This is an awesome video describing the robot game. It really helped me to understand the missions, get an idea of what I think is hard/easy, and to understand how the various missions work together. It's a great supplemental video to the one FIRST put out. Please have the kids review.
I also wanted to post a video of our presentation last year. Coaches and parents are NOT allowed to view the actual presentation to the judges. This video was made about 15 minutes before the kids did the one for the judges.
Hopefully we can get the kids to make more eye contact with the judges this year. Also to have a scripted but more memorized presentation. Ms. Norwood got some great tips at the kick-off on how to "Wow the judges!"
Johnny, Joshua, Gavin, and Kenny had a good time at the NC FLL Kick-Off today along with parents and coaches.
Dr. Robin Coger, Dean of the College of Engineering at NC A&T, helped Dr. Kory Bennett, the NC FLL/FTC Partner, kick-off the event. Dr. Uzochukwo also gave a presentation on trash.
We also attended three lectures on:
- MyBlocks with parameters (programming)
- How to Wow the Judges
- Build Your Team (team building)
After lunch, and we only 20 minutes!, we got an overview of the rules from the Head Referee for NC, Sam, and the top NC FLL team from last year, the Warf Rats, did a Q&A.
We ended the day doing One and Done. The boys were able to solve the Demolition mission in a rudimentary way. I'll have one of the boys demo the mode and their solution at this coming Wednesday's meeting.
Below is a FlipJam video that I created of all the photos I took today.
I added two links to the right hand column on the blog. One is the rubrics for next year (project,robot design,core values). Please take a minute to read this as it will explain what we have to do as a team to essentially get an A and advance to state competition. If you are able to print a copy for your child to go in their white binder, please do. The other is for a team information sheet that we will use during competition.
At regionals last year, most of the teams participated in a button swap. I was reminded of this today by this shirt!
We should really make some this year. I talked to Lacy Park PTA president, and she has a button press that we can borrow. I may need to enlist some help with that! BTW, if your child has not sent in their team logo artwork, please make sure that is sent in this coming Wednesday.
We are also being asked if we'd like to raise money at Fall Movie Night by selling popcorn and drinks. The PTA has a popcorn machine. Sounds like a good idea to me. Who can help?
Please don't forget to watch the prior year mission models.
I spent about 3 hours positioning the Trash Trek mission models on the table this morning. The kids built all the models, but I prefer to place them on the mat. The sticky Velco like tabs that hold the models down and kids don't play nice together. This also gives me a chance to understand the robot game better. A couple of things that occurred to me this morning while I was putting the table together:
The trash compactor is difficult to set up and easily undoes itself when it's not supposed to.
The little building that is supposed to topple down...well it topples down when you don't want it to, and that's kind of a pain.
The methane tanks at the far corner of the table...the loops move really easily and could certainly be a problem.
It's harder to get the truck to go down the track guide than you think.
Check out my latest GeekMom review. These books make an excellent addition to any Lego Power Functions purchase. The concepts in these books also apply to FLL.
Ms. Norwood introduced the presentation project part of the Trash Trek challenge here.
Ms. Goldman introduced the robot game part of the Trash Trek challenge here.
We also discussed robot design here.
Outline
We started the class with discussions about the Trash Trek challenge. See above. The kids finished the discovery programming lessons in Chapter 4 and some started the lessons in Chapter 5.
Homework
Please watch the older robot game challenge videos.
Please think about what type of trash we can focus on in our project and write down 5 possible items.
Please review the robot designs. If you find one you really like or have suggestions, write that down.
What's Next
NC FLL Kick-Off at NC A&T on Saturday 8/29.
Meeting on 9/2. We'll discuss what we learned at the kick-off. I should have the new mat on the table along with the new mission models. We'll gather around the table to start generating ideas on which missions to solve first and how to solve them.
Last year, we had a robot that had two wheels in the front and a castor at the back. A medium motor was high. The ultrasonic sensor was front bottom. \There was a color sensor underneath. This robot was based on Damien Kee's book Programming for the Classroom Activities for the Busy EV3 Teacher. Great book BTW.
We scored 100 pts. on or best run at regionals last year which was 6 out of 12. Not bad, but we can do better.
Things I liked about this robot:
1. Beginning students had instructions for building it.
2. It was easy to make modifications to the basic design.
3. It was small and maneuverable.
4. The kids understood it.
Things that I didn't like about this robot:
1. The castor would bounce off/on the table and make a clunking noise. Did this effect the moving accuracy?
2. We had robot path accuracy issues. Some paths weren't repeatable each time with enough accuracy to score.
3. The robot wasn't square; we didn't try to bounce off walls to make sure we stayed lined up.
The teams that we saw with high scores and performing well made use of fancier attachments than we we used. Those robots also had a "guard" all the way around it that allowed it to square up on walls.
With those points in mind, I tried to find some pictures of robots on the internet that looked like what I think we should go with this year.
Sorry the source of these photos is missing here in the blog, but you can find them off my FLL Robot Design board on Pinterest.
Several of these robots have the medium motor mounted lower center front flush with the guard. Others use gears that turn angles to mount it higher and farther back but still get the job done. Note that the touch sensor can be mounted farther back, if you use an axle to do the touching, which sticks out of the front of it. Some of these robots have 4 wheels or 2 wheels and use the guard to keep the robot level. The brick can be mounted front to back, left to right, or even on it's side.
And here's some code showing how to back the robot into a wall to line it up. Unfortunately the resolution on the image makes it too small to read.
Presentation We didn't have any presentation today. The students immediately started building the Trash Trek mission models. Outline 10 kids, 10 devices, and 10 mission models to build. Some of the bags were smaller and easier than others, so as some of the kids finished their model, they were redeployed to help work on the bigger models. We got about 95% done building in 90 minutes.Woo hoo! The kids did a fantastic job! Homework None, but the kids are encouraged to read the Trash Trek Challenge document, What's Next
An extra meeting has been called on Thursday 8/27 same time and place. We will go over the Trash Trek project and robot game. The kids will pick up where they left off last Wednesday with the discovery programming activities in Chapter 4 of The EV3 Discovery Book.
Saturday is the NC FLL kick-off in Greensboro. Those going should arrive by 9:30AM and make their way to the auditorium. Directions to the General Building on NC A&T are here. The address is: General Classroom Building, 601 North Benbow Road, Greensboro, NC 27411
