Gearing up for a new season....

We are gearing up for a new season.  This year we are...

Team 2364

Publix has graciously offered to host our team this year again.

Rocket City RoboSkills will be starting again soon.  We are a parent led First Lego League Robotics Group.  We have a few openings (limit of 10 kids for a team) for middle school aged kids with Aspergers. Publix at Piedmont Square has graciously offered to let us meet there again this year on Fridays from 4-6 pm. 

We are currently signing up for new participants.  Please contact Coach Lowder if you are interested.

The 2012 FLL Qualifier at Hampton Cove...

The big day has arrived...

All in all, we did FABULOUS!  

Here were our scores.

Let me interpret...we were 16th place out of 24 teams.  That means we were doing something right!!!

122 was our team number.  133, 115 and 120 were our robot rounds.  133 was our best  robot score.

Of course there are always areas that we could have done better....every team looks back and says that.  For the first year I think we flew with flying colors.  The kids were worn out when it was all said and done and so was I.  I was very proud of all that they accomplished!!!

Here were a couple pictures we took.  

We had our own celebration at Mellow Mushroom.  We gave out trophies for this years participation.

Each kid got their own trophy.  

Zachary received the Rising Star Award for his role in the Stop Animation and Skit.

Ethan received the Most Fexible Award which is the coveted Social Skill's award.  He was also very flexible and creative in writing the script for our skit and stop animation movie.

Douglas received the Inovative Solution Award for his role in figuring out the colored sensors to do a mission when no-one could figure them out.

Lydia received the Most Creative Award for the Dalek she drew for the t-shirt.  She was also very helpful putting everything together weekly.

Michael received Gracious Professional Award for helping others learn sacrificing his own time to work on the robot missions.

Caleb received the Inspiration Award for his inspired project.  He also received the Most Valuable Team Member Award for his example to everyone.  He always tried hard, worked on everything, and tried to be a positive example to everyone.

 

until next season...

The Doctor is Coming...

The Doctor is Coming...

 

We knew we needed to come up with a skit for our presentation.  To make it fun we decided none other than A Dr. Who theme will do, since Dr. Who is a senior too.  

One of our kids, Ethan had been playing around with stop animation videos.  We used this app

to create the video.

Stop Motion Studio App

                                                                

The skit was about Dr. Who coming to help another senior, who was a Weeping Angel,  with his arthritis.  We had a lot of fun creating it.  

Next we created our team spirit hats.

Each kid created there own hat from a pattern.  Then they decorated it.  Pretty good, huh?

Next we all drew pictures to vote on for the t-shirt.  This is the one we chose drawn by Lydia...

On the back we put this picture...

Here is what the shirts looked like...

We also made Sonic Screwdrivers.  

In our video Dr. Who cured the Weeping Angel with a Sonic Screwdriver.

After that we visited Maker's Local 256.  We had a personal tour.  

Here is some of the photos we took while there.

We got to meet our favorite Robot.  We learned what went on in the shop.  

We finished our NXT Robot with the inspiration of going to see a real one.

And did test runs of the missions.  

I was real impressed with how Douglas learned how to use the color sensors on the NXT to figure out how to differentiate between the different colored medicine bottles.  

Caleb worked on the solution project with his Grandfather.  We each had a role.

His project helped seniors lift up their legs so they would not have to bend over so far.

Meanwhile, we decided that with the help of Jennifer Paulsen from Makers Local 256 we should practice doing a skit in front of the judges and use the video presentation at our table.  

Next, we went to a assisted living home where we demonstrated our missions and project.  

Caleb had been working on the project.  The senior citizens gave us some valuable input.  

We worked on the Tri-Fold and included this picture...

Here is how it turned out...

The Tardis in the picture spun around with a motor.

Zachary and Ethan's Grandmother come talk to us about Arthritis.  A Professor visited our group to talk about the cognitive effects of aging.  Last but not least Laura Parks from Task came out and did a demonstration on assistive technology and what seniors might need.  She had some interesting gadgets.  We put a few of the examples on our table by our tri-fold.

Some highlights we unfortunately did not get a picture of was when Michael bowled a strike the first time when attempting the bowling mission.  

Michael also helped Challenger Middle's Team by bringing his mission board and missions to them when theirs had not yet arrived.  He also helped them brainstorm some solutions.

We learned that you should always read the instructions when putting together the mission board.  We could not figure out why we didn't have enough dual-lock pieces.  It finally dawned on us.

and last but not least...

I have a tendency not to do this as a coach. 

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???