tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66844398176011356512024-02-07T00:04:01.175-05:00LEGO TeacherWelcome to the LEGO Teacher blog where comments are made on the teaching of LEGO Robotics, coaching a FIRST LEGO League team, and integrating LEGO experiences into the elementary curriculum.LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-47970023565448619492014-09-26T17:32:00.001-04:002014-09-26T17:33:17.237-04:00FLL Rookie Workshop - WORLD CLASS - NYU POLY 9/27/14Hello! Here is the Power Point and links to resources from the NYC FLL Rookie Workshop!<br />
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byx_gku7zgl4cHR1R1E1V0FnTVk/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI2SPkserTdxBewsvt9Fuqb9Iua5a0NV-rAiFvd1Zh0O_ipDsU2Eoh3vu1kNmPw62YBe6yVrtHdobflmaWYga77pjnBFVpuNzKgVmMXVX8L2H27K4qfAivt1pVNsZ9FqJTmwivjDFiEMM/s1600/FLL_WorldClassRGB.jpg" height="130" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byx_gku7zgl4cHR1R1E1V0FnTVk/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">FLL Rookie Workshop Powerpoint</a></div>
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The best place to start is on the FLL Website. FIRST has worked REALLY hard on crafting a great list of resources for coaches. Start at the source:</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'DIN Alternate Bold';">FIRST
LEGO League Website</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'DIN Alternate Bold';"><a href="http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2014fllworldclass">http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'DIN Alternate Bold';"><a href="http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2014fllworldclass">2014fllworldclass</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'DIN Alternate Bold';"><a href="http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/teamresources">http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'DIN Alternate Bold';"><a href="http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/teamresources">teamresources</a></span></div>
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Brick</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'DIN Alternate Bold';"><a href="http://www.techbrick.com/">http://www.techbrick.com</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'DIN Alternate Bold';"><a href="http://www.techbrick.com/">/</a></span></div>
<br />LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-8373188609739267102013-09-29T20:58:00.007-04:002013-09-29T21:35:43.749-04:00First experiences with MINDSTORMS EV3<span style="font-family: inherit;">This past summer I was fortunate to participate in the <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;">LEGO Education EV3 Seed Project and test drive the EV3 in my camp programs. These programs service children from 8 years old to middle schoolers.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;">I run two types of robotics camps. One is a one-hour introduction to robotics workshop, and the second program is a week-long robotics camp where students get to build upon a robot project over a full week.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;">I was really pleased with the versatility of the EV3, as it was a perfect fit for both programs. Since the kits were new and in "beta test" condition, I had to spend some time </span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;">organizing the kits so that all campers could access the parts they needed, and put parts away independently. Please see my earlier blog post on how I organized the parts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;">Now onto the camps...</span></span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;"><u>One Hour Workshop</u></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">The challenge of a one hour workshop is how do you offer campers a great robotics experience in such a short time? The one-hour workshops I run are also traveling workshops where I travel to sleep-away camps and unpack my gear for campers to interact with and then re-pack the gear to move on to the next workshop. So I need to be organized and have models that can withstand a lot of play.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 20.796875px;">I usually design a "simple bot" that anyone could build, and that have few parts that can be lost/repaced. My recipe for a simple bot is a robot that is stable (lots of kid play), but uses a minimal amount of pieces (less to lose/replace), and one that can be assembled in a few steps (for maximum play time). The EV3 comes with an amazing metal wheel that serves as the perfect 3rd/pivot wheel which saved me a lot of time with pivot wheel design - thank you LEGO! The EV3 kit comes with cross braces that are easy to attach to the base of the EV3, which made designing a simple bot a snap. I didn't use the cross braces in this model, but the EV3 starter bot in the software uses them and they are designer's dream.</span></span></span><br />
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Check out the 1-hour workshop "starter bot"</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji81RZw4hHQgiwN5OMyvNV_Mcw0H2W0fvjgG_Crv7ac2IkixPVveo4MGSFs7AHwpfSsjJHuHHV9WTva0qBZETJps5tHAYeVTMClVPmRixl3SXuoTSrY2S8fzlxsMD6d_H0mDaRv1gkwc/s1600/IMG_8405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiji81RZw4hHQgiwN5OMyvNV_Mcw0H2W0fvjgG_Crv7ac2IkixPVveo4MGSFs7AHwpfSsjJHuHHV9WTva0qBZETJps5tHAYeVTMClVPmRixl3SXuoTSrY2S8fzlxsMD6d_H0mDaRv1gkwc/s320/IMG_8405.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvO_mH3ZZyQTI6wj2OAhlioItMjg9pV1nky5LN0DGYGNf9kq4EJkeyrwEHkY_Zbe1Evh4ZTqptimwhDWTmMRyrUTuF5-5Ar9BqqbhRJg4tcSCfP1_XaeI8aghplzOIfXR1Tp2A1QwLSE0/s1600/IMG_8391.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvO_mH3ZZyQTI6wj2OAhlioItMjg9pV1nky5LN0DGYGNf9kq4EJkeyrwEHkY_Zbe1Evh4ZTqptimwhDWTmMRyrUTuF5-5Ar9BqqbhRJg4tcSCfP1_XaeI8aghplzOIfXR1Tp2A1QwLSE0/s320/IMG_8391.jpg" width="240" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This robot, which we named the "Robbie Bot" (after one of the camp counselors), was made from about 50 pieces. We attached a wired remote with two touch sensors and preloaded a simple 2-button remote program to get the campers started with running the robot on an obstacle course (that matched the activities of the camp). Once the campers were in a groove we introduced them to the On-Brick programming on the EV3 to move them up to hands-on programming. The campers then disassembled the robots in preparation for the next group to play.</span><br />
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Here are some happy campers and their EV3 bots!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1HomO5JJPVa6VYSlIbp5DQFLCuMpNZFYQ2Y2mxKGpxJC42FLMtCdoBjNGDqEo5BHJoSuGzmtMmym4XjTjf5N4nXzgf-vPefPi8W0y6Rk8rHjuX8icFX10beLBwxF1dXLc6tG54R3A4Co/s1600/IMG_8439.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1HomO5JJPVa6VYSlIbp5DQFLCuMpNZFYQ2Y2mxKGpxJC42FLMtCdoBjNGDqEo5BHJoSuGzmtMmym4XjTjf5N4nXzgf-vPefPi8W0y6Rk8rHjuX8icFX10beLBwxF1dXLc6tG54R3A4Co/s320/IMG_8439.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivkOnHTC3XRho_EVnZh80ethyphenhyphenR6KwHb8yRiLWWHOooErvwr19eS0KWwF07DigKD2nb_A__xCbecU0AXKpmKlpo3ZOz6RF7MAh_Owp3X-VqUoJwOWS2Y8rKXp0qWoK7IaFTAKNTwVCp2HA/s1600/IMG_8455.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivkOnHTC3XRho_EVnZh80ethyphenhyphenR6KwHb8yRiLWWHOooErvwr19eS0KWwF07DigKD2nb_A__xCbecU0AXKpmKlpo3ZOz6RF7MAh_Owp3X-VqUoJwOWS2Y8rKXp0qWoK7IaFTAKNTwVCp2HA/s320/IMG_8455.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<b style="color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;"><u><span style="font-family: inherit;">One Week Workshops</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">For my one week workshops this summer I relied heavily on the LEGO Education EV3 software for guidance. I had very little time to learn the new system before presenting it to the campers and trusted that the tutorials in the software could support me, and they did, BEAUTIFULLY. I would encourage both rookie and experienced MINDSTORMS teachers to take advantage of the software - there are a lot of jewels to mine in it!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">We began each week building the "Driving Base" model and then following the programming tutorials from "Basics" to "Beyond Basics" programming movement and sensor blocks per the progression of the software. We usually made it through the movement and sensor programming by the end of day three (1/2 days of camp) which gave days 4 and 5 over to project days where campers had a choice to build off their robot or build a new robot. