reaches and challenges all levels of learners,” says Ann Moon, first grade teacher at Davis Elementary. “All students can succeed through hard work and determination. Self-esteem is built and new heroes are born.”

Students at Davis Elementary School in Austin, TX learns how to build robotic applications using LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT.