This month's newsletter topic is robotics and homeland security. Robots can play various important roles in homeland security. For instance, if a robot can be used to search for and disarm bombs, then a person does not have to do this dangerous job. Before examining all of the many ways in which robots can be used in homeland security, it is first helpful to build one.

This month's activity, Beginners: How to Build Your First Robot Tutorial, shows high school students how to build a robot from scratch. Sponsored by the Society of Robots, this website has information on hardware and software. It provides an outline of instructions for building a basic robot and tips for obtaining parts and information. It says, "Robotics can teach you so much. You will learn skills ranging from electronics, mechanics, controls, programming, and even as broad as understanding animal behavior and human psychology."

This activities is brought to you by the new Engineering Pathway, a part of the National Science Digital Library. The portal provides high-quality teaching and learning resources in applied science and math, engineering, computer science/information technology and engineering technology — for use by K-12 and university educators. The Engineering Pathway brings together quality engineering education materials from all over the internet, including those from the TeachEngineering Collection, allowing teachers to search all of these documents in a single location.