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="line-height: 20.796875px;">What was reassuring as a classroom teacher wanting to incorporate EV3 into my studies this year is that my campers found enough inspiration and support in the kit to excel at independent projects without a lot of teacher support. </span></span><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 20.796875px;">I was able to spend much of my teacher support time on extending projects, like learning how to record custom sounds and send them to the EV3 brick and teaching parallel programs (which I found to be much more intuitive in the new EV3 software).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">I had a group of four boys (4th grade) build the color sorter model in two sessions, and two 3rd grade boys build the Gyro Boy in 2 sessions. All the boys could explain the functions of the motors, sensors, and programming blocks to visitors during their showcase!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">In the week-long camps we also experimented with the On-Brick programming. We found it to be helpful with prototyping programing segments, and then bringing our results into our larger programs on the desktop software.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">Here are some pictures from the EV3 in action from a week-long camp:</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5nw8IiQl3sGpnsPik3u26owFhyphenhyphen-8E3yIq5IIlEn83laWQpRbjaFmD1l7QwlRO3BsaaydqT26_CFp1ZKgrP5z4n__BUCZM8kHifqLuHpdByQQDQXGeHy0n4BnWyJbhRq-HkCtlRCwoAc/s1600/IMG_8498.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC5nw8IiQl3sGpnsPik3u26owFhyphenhyphen-8E3yIq5IIlEn83laWQpRbjaFmD1l7QwlRO3BsaaydqT26_CFp1ZKgrP5z4n__BUCZM8kHifqLuHpdByQQDQXGeHy0n4BnWyJbhRq-HkCtlRCwoAc/s320/IMG_8498.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzEDO25PNFYX38VVlRs0qnucv8IGp3Ay3hMnCUR8n9TARjyYBDjotxBLbtFR-Fj5Kp2gIUJRX1grqeWqVtaDSTNsVahyXRWVph1w-eszvoP4pUlzxqnFEQYeX6npGJI26pe0pJL4KKpPY/s1600/IMG_8517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzEDO25PNFYX38VVlRs0qnucv8IGp3Ay3hMnCUR8n9TARjyYBDjotxBLbtFR-Fj5Kp2gIUJRX1grqeWqVtaDSTNsVahyXRWVph1w-eszvoP4pUlzxqnFEQYeX6npGJI26pe0pJL4KKpPY/s320/IMG_8517.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUK4xjhyphenhyphenE46dVVc6yw_VGjWgzLn-lgMwwFInCjxfeBM4zNzgD4dqMfuLMUaze5fOqs6eLFwy5knBU3hJUE1FzjVR2tgRTS7-YuHbUY_BiGbDumiycQPFUNYRBkQsPKTAvApQifUwc35YM/s1600/IMG_8545.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUK4xjhyphenhyphenE46dVVc6yw_VGjWgzLn-lgMwwFInCjxfeBM4zNzgD4dqMfuLMUaze5fOqs6eLFwy5knBU3hJUE1FzjVR2tgRTS7-YuHbUY_BiGbDumiycQPFUNYRBkQsPKTAvApQifUwc35YM/s320/IMG_8545.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">We also used the EV3, sensors, and medium sized motors to run mixed-media marble runs this summer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">In closing, I am looking forward to playing more with the EV3 this school year, and I encourage rookie and seasoned teachers to embrace and play with all its possibilities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">Stay tuned for future projects from LEGO Teacher. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20.796875px;">Happy fall all!</span></span></div>
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LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-1740989666063508842013-09-18T22:02:00.001-04:002013-09-22T13:08:49.313-04:00FLL Rookie Workshop @ NYU Poly 9/21/2013Hello! Here is a collection of resources I shared at the Rookie Workshop at NYU Poly.<br />
Have a great season everyone!<br />
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<b><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6it4YRZJwmIa3dfeGZ3WlN2V2c/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Rookie Workshop Powerpoint</a></b><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6it4YRZJwmIa3dfeGZ3WlN2V2c/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwqZwq_14_lZBaeUjtHvj5bzoB8NvLW6t_fgAL2ZsK56pugR8055oDCfWfbGoccNdBeDTOnRi2eN4wwmtjb4zbrnRGQwFI3V6Dva6keDpSwRwdqmmySb3zkSKTPE6MEIvt2hmLZ5lj_Fo/s320/res+Fury+Logo+SM.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Nature's Fury Robot Game Video</b><br />
<object height="315" width="420"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/R-_fGwrUJ6o?hl=en_US&version=3"></param>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>
<embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/R-_fGwrUJ6o?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
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Read the Rules with your team (or even assign a "rules expert" job)
<a href="http://www.firstlegoleague.org/sites/default/files/Challenge/NaturesFury/NATURE%27S%20FURY%20Challenge.pdf">http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2013naturesfury</a><br />
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Visit the FLL Project FAQ Page<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/Visit%20the%20FLL%20Project%20FAQ%20Page%20http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/projectfaq">http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/projectfaq </a><br />
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TechBrick Natures Fury Scoring Resources
<a href="http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2013/Resources/scoring.html">http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2013/Resources/scoring.html</a><br />
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FLL Tournament.com Simple Score Sheet<br />
<a href="http://www.flltournament.com/Scoresheet.aspx?CID=15">http://www.flltournament.com/Scoresheet.aspx?CID=15</a><br />
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EV3 Tutorials<br />
<a href="http://www.stemcentric.com/ev3-tutorial">http://www.stemcentric.com/ev3-tutorial</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmxJtO84c_43ZCoWb5uOKg">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHmxJtO84c_43ZCoWb5uOKg</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXNn7QnqlNphHWLhLK9IhDmMmt8sHTH1-">http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXNn7QnqlNphHWLhLK9IhDmMmt8sHTH1-</a>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-13831904730730455242013-06-29T09:20:00.001-04:002013-06-29T09:20:17.473-04:00Interview with Lee Magpili LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 DesignerFormer NYC FLL Emcee, coach, mentor, and teacher Evan Weinberg recently met up with Lee Magpili, LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 designer (also a former New Yorker) over tea to discuss the new EV3.<br />
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Check out the interview here:<br />
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<a href="http://evanweinberg.com/2013/06/27/tea-with-lee-magpili-and-the-lego-mindstorms-ev3/"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-MM7U0PP1wGHlMQVh5yyJQjK4lyvqjupLYvRCymAquQjTyFkEcKJustd_QOubl9oCRthaXY-Yq8YUPq0US7W9zkQ_cDoda3TUsvmt0K3OZ8fCxRSQb_D4c8EebM69IgL23QibfM0jdxU/s320/20130627-0755481.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://evanweinberg.com/2013/06/27/tea-with-lee-magpili-and-the-lego-mindstorms-ev3/">http://evanweinberg.com/2013/06/27/tea-with-lee-magpili-and-the-lego-mindstorms-ev3/</a>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-27514119569749501852013-06-09T14:58:00.000-04:002013-06-10T13:36:00.871-04:00MINDSTORMS Education EV3 PreviewI was recently awarded a Grant from <a href="http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/categories/products/middle-school/lego-mindstorms-education-ev3">LEGO Education</a> (LE), to be a part of the "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">LEGO Education EV3 Seed Project</span>." As part of the program, LE sent me a number of EV3 sets before their public release to try out in my robotics camps this summer.<br />
