The Table

Okay, I said I would post about how I made a portable FLL table.  Before I do, let me tell you how I came up with the idea.

Problem:  I needed a portable table that would fit in a Mini-Cooper.  I have to transport the table back and forth once a week (loading and unloading) to where our FLL team meets.

Research: I looked online at tables some others teams had built (styro-foam borders and board), but nothing seemed practical for what I needed.  They looked like they would get broken too easy and were quite expensive.  I got to brainstorming.

Solution:  Here is what I came up with for the off season.  After the fact I had built this, I saw another team had used some foam mats with wooden borders.  That would have made life a little bit easier if I had found those instructions previously than figuring it out on my own.  I always have to do everything the hard way.

All you need to do is put it together and put a mat on top and you are good to go.  The mat featured here was from the Power Puzzles season.  It was given to us by the local middle school.  What I liked about it was the puzzle pieces.  You usually associate puzzle pieces with Autism, so it was perfect.  Asperger's Syndrome is on the Autism Spectrum.

 As you can see we do not have the Lego Pieces for the mat.  We kind of created our own missions which were very basic.  We did one mission per kid to give them a sense of accomplishment.

Here is how I made it.

What you need:

Play mats from Sam's Club.
Foam pipe insulators from Home Depot or Lowe's 
Edge already on mat

Cost around $30 total

First you need to put 8 squares together with the side pieces attached laying flat.  Then you flip it over to the grey side.  Number each piece and draw a diagram on grey side for kids to be able to put together themselves. 

I also labeled the side foam pieces so they would know how to put them on the foam table.  They were labeled B for Bottom, S for Side.  I had to distinguish which side they were , left or right.  So "BL" would go on the bottom left side, and "2S" would be on the second mat, side piece.  It took the kids a few times to master it.  Labeling is very important because you want to put it together the same way every time.  If the kids ask why something doesn't line up I will ask them if they followed the diagram.

Then you flip all the side pieces of the foam table so they are perpendicular.  Here is what I mean...

Here is another example looking from another direction. I made sure I locked the edge by pushing it in as shown in the bottom picture.

After that, you cut the foam inserts to the size of each individual square.  At first I left the pieces long on the sides, but It was a pain to carry.  To get them to fit in a bag I ended up making them the same size as the foam side pieces.

Then after I had turned all the sides up, I put the foam insulators over the side pieces.  You can wrap them to fit over the whole side piece or you can just lay them on top of the side piece.

The foam insulators go around the whole outside edge.  This will keep your robot within the confines of the table.  You can set this up on a table with legs or on the floor.

After I put the foam insulators on, I laid down the Puzzle Power mat and put Velcro between the mat and the foam table.  If you don't put the table squares together the same way the Velcro won't line up. 

Here is the finished table before adding the Power Puzzle mat!

another picture...

There you go...a portable table that doesn't weigh much and can be transported in a Mini-Cooper.  I do not know how this would work in a Smart car.

My regular season mat has the wooden boards assembled together with corner brackets and straight metal pieces for the middle sides.  I also used an extra piece of wood to stabilize the middle sections.

I drew a diagram on the foam table to let the kids know how to put together the wooden boards.  Each side and middle has a baggie full of wing-nuts and screws labeled.  The corner brackets are labeled too.

This can also be transported in my Mini-Cooper.  The only problem since I added the boards is, I can't fit my kid in the car.  Oh well, you can't have everything! :)

The Challenge

As an official First Lego League Team, we will get the opportunity to participate in this year's challenge which is called "Senior Solutions".

We are supposed to explore how we can help improve the quality of life for seniors by helping them continue to be independent, engaged, and connected in their communities.  We will do this by participating in 3 parts - the Robot Game, the Project, and the Core Values. The Robot Game and Project are what teams do, and the Core Values guide teams through the experience.  Here is a link if you want to learn more about the Challenge go to http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2012seniorsolutions.

To start off we received a kit that had the Robot Mat and Missions.

Our next job will be to figure out how to program and build an robot to run the course completing the missions in 2 1/2 minutes.  We will get 3 chances to get our best score. 

Then as a team we will explore the topic.  With the topic we are supposed to

• Find a senior partner
• Identify and learn about a problem faced by seniors
• Create an innovative solution to the problem we identify
• Share our problem and solution with others


The Core Values we will use while doing these two things are:

• We are a team.
• We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.
• We know our coaches and mentors don't have all the answers; we learn together.
• We honor the spirit of friendly competition.
• What we discover is more important than what we win.
• We share our experiences with others.
• We display Gracious Professionalism^® and Coopertition^® in everything we do.
• We have FUN!

It is all a lot harder then it sounds.



