Robotics Ladder · Free, age 8 to college
Climb from a bristlebot to robots that see and plan
Learn how robots sense, think and act, one rung at a time. Start with a grown-up at age eight, then wire circuits on a breadboard, program an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, work out where an arm's hand goes, tune a PID controller, filter noisy sensors and plan a path around walls. Short lessons build each idea from first principles, interactive pictures let you drag an arm and drive a robot, practice checks your answers with real math and physics, and every course has hands-on projects with parts lists and safety notes. No sign-up, nothing to pay.
Six-Month Roadmap, Improved
A realistic plan for an adult at about ten hours a week, mapped to these courses, with what six months can and cannot buy you; plus a school-year plan for homeschool families and parts lists at three price points.
The ladder
Each rung is a full course. Start where you are; topics from earlier rungs come back when you need them.
- College
- Capstone Projects and CareersCollege · 3 topics You are here
- Robot VisionCollege · 4 topics You are here
- ROS 2 and SimulationCollege · 5 topics You are here
- Mobile Robots and NavigationCollege · 6 topics You are here
- High school
- Sensing and EstimationGrade 11–12 · 6 topics You are here
- Feedback and ControlGrade 11–12 · 5 topics You are here
- Mechanics and MotionGrade 10–11 · 6 topics You are here
- Programming RobotsGrade 8–10 · 5 topics You are here
- Middle school
- Electronics and MicrocontrollersGrade 7–9 · 6 topics You are here
- Elementary
- Robotics for KidsGrade 3–6 · 5 topics You are here
How the Robotics Ladder works
- Find your rung. A short check, at most 30 questions, skips what you already know and finds your starting point.
- Learn from first principles. Each topic is one small idea. The lesson shows why it works, then walks through worked examples one step at a time.
- Master it before moving on. Three right answers, the last two in a row, pass a topic. If a topic gets hard, we point you to the skill underneath it.
- Review, spaced out. Passed topics come back after 1 day, then 3, 7, 16 days and longer, for two quick problems each. Harder topics that use an older one count as practice for it.
- Mix it up. Reviews and checkpoint quizzes mix problems from different topics, so you learn to tell which method a problem needs.
- Earn XP. About one point per minute of focused work. Set a daily goal and keep your streak going.
- One climb across subjects. Every ladder shares your XP, streak and reviews. When a topic needs a skill from another ladder, such as the algebra behind a formula, that skill comes first, labeled with its ladder.
Why these steps: the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences practice guide Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning (Pashler and others, NCER 2007-2004) recommends spacing reviews out over time, alternating worked examples with problems students solve on their own, pairing pictures with words, and using quizzes to bring key content back. The Robotics Ladder is built around those ideas.
More on Teddy Rook Book
- Circuits in the Science LabBuild circuits on screen before you touch a breadboard
- Book CartBalance a chain of books on a moving cart: the inverted pendulum that control engineers love
- Newton's Laws of MotionForces, ramps and pulleys: the physics under every robot
- Code PracticeBinary, hexadecimal and the number bases a microcontroller uses
- Electrical tradeHow electricians work, and why house wiring is a job for the trained
- Math LadderTrig, matrices, calculus and probability, the math robots run on
- Physics LadderTorque, motion, circuits and power
The other ladders
- Math LadderFrom counting in Pre-K to calculus, linear algebra and differential equations. 28 courses.
- Physics LadderHands-on science for ages 9 and 10, then motion, forces and energy, fluids, heat, electricity, light, atoms and the stars, up to college. 11 courses.
- Chemistry LadderAtoms, bonds, moles and reactions, from high school chemistry through a full year of general chemistry. 3 courses.
- Economics LadderHow people, firms and whole economies choose: microeconomics, macroeconomics and calculus-based micro. 3 courses.
- Earth & Space LadderRocks, plates and volcanoes, oceans, weather and climate, and Earth's place among the planets and stars. 3 courses.
- Logic LadderClear thinking, from arguments and fallacies to syllogisms, truth tables and formal proofs, grade 7 to college. 3 courses.
- Etiquette LadderManners as kindness made into habits: please and thank you, the table, conversation, notes and hard moments, age 4 to adult. 3 courses.
- Egyptology LadderAncient Egypt from the Nile and the pyramids to reading hieroglyphs: history, Middle Egyptian, religion and art, and archaeology, age 8 to college. 6 courses.
- Ancient Scripts LadderHow ancient scripts work and how they were read again, beginning with Linear A and Linear B of the Bronze Age Aegean, high school to college. 1 courses.
- Vocabulary LadderOne thousand advanced words, each with a picture and a memory hook, plus the Greek and Latin roots that unlock them, grade 6 to adult. 2 courses.
- Biology LadderLiving things from seeds and tadpoles to cells, genes, evolution and ecosystems, age 5 through AP Biology and college. 4 courses.
- American History & Civics LadderThe American story and how its government works, from the flag and the Pilgrims and stories from world history for ages 9 and 10 to AP U.S. History, civics and the citizenship test, and on to law school courses in constitutional law. 8 courses.
- Writing & Grammar LadderFrom a first sentence to the persuasive essay: grammar and diagramming, usage and punctuation, paragraphs and essays, sources and citations, and rhetoric, age 6 to college. 6 courses.
- Geography LadderMaps and directions for young explorers, then the fifty states, the countries and capitals of the world, and human geography up to AP, age 5 to adult. 4 courses.
- Art & Drawing LadderDrawing from first lines to perspective and faces, color and design, and art history from the cave painters to mid-century modern, age 5 to college. 5 courses.
- Memory LadderHow memory works and how to use it on purpose: spaced review, retrieval, chunking, pictures, mnemonics and the memory palace, then the Major System, PAO and the tools memory athletes use, age 8 to adult. 2 courses.
- Great Books LadderEvery work in the 60 volumes of Great Books of the Western World, one rung at a time, from Homer to the 20th century, with paths for young readers, teens and adults. 9 courses.
All the ladders share one progress: XP, your streak and your reviews.
Your progress is saved in this browser
No account needed. To move to another device, or to keep a backup, copy your save code and paste it in on the other device.
See your progress · The site's My Progress page backs up everything at once.