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The boxes came this week - here's a first look:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvv20ACgQ0zVgBSc0yE1SYz_Mq6_RJPXVQ25HqUiWaJDG0TElGxfMOm78RGpspZNrgqMk4phUskuJxDH589Z0qwWcRpzci7GBHyJwn60i9-cMHV-ks8hw3Ufc-R-h5mn-nYp-fYcG9a0/s1600/EV3_Bin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvv20ACgQ0zVgBSc0yE1SYz_Mq6_RJPXVQ25HqUiWaJDG0TElGxfMOm78RGpspZNrgqMk4phUskuJxDH589Z0qwWcRpzci7GBHyJwn60i9-cMHV-ks8hw3Ufc-R-h5mn-nYp-fYcG9a0/s320/EV3_Bin.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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They are not the final version of what will be shipped this August. Usually LE MINDSTORMS kits come with a nice layout of how to organize the parts, but since this is a beta, I had to create my own organizational system.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2PTvI4D1xZGTBMXgD1VhEI3N1pNWnrecqhAPn-zBphSDdwtumH0h2xGTupxlQ5xZXbopRPIzUoZFASkOcQdv4nRSMUMv3XNTLI5xNG88-HB1ATtI4YTmnI9OJC5F0Whwshd3If3Qn3Ik/s1600/EV3_TopBin_Empty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2PTvI4D1xZGTBMXgD1VhEI3N1pNWnrecqhAPn-zBphSDdwtumH0h2xGTupxlQ5xZXbopRPIzUoZFASkOcQdv4nRSMUMv3XNTLI5xNG88-HB1ATtI4YTmnI9OJC5F0Whwshd3If3Qn3Ik/s320/EV3_TopBin_Empty.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_N8DrLEKnjvJWQczNE_8XcN-ySR3P-kavqzIz4qcbRxV4E89KdYjhsdFUpk0gb5Ft3q-u5wnrTLP0zrFWrCZ2DBWgBo4PEl1SMxngk-m_1P_nsf0A5TUPuoYwl5tV0xoevn9esHKvIU/s1600/EV3_TopBin_Full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM_N8DrLEKnjvJWQczNE_8XcN-ySR3P-kavqzIz4qcbRxV4E89KdYjhsdFUpk0gb5Ft3q-u5wnrTLP0zrFWrCZ2DBWgBo4PEl1SMxngk-m_1P_nsf0A5TUPuoYwl5tV0xoevn9esHKvIU/s320/EV3_TopBin_Full.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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I was given a PDF file of the parts list and made stickers of what parts should go where. I also labeled each bin with leftover price stickers I had around the house. </div>
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Here's the parts list of the Core Set from LEGO Education:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW_HeAVQXxXU8c76DfHL5N6oj7WQTyMk2ykzl8L9vJkfqphRT_kjxTdxtpeaivDhedXARMvv3k-H31Bq0_2wAYPjx98VsZjzZ837Pnq69c0nr4we_R0rXCBulq0iZNbwSpXqq2p4JN30/s1600/45544_CoreSetProductSheetPartsList_x50-660x382.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW_HeAVQXxXU8c76DfHL5N6oj7WQTyMk2ykzl8L9vJkfqphRT_kjxTdxtpeaivDhedXARMvv3k-H31Bq0_2wAYPjx98VsZjzZ837Pnq69c0nr4we_R0rXCBulq0iZNbwSpXqq2p4JN30/s320/45544_CoreSetProductSheetPartsList_x50-660x382.png" height="185" width="320" /></a></div>
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I separated parts in the top bin into the categories that I will use to teach my students how to use and identify LEGO TECHNIC elements.</div>
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<ul>
<li>Angled beams</li>
<li>Straight beams</li>
<li>Connectors</li>
<li>2 & 4 prong connectors</li>
<li>Gears</li>
<li>Axels (and all parts that have an axel pin)</li>
<li>Friction pegs</li>
<li>Bushings</li>
<li>Pulley and skinny tire</li>
<li>Ball parts (the new LE EV3 kit comes with an AMAZING ball attachment that can be used as a 3rd wheel- say goodbye to complicated pivot wheels!)</li>
<li>Treads</li>
<li>Misc. Parts</li>
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I separated parts in the top bin by:<br />
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<ul>
<li>EV3 </li>
<li>2 large motors</li>
<li>1 medium motor</li>
<li>Ultrasonic sensor (1)</li>
<li>Touch sensors (2)</li>
<li>Color sensor (1)</li>
<li>Gyro sensor (1)</li>
<li>Tires (2) & hubs </li>
<li>Wires & USB cable</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaoF5xJQOZSDpZDyW7rilsfHRKAC9sVk9W5y9lHCxRS_OaZANltnrneN83biEYsMr73q8acg89BwD-87nJahNYNjG2IiCR_Bycda0RlzBHx4-oT5kmpG-8omajw5HjiqUjJV_0bbN0R3s/s1600/EV3_BottomBin2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaoF5xJQOZSDpZDyW7rilsfHRKAC9sVk9W5y9lHCxRS_OaZANltnrneN83biEYsMr73q8acg89BwD-87nJahNYNjG2IiCR_Bycda0RlzBHx4-oT5kmpG-8omajw5HjiqUjJV_0bbN0R3s/s320/EV3_BottomBin2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL5eE2rcjJ8eWxiXupVg_u_yrYVaT0V4LE6Y9e7W2fFiWsU3h3ASXFppMsWUUSo3kGWFNI3QkDw3JTSS-pfmmyld3VCZ40ZrWusOWGV8sLIe9_05k52XhJvwTdgiDlrlZdmOQLnfT17OY/s1600/EV3_BottomBin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL5eE2rcjJ8eWxiXupVg_u_yrYVaT0V4LE6Y9e7W2fFiWsU3h3ASXFppMsWUUSo3kGWFNI3QkDw3JTSS-pfmmyld3VCZ40ZrWusOWGV8sLIe9_05k52XhJvwTdgiDlrlZdmOQLnfT17OY/s320/EV3_BottomBin.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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I also laminated the bottom bin parts list for student reference.</div>
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Here are copies of the files I used for part stickers and bottom bin. The top two .jpg's for the top bins, and are best printed at 60%, the third .jpg is the bottom bin reference sheet and can be printed at 100%. I print these on full sheet ink jet labels from Staples.</div>
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Top bin File #1:</div>
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Top bin File #2:</div>
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Bottom bin reference sheet:</div>
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The LE EV3 software should be coming next week. </div>
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Stay tuned for first impressions of the software!</div>
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<br />LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-4318247732362074472012-09-25T17:26:00.001-04:002012-09-25T17:26:13.310-04:00Just watch this and sharetoo amazing for words
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sUtS52lqL5w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-55736834966109202802012-09-20T20:25:00.002-04:002012-09-22T12:42:35.541-04:00Rookie Team Presentation @ NYU Poly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6it4YRZJwmIeVBCNVh5MlBocFU"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlZWt5zP4kam8qCiyli8BmGykzwoZ5M3qxIdNqoaFNrGmWFswK8gUQtvGwRZS_BRrCAVGam0y1RvbNmHOXgv04FAT_JtVBkmMSudTqZM7yf0v5Xs1nsgPgblJKNqxdmoZ7myCHvlkwIrA/s320/Picture+8.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6it4YRZJwmIeVBCNVh5MlBocFU">Rookie Workshop Powerpoint</a><br />
<br />
Helpful ResourcesFIRST LEGO League Website<a href="http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2012seniorsolutions" target="_blank">http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2012seniorsolutions </a><br />
<br />
Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy<br />
<a href="http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/robots/nxteacher/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/robots/nxteacher/index.htm </a><br />
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LEGO Engineering<br />
<a href="http://www.legoengineering.com/" target="_blank">http://www.legoengineering.com/ </a><br />
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Easy Scoring Sheet from Techbrick.com<br />
<a href="http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2012/Resources/Documents/Challenge/FLL2012-SeniorSolutions-ScoringSheet-EN.pdf">http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2012/Resources/Documents/Challenge/FLL2012-SeniorSolutions-ScoringSheet-EN.pdf</a><br />
NXT Tutorial<br />
<a href="http://www.stemcentric.com/nxt-tutorial/" target="_blank">http://www.stemcentric.com/nxt-tutorial/ </a><br />
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Dr Graeme NXT Tutorial<br />
<a href="http://drgraeme.net/">http://drgraeme.net/</a><br />
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NXT Programs<br />
<a href="http://nxtprograms.com/" target="_blank">http://nxtprograms.com/ </a><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6it4YRZJwmIVzlzWk5UMVZqUGc" target="_blank">LEGO Parts List</a><br />
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Tech Brick<br />
<a href="http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2012/Resources/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2012/Resources/index.html</a><br />
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LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-76003241615769287042012-09-20T19:00:00.001-04:002012-09-20T19:00:21.215-04:00Robot Movies for Senior SolutionsI recently saw <b>Robot and Frank</b>, and rated PG-13 may not be appropriate viewing for FLL Team members, it's great inspiration for coaches to think about how Robots helpers can greatly assist Seniors in the near future.<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1990314/" target="_blank">Robot and Frank</a></div>
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Another fun film is <b>Batteries Not Included</b>!<br />
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092494/" target="_blank">Batteries Not Included</a></div>
<br />LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-36141989883128472342012-09-20T18:13:00.000-04:002012-09-20T18:13:24.574-04:00Senior Solutions Kick-Off This Saturday @ NYU Poly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<b>THIS Saturday September 22, 2012 </b><br />
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10:00 AM - 2:00 PM<br />