We have already had a lot of fun exploring this topic.  Last week we put on an "Empathy Suit".  Basically it was a suit that mimicked what it felt like to be a Senior.  With a little duck tape, anything is possible.

Here is my son and another kid having a staring contest through reading glasses that mimic how it feels not to be able to see as clearly.

Here is one kid looking at the missions trying to figure out how we will do them.

And here is my son and another kid putting the models on the table.  Everyone sorts, everyone sets up, and everyone participates.  The last one "everyone participates" is hard for some of our kids to do.  We are taking little steps to let them know their contribution is valued. 

Other things we have done lately is following the FLL Blog post.  From that we learned about Flip the Robot and the adventures he/she? has.  Also we read a Doctor Seuss book about getting old.  Wait till I tell them about another Doctor who is old.  They will have fun with that.

Well, I am off tweaking my table (building portable sides).  Now, where did I put that Sonic Screwdriver???

Team 122

We are officially First Lego League Team 122!

Here are some pictures I found in Google images about the number 122.

Hey, how did that Dalek get in there?


It seems like ages ago but, ...on the first official day, May 6, I registered RoboSkills within the first hour. By the time registration is closed there will be thousands of teams. 

We have a new Behavior and Social Skills Coach who has worked with children on the spectrum. Her name is Caroline Madsen. She is wonderful!!!  She used to be my son's aide at church (so I am kind of biased) and decided to go into special education because of him. Ms. Jane is going to be moving to further her education and she is having a baby. We will dearly miss her!  We wish the best for her.

What has changed since I last posted is, we are now meeting in the Community Room at Publix (Thank You Publix!). Sci-Quest has summer camps during the summer and so they have their classrooms filled. We have met all summer long.

We are now, after having built a few robots, and learning a little bit about programming, challenging ourselves on the puzzle mat to see if we can accomplish some made-up missions.  I don't have all the lego pieces for the puzzle power mat, so we have improvised and come up with a couple of our own.

You are probably wondering how do we set up the mat when we dont have a table. I have come up with a portable mat that is different then the one that everyone has seen on line.  It is easier to build or put together (no building required) and lighter.  The idea came together when I was trying to figure out how in the world am I going to fit a table in my Mini Cooper?  Spoilers....will have to tell all about it next post.  I showed some other teams what I had come up with and they loved it and said I should sell it as a fundraiser for our team.  Can you copyright a mat design???  Now, off to make a bag to carry it in....

So many post, so little time!

Well, I have let a lot of time slip by between postings.  I guess I will have to give you the whirlwind tour of some of the stuff we have been doing.  We have only missed one class due being out of town (All State Orchestra).  Well, actually it would be more like 3 classes, if you combine Spring Break.

We had some more lessons in Programming.  We learned about the move block.

That was fun to see the reaction on the kids faces as they controlled their first robot.  The next class they got to control the movements of a NXT (child) with the use of a dolly to get to the designated spot.  That was a whole lot of fun because if the command was invalid, you couldn't move.  It is a great way to internalize how to program.

We had a few lessons around the Angry Bird theme.  The first lesson was to program and control the robot to crash into the Pigs.  Basically we had to program a series of commands to get to the Pigs fortress.  We also built Catapults and shot off the birds to land on the Pigs fortress.  We had to learn that we needed to be real quiet or else the Catapult would accidentally fire.

In Social Skills during this time we learned about one person talking at a time. If the child wanted to say something while I was talking, they had to press the sound command on the Laminated NXT.

During Spring Break a couple of kids were lucky to go to LegoLand in Florida and the new Lego Discovery Center in Atlanta, GA.

When we got home from Spring Break we had an Easter Egg Hunt with our NXT's and then got to do a real Easter Egg Hunt in the Museum.  That was a lot of fun.  This is what our robots looked like:

 This robot came from http://www.nxtprograms.com/claw_car/index.html

This site is a great resource to building different kinds of robots.  I feel that they will be able to think of more options building a robot for FLL if they are exposed to many different designs. 

Sci-Quest has been so accommodating and we are very grateful for them.

We also learned about gears.  We have been doing a couple lessons on building with gears.  I let the kids go into the Sci-Quest Museum to find objects that used gears.  I think we found almost around 25 gear combinations including Pulleys.  The kids got to take home a handout of different gear combinations that were illustrated.

We weaved our social skills lesson around the gears talking about conversations.  Conversations need to mesh like gears do and flow slowly.  The Green Zone illustrates this in the picture below.

We practiced our skills playing Lego Games which have been very popular.  As we get towards the end of the year it will be harder and harder to capture their attention due to the excitement of the end of the school year.