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<i>I am teaching the Rookie Workshop at 11:15 am </i><br />
<br />
<b>@ Polytechnic Institute of NYU </b><br />
<b>6 Metrotech Center </b><br />
<b>Brooklyn, NY 11201 </b><br />
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<b> Agenda:</b><br />
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<b>10:00 - 10:20 AM:</b> Welcome & Introductions (Pfizer Auditorium, 5 MetroTech Center)<br />
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<b>10:25 - 10:40 AM: </b>Senior Solutions Challenge Overview (Pfizer Auditorium)<br />
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<b>10:40 - 11:15 AM:</b> Judging Rules Overview (Pfizer Auditorium)<br />
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<b>11:15 - 1:15 PM: </b>Rookie Team Workshop (How to organize your team, project overview; game strategies, robot design, & NXT software tips) (JAB - Room 474)<br />
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<b>11:15 - 12:15 PM: </b>Jr. FLL Workshop Super Seniors (How to register, run and prepare for the JrFLL Expo) (JAB - Room 475)<br />
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<b>11:15 - 12:15 PM:</b> Volunteer Workshop (What is FIRST, volunteer position descriptions) (Pfizer Auditorium, 5 MetroTech Center)<br />
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<b>11:15 - 2:00 PM:</b> Game Overview (All Teams) (Rogers Hall [RH] - Room 116)
LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-1525180357260924632012-08-27T08:02:00.000-04:002012-08-27T08:07:18.034-04:00PS 154 Robotics WorkshopHere are some helpful links I shared at a Robotics Teacher Workshop @ PS 154 in Brooklyn:<br />
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<b>Starter Robots</b>:<br />
<a href="http://nxtprograms.com/five_minute_bot/index.html" target="_blank">Five Minute Bot</a> @ NXTprograms.com<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Inspriational Models and Building Contests:</b><br />
<a href="http://us.mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/community/nxtlog/default.aspx" target="_blank">NXTLOG</a> @ MINDSTORMS.com<br />
<br />
<b>Curriculum</b>:<br />
<a href="http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/robots/nxteacher/index.htm" target="_blank">Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy</a><br />
<a href="http://www.legoengineering.com/" target="_blank">LEGO Engineering</a><br />
<a href="http://www.stemcentric.com/nxt-tutorial/" target="_blank">NXT Tutorial</a><br />
<a href="http://drgraeme.net/" target="_blank">Dr Graeme NXT Tutorial</a><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6it4YRZJwmIVzlzWk5UMVZqUGc" target="_blank">LEGO Parts List</a><br />
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<br />LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-28943995763212571762010-09-26T15:16:00.007-04:002010-09-26T15:32:33.526-04:00Great Body Forward Resources<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7WJhVAvtjrYywuAoH7lz5zatfRoqmO5WSMkpc5IxHwUXtf8rFz0uGtIcuv6iKoTgv1LfkvhiIiNm9gBoAS1t5Xl842522czd9BnRFi-JeVNduuXPdVcJZ1psVYB6G8mABMOQdR5YjII8/s1600/FLL-BodyForward-ScoringSheet-EN.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7WJhVAvtjrYywuAoH7lz5zatfRoqmO5WSMkpc5IxHwUXtf8rFz0uGtIcuv6iKoTgv1LfkvhiIiNm9gBoAS1t5Xl842522czd9BnRFi-JeVNduuXPdVcJZ1psVYB6G8mABMOQdR5YjII8/s320/FLL-BodyForward-ScoringSheet-EN.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521306955576237666" /></a><br />Gotta love the team at <a href="http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2010/Resources/index.html">TechBrick.com</a>, who share worksheets every year to help make sorting out the FLL missions and rules much easier for coaches.<br /><br />Here are a couple of my faves:<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2010/Documents/FLL-BodyForward-ScoringSheet-EN.pdf">FLL Body Forward Scoring Sheet</a></b> <br />This handy sheet has all of the missions, descriptions, and scores on one page. I enlarge it as a poster each year for easy access during practices. I also send copies home to team parents so they can understand what all the missions are.<br /><br /><br /><b>Inspirational Video for building mission models</b><br />Jonathan, a member of TechBrick Robotics, demonstrates how to build all the table elements for this year's FIRST LEGO League (FLL) challenge in less than two minutes. (The video is sped up of course). Don't worry, it can take a couple of practices for your team to build all the models. <br /><object width="400" height="250"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0GfMNZQvnVo?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0GfMNZQvnVo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="250"></embed></object><br /><br />Visit <a href="http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2010/Resources/index.html">TechBrick.com</a> and see more worksheets and images that can help your team have a happy and successful season.LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-29800009329644129732010-09-26T15:05:00.003-04:002010-09-26T15:15:09.996-04:00iPhone App for FLL Body Forward<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxl50283QpstMQ3aQdV8MI0M57llR-1d3_85SL2Gg3v9KZkeEnfTGfux1g8KM06wAcgwjkKV5P0la1IsIpoW6HvDL7AhAbNLlw1s3B_oCR_dzmEd3_X7GgBU-NmDXgrcKH3-huVWZEDdw/s1600/mzl.kazdmzcy.320x480-75.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 222px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxl50283QpstMQ3aQdV8MI0M57llR-1d3_85SL2Gg3v9KZkeEnfTGfux1g8KM06wAcgwjkKV5P0la1IsIpoW6HvDL7AhAbNLlw1s3B_oCR_dzmEd3_X7GgBU-NmDXgrcKH3-huVWZEDdw/s320/mzl.kazdmzcy.320x480-75.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521302293489956754" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">FLL</span> Body Forward Score</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">r</span> by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Sachin</span> Patel lets you score, time, and email your FIRST LEGO League Body Forward rounds on your iPhone or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">iPod</span> touch.<br /><br />A simple on/off swipe allows you to score each mission efficiently. The arrow allows you to quickly view the rules that <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">correspond</span> to each mission.<br /><br />In the main menu are links to the official rules (copied directly from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">FLL</span> website) for the robot game and project. The FAQ's listed are related to last year's Smart Move challenge, so hopefully those will be updated soon.<br /><br />At $0.99 it's a bargain scorekeeper at your fingertips.<br /><br />Here's the link to the <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/sachin-patel/id333197046"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">FLL</span> Body Forward Scorer <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">iphone</span> app</a> on apple.com.<br /><br /><br />You can also access a free online version here:<br /><a href="http://sawyer.hobby-site.com:8080/">http://sawyer.hobby-site.com:8080/</a>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-34821262528512955742009-10-02T06:11:00.002-04:002009-10-02T06:29:14.378-04:00Great intro video for FLL Smart Moves Research ProjectI came across this video made by LEGO artist Sean Kenney on the nxtstep blog (thanks Martyn!) and think this will be a great introduction to my team's discussion on this year's FLL research project.<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LydEn_cJ-dM&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LydEn_cJ-dM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed></object><br /><br />Teams are challenged to look at their community and discover how people, animals, information, and things travel. They need to research one main mode of transportation and investigate:<br /><br />1. What kinds of problems keep people and things from getting where they are going safely?<br /><br />2. What kind of problems keep people and things from moving efficiently, getting where they are going quickly and using the least amount of energy?<br /><br />3. How could your team help solve one of those problems?<br /><br />I am planning to use this video as a model research project and having the team role play as FLL judges. After showing the video I will ask some critical questions to get the team thinking about how they will approach their own project. Questions like:<br /><br />1. What mode of transportation was researched?<br />2. What kinds of problems does it cause?<br />3. How does this mode of transportation effect our energy resources?