We still have lots to learn.  It is hard to capture the kids attention but when we do, you know it.  They have a great time.  When they are too excited we have a harder time.  You have to find the middle ground and accommodate all the kids who are on different levels.

Next things to think about is, "Do we want to form a non-profit?" so we can pay someone to do the social skills?  We would also like to earn dollars so we can buy at least one kit per child, and one resource parts kit per child.  I have supplemented the legos with ones I have brought from home.  Well, this is just something to think on because there is a lot involved in forming a non-profit.  I don't know if I am ready for that.

Visitors

I love it when visitors come!

One visitor we have had is the head of the Robotics Department at Sci-Quest.  His first name is Chris.  He seems to stop by to see what we are doing most Fridays.

He brought in some of his robots to show to the kids.  They are very interested in all that he contributes.  One of his robots has a drag system instead of a caster wheel.  One class I would like to test out which system works best.

Chris said that he would help us in anyway we need it.  The robot he is showing here is from the First Tech Challenge.

I just want to say how wonderful Sci-Quest has been in this whole adventure.  We come every Friday rain or shine.  They have a room waiting and ready for us with a projector that has internet and powerpoint capabilities.  The room is big with 5 tables so we can spread out.  Angela Moulton has been the driving force behind all the accommodations we receive.  Sci-Quest has been so generous in helping our kids.  Thank you, Sci-Quest!  We couldn't do it without you!

Five Kits

I didn't realize how hard it would be to rotate 5 kits between 2 classes.  I bought two more kits for Christmas, but they are the retail sets.  The retail version doesn't have the sound sensor.  It includes a colored light sensor instead of the black and white light sensor provided in the educational kit.

This past week Group 1 worked on building a NXT robot that has several attachments.  The plans included a sound sensor for which I only have 5 sensors.  When we have class, each child wants to work on their own robot.  I told the kids that during the FLL season they will have to come up with their own design.  We are going to test out many designs.

I have to figure out how to teach Group 2 using those same kits with the partially built robots.   I think I figured out how to do this, even though it takes a lot more work.  After I get done with the first class, I take apart the robots and then let the second group build their robots. Then when I get to the next class of the first group, I have to make sure the robots are assembled to the step they were on so they can continue building. Does that make sense?

I also figured out how to construct a light weight portable table to use. I have taken the educational play mats that fit together like a puzzle and made a table top out of them. On the edges I put a foam border using pipe insulators. The puzzle mat fits perfectly! Now all I have to do is make a bag to carry it all in. I have to test it out first on the floor before I put it on a table. I would not want a NXT to go over the border and come crashing down to the floor. This table will be useful off season to practice on.

After we build our basic NXT robots with sensors we will test them out on our new portable table. I am going to have my son demonstrate the programming.

Building NXT's will give the kids a sense of accomplishment.

10 More Kids....Group 2

We also had our first lesson and got to know each other. One of the problems I encountered was we were changed to a different room, which threw me for a loop. I was not expecting this nor did I even anticipate it. We had to do some quick thinking about how to present our lesson. Sci-Quest helped in hooking us up to a big screen TV that also had a internet connection.

Unfortunately, we hit another snag. This snag had to do with the Powerpoint lesson I had prepared. It must have been on another flash drive, because it wasn't on the one I had brought. I guess we put "Flexible Thinking" into practice. I wouldn't be able to do everything if it weren't for the help of the Parents, Jane and Sci-Quest.

What we did....we used our imagination and built little miniature robots. This was a lesson to see how creative we are.  We then glued the robots into a plastic ball. We got to take our ornaments home as a present from my son, who has been learning about giving to others (which he does readily). We also had a another building activity to learn how to build strong structures out of Marshmallows, Gumdrops, Toothpicks, and Spaghetti.

We learned a little about First Lego League and our Mindstorms robot kits. We learned that it is important not to run our robots on the tables so they don't break. We also learned what the missions and project aspect were all about in the FLL.

We rolled out our puzzle mat and discussed how we were going to build, program and then create our own missions. The missions will be geared around our interest, which are varied.

We also saw a demonstration of two robots I had created to show what a robot was (Spider and Mini-Rex) and does. We are going to be so prepared for next years challenge instead of trying to cram in how to build and program and research in such a short time.

Our social skills lesson dealt with teamwork, and being flexible.

I saw a lot of smiles on faces and excitement in their eyes. The kids are a joy to work with. They have some of the most creative minds and I love how they associate things.

My favorite quote of the whole evening was when we were building strong structures. We were about to test the structures out when, one of the kids mentioned that (I don't remember the exact wording), ... we should have gotten some catastrophic builder's insurance just in case his group's structure wasn't sound. LOL! That was perfect and made my night!