<br />4. How is this video helping solve this problem?<br />5. If you were a judge and this was a team's presentation, what would you want to ask the team?LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-40263175058304688972009-07-07T12:05:00.006-04:002009-07-07T12:05:01.869-04:00LEGO Robotics Camp... I mean Teacher Training<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlMHjvkKvEjDVWulf7cFPqkvtErcRKTriaHQTEwwsl2Ydf2Tt8SGuRlsAzz-6yIdsrXyVS2HcXugT8u4-c65geb_FJspFUn-l9BCAN4Ai-kFnp4gCTy9SIluZGQ7TnA0TxenJvnyLF_4w/s1600-h/IMG_3223.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlMHjvkKvEjDVWulf7cFPqkvtErcRKTriaHQTEwwsl2Ydf2Tt8SGuRlsAzz-6yIdsrXyVS2HcXugT8u4-c65geb_FJspFUn-l9BCAN4Ai-kFnp4gCTy9SIluZGQ7TnA0TxenJvnyLF_4w/s320/IMG_3223.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355389366415724114" border="0" /></a>A week ago I was fortunate enough to have my school send me and our 2nd Robotics teacher to the <a href="http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/content/index.htm">Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy</a> NXT-G Teacher Training course. It's held over a week at the National Robotics Engineering Center in Pittsburgh, PA.<br /><br />Pittsburgh is a sweet city and the place we stayed at lent us bikes for free and it's baseball season, so we also got to take in a Pirates game at the beautiful PNC park on the <em></em>Allegheny River.<br /><br />But back to LEGO robotics...<br /><br />In the NXT-G teacher training they gave us pre-built tribots (not Tribot from the MINDSTORMS kit, but a simple tri-wheeled robot), and we began with programming, not building. We progressed through the software from move blocks, to sensor blocks, to loops and switches, and ending with logic and data collection. We also worked through troubleshooting scenarios where we looked at broken programs and brainstormed how to help students through fixing them by closely examining program flow.<br /><br />We usually begin our season with a lot of LEGO building, and then address programming after a robot has been built. I also used to just teach move blocks and a few wait for sensor blocks. Even some FLL teams won competitions with only using move blocks in their programming. But after this course I feel I should have dug into the capabilities of NXT-G a long time ago. There are many problems with even basic programming that can be resolved if the students have a solid foundation in basic programming. My initial goal of the course was to learn the capabilities of the software better than the 8th graders in our program, but I have revised that goal to include restructuring the first few sessions of ou after school program to include foundational lessons in programming with NXT-G.<br /><br />I am also considering starting all the kids off with starter bots in September and re-addressing programming first, then moving on to building. The theory behind this is to give the students a toolbox of programming blocks that they make and can pull from when they build their own robotic creations later. They will develop this toolbox through engaging challenges with the starter bot. For the FLL team these starter challenges can be related to the Smart Move missions. I feel that starting this way the students will make better choices when designing their robots and when addressing the big question, "What do I want my robot to do?"<br /><br />I have a lot of homework to do this summer.<br /><br />You can teach yourself what I learned from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy through their <a href="http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/previews/nxt_products/nxt_video_trainer/nxt_print_preview.htm">NXT Video Trainer CD-Rom</a><br /><br />They also have an online course as well.<br /><a href="http://www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu/content/lego/teacher_training/sub_pages/web_courses/index.htm">Professional Development - Online Course</a><br /><br />I highly recommend the course to both veteran and new LEGO MINDSTORMS teachers.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqF8yCj5OMMEEE0XEdRVam-fLNKDMSfG5gOHDX_7mr3yO-vB5BQN3dTJXVdMEhFkbzoOxFA0FgRlD-3x9WkvXXvCsKSKpqnfQxZhldK_DgHiSY-o1FLK8hYW2y_-q79X0yfrrpadFODGk/s1600-h/IMG_3229.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqF8yCj5OMMEEE0XEdRVam-fLNKDMSfG5gOHDX_7mr3yO-vB5BQN3dTJXVdMEhFkbzoOxFA0FgRlD-3x9WkvXXvCsKSKpqnfQxZhldK_DgHiSY-o1FLK8hYW2y_-q79X0yfrrpadFODGk/s320/IMG_3229.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355390400841389602" border="0" /></a>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-48584452604648678692009-07-06T11:43:00.007-04:002009-07-06T11:53:01.342-04:00My LEGO Team is Famous!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEmFwfizC91gQVAQyE-JQajOh4FrfL72IAEdZPCtCHIT6xk-D27ILnz9RDwmGDoR1ms5WHQLhf58gtZRSpzE8u_dwRmhraLqgywLVQ0-iSd8xJoZuJEeo3uoxPf5rTKnlq5zUhcb87AkA/s1600-h/IMG_3606.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEmFwfizC91gQVAQyE-JQajOh4FrfL72IAEdZPCtCHIT6xk-D27ILnz9RDwmGDoR1ms5WHQLhf58gtZRSpzE8u_dwRmhraLqgywLVQ0-iSd8xJoZuJEeo3uoxPf5rTKnlq5zUhcb87AkA/s320/IMG_3606.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355375019126865234" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />My Robotics team was invited to the FLL World Festival this past April not to compete (our scores never get high enough), but to be LEGO Ambassadors and work at the LEGO Booth helping to demonstrate MINDSTORMS 2.0.<br /><br />Luck was on our side and at the last minute we were asked to fill in for a team that could not make it to Atlanta. Our scores didn't count, but the kids still got the chance to participate in running their robots in the Georgia Dome!<br /><br />One of my 4th graders wrote a very thorough article on the experience for our school newspaper and it also got published on MINDSTORMS.com this week!<br /><br /><a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/news/">Elijah's report from FIRST World Festival in Atlanta</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiLl1jHf44AFf-W82yxsi8IS8s3F8mNva742A3GM1EPzv5UgEtB068wooNJhR1u3bCHLrXgr3t8bdeLK9PjDXVbMMXR3SA6s_y6dDj7PT1THGYdEJmVgQVlPTXvVkbJf59ZEi6ynvwq4/s1600-h/ElijahsArticle.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 165px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiLl1jHf44AFf-W82yxsi8IS8s3F8mNva742A3GM1EPzv5UgEtB068wooNJhR1u3bCHLrXgr3t8bdeLK9PjDXVbMMXR3SA6s_y6dDj7PT1THGYdEJmVgQVlPTXvVkbJf59ZEi6ynvwq4/s320/ElijahsArticle.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355374220010106162" border="0" /></a>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-71576955032873892592009-03-02T10:29:00.005-05:002009-03-02T19:15:35.401-05:00Our Wizard of Oz TheoryThroughout this year's FLL Climate Connections season, my team kept finding links to the Wizard of Oz through the different missions and mission models. They ended up naming their robots "Dorothy," "Tinman," and "Toto" because if this.<br /><br />We came up with a long list of WOZ connections and made a short video to share this weekend (March 6, 7, 8) at the New York City Mega Robotics Expo at the Jacob Javits Center. The regional finals for FLL, FIRST Robotics, and the FIRST Tech Challenge are taking place together in one huge venue. Wish us luck. Enjoy the video:<br /><object width="320" height="240" ><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.facebook.com/v/58430577282" /><embed src="http://www.facebook.com/v/58430577282" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="240"></embed></object><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />WOZ Connections</span>:<br /><ul><li>Wicked Witch rides the BIKE to Dorothy's HOUSE</li><li>A tornado (STORM) brews in Kansas</li><li>The STORM RAISES THE HOUSE</li><li>The HOUSE lowers on the Wicked Witch of the East</li><li>Dorothy travels over the RAINBOW to Oz</li><li>She meets the Munchkins (MINI FIGS) in Munchkin Land</li><li>Dorothy travels over the Yellow Brick Road (YELLOW GRID AREA)</li><li>Dorothy (our robot) delivers the bike, computer, and insulation to the Emerald City (GREEN AREA)</li><li>Click your heels three times (FIND AGREEMENT)</li><li>The POLAR BEAR is Glenda the Good Witch</li></ul>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-64830399148537299802008-10-08T17:14:00.001-04:002008-10-13T17:33:25.560-04:00FLL Practice - Week ThreeWe only had one team practice this week (the advanced team) due to the Yom Kippur holiday.<br /><br />We began with the team sitting around the practice mat and with the strategy group sharing their ideas of the mission order and for attachments. I assigned a student to scribe their ideas on a chart, and we also used this share time to reinforce group rules like attentive listening, turn taking, and respectful disagreements.<br /><br />The strategy discussion got the team charged up for building! We split the team into 4 groups to build the robot base we discussed last week. Unfortunately the robot design the team decided on requires a flat base - so that means AA batteries and not the rechargeable ones - my budget just went up!<br /><br />I grabbed the students who were interested in leading the research project to review the powerpoint that Mark Sharfshteyn shared at the Brooklyn FLL Kickoff You can find it here: <a gref="http://nycnjfirst.org/nycfll_kickoff.html">http://nycnjfirst.org/nycfll_kickoff.html</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6COKH06bf-jkapO2aP3xRp_MJu6s0aSmRcN0KyhNSVWX5Dq9roR_i8yHBo8zq6v2iibZi4DvVfGlNY1S5O9_-HFhTgKGvced9eLQzc0m3tN-jUyzXMQdDi0BuprSZkIxRCoQctWnE3Yc/s1600-h/q2bfig1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6COKH06bf-jkapO2aP3xRp_MJu6s0aSmRcN0KyhNSVWX5Dq9roR_i8yHBo8zq6v2iibZi4DvVfGlNY1S5O9_-HFhTgKGvced9eLQzc0m3tN-jUyzXMQdDi0BuprSZkIxRCoQctWnE3Yc/s200/q2bfig1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256754600495228466" border="0" /></a>After getting the overview we looked into a website that maps out the effects of Climate Change in New York City (we googled "climate change NYC"). We learned some shocking effects of climate change in our area and decided we were most interested in researching the effect of flooding on our transit system. I think for next week we'll look into contacting someone from the MTA to come in and talk to us - or making a field trip to go see them. The students also brainstormed making a video because they felt they did not have enough physical space last year in the judging booth to make a great play. They also agreed that a video would be better for school assemblies and can be shared on You Tube.<br /><br />I wonder if the beginner team will also want to look into the effects of flooding on our transit system? It would be great to have them all contribute to each other... but they also need to be in charge.LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-9637111751069647592008-10-01T16:46:00.005-04:002017-05-13T07:34:16.614-04:00FLL Practice - Week Two<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUYB8iB1vaBl-rT0QiJBklNwEACFxZUkQsplBD_eeB4xDxL_VUdsMIoyT8bDmfsWCFa4gl8_XZddTuZSpGwiMl-Nowd9KDY8D0q9snvsGEMdBWJy7tmu4vd1K7pF8GpbxArx3KU6chMQ/s1600-h/DSC_0005.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" height="422" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256745212289882834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdUYB8iB1vaBl-rT0QiJBklNwEACFxZUkQsplBD_eeB4xDxL_VUdsMIoyT8bDmfsWCFa4gl8_XZddTuZSpGwiMl-Nowd9KDY8D0q9snvsGEMdBWJy7tmu4vd1K7pF8GpbxArx3KU6chMQ/s640/DSC_0005.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" width="640" /></a>Week two we made a lot of progress.<br />
<br />
We began with an alliteration name game to remind us of all our names, then broke off into four groups:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Group 1</span> - Finished building the models for the robot game<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Group 2</span> - Began Robot Research - finding a good base and attachments for the robot (on <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/">http://www.nxtprograms.com</a> and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/nxtlog">http://mindstorms.lego.com/nxtlog</a>)<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Group 3 -</span> Learned how to program the light sensor and tested a starter robot to see if we could get it to follow the rainbow<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Group 4</span> - Began <em>strategizing</em> the order of the missions<br />
<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256747247912935042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijje6vd0RvjJhllXNrabv7U9Jq-hDwQ-oTSofLi7lIqMuklbUy2QcqlnLJPILkIDclj3LYzmNqJ6KpfqrtJqKdbfuIvXTlLO_IppykPEa4GZhxWUoEHPl977Lafk9xXlG0_paoTvBtvWk/s200/billboard.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256745914592426258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEims8m74xwABiz46hTA4zm-pWVFnHv6ngDaShOgUD8lpcJI9WBXPaE48IJuLE3noEzyhJtgkbglq2_vFYO7nZkjR1R1aRNt-d4SnDu6iQyTbbCqfEGsOAfF_z_1BYB43FijBbgIM9omQPQ/s200/DSC_0010.jpg" /><br />
<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256746414492109506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQXbPIX-dh2XwNBufeCIrPObElz_FEHIRjikRwOMvd7TDAEUawEU1eSalfq3czs-zX9HoK0AfnIFlh1FH0Luvc4ozv3SiEUnJqqS6z2lfCKBSNlATwYM8MZ57Lu27lBTpcIJJeDyPV7us/s200/DSC_0024.jpg" /><br />
I floated between the building, robot research, and strategy teams, while our two high school mentors taught the programming group about the light sensor.<br />
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We ended the practice with a team meeting where everyone shared their findings. The only group that did not have time to share was the strategy team - but we will share their findings first thing next practice.LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-75247494031307357422008-09-30T10:06:00.004-04:002008-09-30T10:49:31.449-04:00FIRST FLL PracticeI had my first team practice this week for all the students in our FLL program. We have 30 students participating this year over 2 days (15 students a day). Our students range in age from grade 3 to grade 7 with two High School mentors/assistant coaches. We purchased two field set up kits so we could display one as a real life model and the kids could build the second one.<br /><br />We are having the advanced team (those with prior FLL team experience) meet on Wednesdays and the rookies meet on Thursdays. We had the same lesson plan for both groups this first session.<br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br />Here's how Session 1 went (duration 1 1/2 hours):</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Arrival/Warm-up Activity</span><br />Build your name out of LEGO & share your name, what grade your in, and experience with LEGO, Robotics, and FLL.<br /><table border="0"><tbody><tr><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWm8V3HO7kN7PGO7AX-4M5fqZ8DKa9ZpHR8gwP1t_CvBVni8UrADPpS-7sK1vfoo89PajA26M0LXTfEHD2Tj17YGOU05QCT4_2EdujJNP0DsD-s3AqM3jJ9nEXa7-OeDC8UNSqPrjaD8Y/s200/Crossword.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251821683990037538" border="0" /></td><br /><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPYf6OeivChlrC9B2Wj65KnrFp_q1LEAn9PVNG08GGCjTzeHCygVaZKpGZgCy4sUkRAzyJba29di6Dor3pTf7Jvre4SI7v-KC218T9qBBcNQ8hISmcEY04wqWrjgosFaU54U4FQ4e6xU/s200/Ava.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251821546273772178" border="0" /></td></tr><br /><tr><td style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:78%;">This group is already showing teamwork<br />by building their names as a crossword puzzle</span></td><td><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Showed FLL video </span>(to rookie team)<br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/VideoPlayer.aspx?video=FLL.flv">http://www.usfirst.org/VideoPlayer.aspx?video=FLL.flv</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Shared & Discussed FLL Values</span><br /><a href="http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/default.aspx">http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/default.aspx</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Climate Connections Theme Overview</span><br />Reviewed our 3 challenges as a team - what we have to accomplish this season:<br />1 - <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Robot Game</span><br />2 - <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Research Project</span> (just stated what it is - we did not get into details - we will leave that for a later practice)<br />3 - <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Technical Presentation</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reviewed Missions on Field Set up Table<br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-h1dDfFhyV4qZs6Gp-k8LG2lqkbwdS-JMf56uXDN9HfDUL148SrNin2P7OsyZz7DLvbvRGiu27UWB4awIvJSO03gWuNQIYjFfcvZ1Bllk_tmEKS8HpJTM1n1MJyzm0bsRGMhHyqJnTgA/s1600-h/Louis.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-h1dDfFhyV4qZs6Gp-k8LG2lqkbwdS-JMf56uXDN9HfDUL148SrNin2P7OsyZz7DLvbvRGiu27UWB4awIvJSO03gWuNQIYjFfcvZ1Bllk_tmEKS8HpJTM1n1MJyzm0bsRGMhHyqJnTgA/s200/Louis.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251825017701658162" border="0" /></a>Our High School mentors took turns explaining each mission and took questions.<br /><br />Both groups (rookie and advanced had lots of questions and ideas for strategies).<br /><br />We used the scoring worksheet from <a href="http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/LEGO2008/Resources/index.html">TechBrick.com</a> as a guide.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sorting LEGO Bricks</span><br />We split the students up into 4 groups to sort the mission model LEGO bricks<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Building Mission Models</span><br />We divided the students into pairs or triads to build the mission models, giving the advanced builders the more advanced projects. The advanced team completed about 3/4 of the mission models (<span style="font-style: italic;">minus 5 models - the interactive model, the ice core, the elevation house, the core drilling model, and the storm</span>). Those groups that didn't finish left a post-it on the step they last completed as a marker for the next team to start from.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Clean up</span><br />This year with a motivated team clean up is a breeze. In years past I used to give prizes (like a pencil or some SMARTIES) for the best cleaners (everyone gets something).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Homework/Notes Home</span><br />I assigned everyone homework to come up with an idea for a team name (we create one each year to match the theme) and to visit the FLL website to learn more about the missions and research project). I also sent a note home with our practice schedule for the season, a parent contact from, and a call for parent volunteers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Next week (Week 2)...</span><br />We will work on completing the mission models, then will split up the students into paired teams to watch and re-teach the mission videos, and begin research on robot design. We will use <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/nxtlog">NXTLOG</a>, <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/">NXTprograms.com</a>, and <a href="http://www.domabotics.com/resources.php">Domabotics</a> as resources to help us.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Week 3 ideas</span>...<br />I just re-watched <span style="font-style: italic;">An Inconvenient Truth</span> and will show chapters of it to introduce the research project.LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-36829664021047219702008-09-20T13:00:00.011-04:002008-09-20T21:30:16.347-04:00Presentation from FLL KickoffIt was a great morning at the FLL Kickoff at Polytechnic U in Brooklyn. It was wonderful to see so many coaches and teams come out early on a Saturday.<br /><br />Here is a link to the handout I gave out:<br /><a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfjjpxnt_3g6g55ffq">Now that I have the team, What do I do?</a><br /><br />Here's the Power Point Presentation:<br /><iframe src='http://docs.google.com/EmbedSlideshow?docid=dfjjpxnt_6d2vt8pdf' frameborder='0' width='410' height='342'></iframe><br /><br />Or view the Power Point Presentation on Google Docs:<br /><a href="http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dfjjpxnt_6d2vt8pdf">LEGO Presentation</a><br /><br />Enjoy the rest of your weekend and good luck to all of you this season.LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-60404463771196453782008-09-17T07:01:00.005-04:002008-09-17T07:28:33.500-04:00FLL Conference Call about Robot Game Tomorrow (9/18)I have Parent Night tomorrow so I'll just have to hear the MP3 re-broadcast, but this is a conference call worth dialing in to.<br /><br />Tomorrow, Thursday, September 18, at 7 pm EST. The <i>FIRST </i>Senior Mentors will be hosting the fourth in a series of important Teleconference calls for FLL Team Coaches on understanding The ROBOT Game. <b>How does the table work? What's a "Homebase?" About Robots, and Rules on Robots, apparatuses, and configurations, the missions & how scoring works.</b><br /><br />This call will be hosted by Senior Mentor Steve Cremer and features <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Mr. Scott Evans</span>, the <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">inventor</span> of the robot game each year. This is a must listen!<br /><br />All team coaches, especially rookie coaches, are welcome. The call in number is <b>1-800-503-2899</b>. The 7-digit access code is: "<b>6663906</b>". They will have 150 lines available, so lines are on a first come, first served basis. The call will be recorded and available for replay at: <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/content.aspx?id=10054" target="_blank">http://www.usfirst.org/<wbr>community/fll/content.aspx?id=<wbr>10054</a>.<br /><br />When you have accessed the conference call line, please put your phone on "mute". Press " *6 " to mute your line so that your background noise will not be heard on the call. When you wish to speak, press " *7 " to un-mute your line.<br /><br />If your phone has a separate "mute" key, please press that key to mute your microphone at all times except when you wish to speak.<br /><br />They highly recommend for this call that you set up your PC to view the GAME MISSIONS page while on the call. The link is: <a href="http://www.firstlegoleague.org/community/fll/game.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.firstlegoleague.<wbr>org/community/fll/game.aspx</a><br /><div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><br /><b>Previous Senior Mentor Teleconferences</b><br />Please check and download any previous FLL Coaches phone conferences that you may have missed here: <a href="http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/content.aspx?id=10054" target="_blank">http://www.usfirst.org/<wbr>community/fll/content.aspx?id=<wbr>10054</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_kIFecJGhBHC5v0CtRFCv183Rnjp7khuQgB8MVWygn2l8r7e8zf32cLhg_8iHVKorY6osxbb6vTbozUmGY6AGYrp7O549UmKT6R3hz1qXSS5HQrLsXcgs8L0x4LhLOMmKTD0VZLnuW8/s200/IMG_1356.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246950003432038754" border="0" /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Me and Scott Evans at the FLL World Festival in Atlanta, GA. April, 2007</span></span><br /></div><br /><i></i></div>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-13726267900015464632008-09-17T06:49:00.005-04:002008-09-17T07:01:04.593-04:00FLL Kickoff this Saturday (9/20) at Polytechnic U in Brooklyn<span>This is a great event to attend especially if you are a new coach. I go every year with my co-coahes to see the Robot Game overview and brainstorm strategies and to brainstorm with coaches about the research project. You can bring your teams!</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />NYC FIRST Lego League Kickoff</span><br /><br />Saturday September 20, 2008<br />9:00 AM-1:15 PM<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Polytechnic University</span><br />6 MetroTech Center<br />Brooklyn, NY 11201<br /><a href="http://www.poly.edu/directions/">http://www.poly.edu/directions/</a><br /><br />Open to all. Kids/teams welcome! Bring a camera or video!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Agenda</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">9:00-9:30 AM: Welcome and Introductions</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Pfizer Auditorium)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">9:30-10:00 AM: Research Assignment Presentation</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Pfizer Auditorium)</span><br />Mark Scharfeshteyn does his usual magic.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">10:00-10:45 AM: JFLL Overview - Keith Wynne, Coach PS 58</span><br />NYC FLL structure for '08 season<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Pfizer Auditorium)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">11:00-12:00 PM: Tips and tricks from veteran coaches for new coaches </span><br />(vets invited too)<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Jacobs Academic Building [JAB] - Room 475)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Featuring</span>:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Eric Greene, Coach IS 192Q</span><br />Organizing a team<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Maureen Reilly, coach at Packer Collegiate Institute</span><br />Will talk about resources online for building ideas for the kids and organizing lessons - the flow of the season, "Now that I have the team what do I do?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Veryl Greene, retired middle school coach, currently robotics Specialist Manhattan OIT</span><br />Will give an overview of the kit & the NXT software<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Suman Sabastin, Girl Scouts robotics advisor</span><br />Team management and scheduling<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">11:00-12:00 PM: Game Overview</span> (Veteran Teams)<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Rogers Hall [RH] - Room 116)</span><br />Led by Richard Wong<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">12:15-1:15 PM: Game Overview </span>(Rookie Teams)<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Rogers Hall [RH] - Room 116)</span><br />Led by Richard Wong<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Parking</span>: You can find a spot in the street if you get there early and are willing to walk a bit. South of Atlantic Ave is easier. There is a garage at the Marriott across the street.LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-10016836128723161732008-09-06T15:52:00.005-04:002008-09-06T16:00:27.873-04:00RCX or NXT?<a href="http://www.isek.iastate.edu/fll/nxt-vs-rcx-videos/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLBQDRJ-kYnDcPm2rugpOrMKaY8W5GETADvMgCXvQWMEgwzESUBafXxoyBK39lIi1ymvMhHKWNf8tgUiATstodeNM0BQc6_IU4XUCJBB1mYaYFgcaX6V1e9G70ZqO2cQSIff-mJLv2IWU/s320/Picture+1.png"></a><br />Are you pondering the pros and cons of using the RCX or NXT MINDSTORMS platform for your FLL team? Well some funny folks at <a href="http://www.isek.iastate.edu/">ISEK (Iowa State Engineering Kids)</a> made a group of videos that weigh both platforms using the Mac vs PS TV ads as their muse.<br /><br />Watch and decide which platform you will use...<br /><a href="http://www.isek.iastate.edu/fll/nxt-vs-rcx-videos/">RCX vs. NXT videos</a>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-68070706194084808672008-08-26T08:55:00.009-04:002008-08-26T09:27:38.574-04:00I (heart) Yoshihito Isogawa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdY9K6sMZC20knelB8AgCU2fCRUcnrzDU6ZPP2VTgrxLm3j88FMEUZ3MhKn4TQlfwzD810sWt3fR7cCzJq68Sd4-6yyLled5y04FHtfpH9IhW2kfuPwXzy67TbLWmMIqe0aWFDJDO03D4/s1600-h/DSC_0040.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdY9K6sMZC20knelB8AgCU2fCRUcnrzDU6ZPP2VTgrxLm3j88FMEUZ3MhKn4TQlfwzD810sWt3fR7cCzJq68Sd4-6yyLled5y04FHtfpH9IhW2kfuPwXzy67TbLWmMIqe0aWFDJDO03D4/s320/DSC_0040.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238816453371580610" border="0" /></a>For those of you not familiar with his work, Yoshihito Isogawa is a LEGO genius. He's a Japanese LEGO enthusiast who shares his creations on his <a href="http://www.isogawastudio.co.jp/legostudio/index.html">LEGO Studio</a> website (translated into English by Alta Vista). The model galleries on his website are full of MINDSTORMS NXT and RCX creations that can serve as inspirational models in any robotics classroom. I am especially awed by his biped, the <http: jp="" legostudio="" modelgallery_model="" html="">NXT Walker, where he provides not only beautiful photographs of the model, but video and building instructions as well.<br /><br />Yoshihito recently published a set of three new <a href="http://www.isogawastudio.co.jp/legostudio/bookcontentsenglish.html#howtobuild">LEGO books</a> that I will be using in my classroom this year. They are the <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Red Book</span>, the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Blue Book</span> , and the <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Green Book</span> that show how to build machines with LEGO bricks.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRt7at8h0kCELMC-CL6Vc6HvBfHlWFjdeImbcBrbUZYC_3BX1tyOyxq65pK1V0GwlSlA4Ld7OcdPfNMh3i6K2jbbgoxJRSWCunc-8y_GoxwLqG3fU1HA42tnm2fot3WbT0iJGISdiLq70/s1600-h/DSC_0042.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRt7at8h0kCELMC-CL6Vc6HvBfHlWFjdeImbcBrbUZYC_3BX1tyOyxq65pK1V0GwlSlA4Ld7OcdPfNMh3i6K2jbbgoxJRSWCunc-8y_GoxwLqG3fU1HA42tnm2fot3WbT0iJGISdiLq70/s320/DSC_0042.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238816165980497714" border="0" /></a>The books show this with all LEGO parts (system and TECHNIC), and with all types of LEGO motors (RCX, NXT, power function motors). The books are full of detailed photographs of gear trains, mini cars, walkers, and motorized contraptions. I already have a few pages flagged to show to my team for ideas for grabber arms, lifters, and pushing mechanisms for their FLL robot.<br /><br />The <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Red Book</span>'s focus is on geared mechanisms (without motors)<br />The <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Blue Book'</span>s focus in on motorized mechanisms<br />The <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Green Book</span>'s focus is on walking mechanisms<br /><br />You can purchase these books at <a href="http://www.yesasia.com/global/search/isogawa-yoshihito/0-0-0-bpt.48_q.Isogawa+yoshihito-en/results.html">yesasia.com</a></http:>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6684439817601135651.post-40731039453813638722008-08-20T07:48:00.006-04:002008-08-20T08:19:48.771-04:00Getting Organized for the FLL SeasonI have found nothing more effective in teaching than the power of modeling. "Teach, model, and practice" is the core of my pedagogy. This motto goes for my FLL coaching as well. I am starting my modeling early this season with something simple, organizing our mission model LEGO bricks.<br /><br />Each FLL season we kick off our first practice with opening up the field set up kit and having a massive LEGO sort. This enables the team members to get familiar with the mission models and the LEGO parts that make them up. It's also a great team building exercise that is fun and authentic. However, during the sort activity we always run into questions like, "Where should this go?" and we often answer with, "Where do you think it makes sense for this to go?" After the parts are sorted we hear, "I can't find this part!" and, "Where can I find...?" and we often answer with, "Where do you think it makes sense to find this part?" This year I wanted to better re-direct these inquiries and model how to find materials in a concrete way.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmoyAVOSu-BHkCfe6biYcYBEf-T3kDdGkyY8ASLTxFEeA-vIYjexB4yRatV0_qVyO_skR4-VdgnezGtZjdpT6-0qyW39ZILcBLaQHVsQLQkp0QTHCsOeJ3oNs44ntnGlM9_alV8fKCw7I/s1600-h/DSC_0006.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmoyAVOSu-BHkCfe6biYcYBEf-T3kDdGkyY8ASLTxFEeA-vIYjexB4yRatV0_qVyO_skR4-VdgnezGtZjdpT6-0qyW39ZILcBLaQHVsQLQkp0QTHCsOeJ3oNs44ntnGlM9_alV8fKCw7I/s320/DSC_0006.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236573018565845986" border="0" /></a>We will be having two FLL teams (maybe three) at my school this season. I ordered two field set up kits for the first time to help simulate the actual competition set up in my classroom. Having two kits will enable me to use one as a model and the second for the team. I will model how to sort the elements (in a very cool <span style="font-style: italic;">Real Organized™ 39 Drawer Storage Cabinet </span>I found at Lowes - yes there is one in New York City) and keep an inventory on a print out of the parts list to show what parts go in each drawer. This will make both the sorting and finding of LEGO parts concrete. Now I can answer, "Where can I find...?" with "Let's look at the parts list to see."<br /><br />After our first session of organizing the LEGO parts, my co-coaches and I will build one set of the mission models as a "model" for the team. I also often hear, "How is this supposed to look again?" Now I can answer with a concrete "model."<br /><br /><table><tbody><tr><td><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUMsF2kodT-OkB9JeHYPGdAR3REW0-_YMVoTTxoPlof_-0j0I19qlLjUtV5535RELd4jbyxVMCrayi9eY7SvlYaP1cp51VeVv_wucPPeO2KraoqUTYXrcVwN_1MWfl7chgd8bcmUi3m_U/s1600-h/drawer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUMsF2kodT-OkB9JeHYPGdAR3REW0-_YMVoTTxoPlof_-0j0I19qlLjUtV5535RELd4jbyxVMCrayi9eY7SvlYaP1cp51VeVv_wucPPeO2KraoqUTYXrcVwN_1MWfl7chgd8bcmUi3m_U/s320/drawer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236572152477347058" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Sorted LEGO elements in drawer#1 and parts list showing where to find them</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>LEGO Teacherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08916081046199649741noreply@blogger.com0