Transcript FIRST Lego League Robotics Overview

FIRST Lego League
Robotics Overview
Henry Kautz
April 1, 2008
Outline
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What is FLL?
How do you start and run an FLL team?
What was Brighton’s participation in FLL?
What local resources are available to support
families interested in FLL?
What is FIRST LEGO League (FLL)?
• FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an exciting and fun
international robotics program that ignites an
enthusiasm for discovery, science, and technology
in kids ages 9 to 14.
• Each year FLL teams embark on an adventurous
Challenge based on current, real-world issues.
Guided by a team coach and assisted by mentors,
the kids:
– Research and solve a real-world problem based on the
Challenge theme
– Present their research and solutions
– Build an autonomous robot using engineering concepts
Goals of FIRST Robotics
• FIRST = “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Technology”
• Entice kids to think like scientists and engineers
• Provide a fun, creative, hands-on learning experience
• Teach kids to experiment and overcome obstacles
• Build self-esteem and confidence
• Inspires kid to participate
in science and technology
FIRST Leagues
• There are several FIRST Robotics leagues for different
age groups
• FIRST Robotics Competition for high-school students
– “Scratch built” large robots
– Requires machine shop, $10,000+ per year
– Penfield & Webster High Schools have top US teams, R.I.T.
holds huge tournament
• FIRST Tech Challenge for high-school students
– New more affordable HS league, about $1,000 per year
• FIRST LEGO League for 9 to 14 year-olds
– Uses Lego Mindstorms
• Junior FIRST LEGO League for 6 to 9 year-olds
– New simplified version of FLL for younger kids
How Big is FIRST?
• FIRST overall:
– 156,000 students
– 70,000 volunteers
– 3,000 sponsors
• FIRST Lego League:
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10,000 teams
100,000 students
38 countries
440 tournaments
• The Finger Lakes region
is a FIRST hotbed!
What Happens in FLL
• Teams of up to 10 kids and one or more adult
mentors meet for about 3 months each fall
• Teams research and put together a presentation
about that year’s topic
– E.g.: energy, oceans, nanotechnology, …
• Teams build and program a Lego Mindstorms
robot that performs tasks that represent the topic
in a model Lego world
• Teams show off and are judged on their work in
regional and national tournaments
Outline
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What is FLL?
How do you start and run an FLL team?
What was Brighton’s participation in FLL?
What local resources are available to support
families interested in FLL?
Step One: Find a Coach
• Coaches can be: parents, teachers, engineers,
university students, etc.
– Need not be a computer expert, but requires dedication &
willingness to learn along the team
– Key job: direct the process the team follows to solve the
Robotic Challenge without providing the solution
– Registers the team, point of contact with the League
• The coach must be prepared to make a serious time
commitment:
– 90 minute weekly meeting September through November
– Additional weekend meetings as tournament nears
Step Two: Find the Kids
• An FLL team will have 3 to 10 children, ages 9 to 14
– Kids can come from many different schools, after school
programs, scouts, religious groups, neighborhood groups,
etc.
• There is currently no official mechanism for matching
existing teams with kids looking for a team
• Some ways to find a team or kids:
– Meeting kids & parents at Mindstorms summer camps
(described later)
– Run an announcement in your school’s newsletter
– Meetings like this!
Step Three: Find Mentors
• The coach recruits several adult mentors to help with
general tasks such as:
– Researching the challenge topic
– Helping the kids put together their presentations
– Providing snacks and helping with crowd control during the
meetings
– Building a wooden table for the team’s practice playing
field
– Typically team parents
• Expert mentors may also be called in to help with
programming and robot design
– Students at Penfield High School, R.I.T., and UR
– Employees at Harris and other high tech firms
Step Four: Find a Place to Meet
• Teams can meet at a parent’s home, at a school,
at a church, at a community center …
• Need a place where a playing field table and
boxes of Legos can be stored
• When will your team meet?
• How will kids get to the
meeting?
• Important: does the liability
insurance policy of the meeting
place cover the meetings?
Step Five: Register and Buy Team
Materials
• Register your team at www.firstlegoleague.org
• Order your Mindstorms NXT kit (education base
set plus “resource kit”) and field setup kit (differs
each year)
– If you already have the “toy store” version of NXT, you
can order just the resource kit and rechargeable
battery
Cost Summary
Item
Cost
Comments
FLL Team Registration Fee
$200
Yearly
Playing Field Setup Kit
Mindstorms NXT Educational Set
$65
$325
Yearly
Reusable
Regional Tournament registration $50
Yearly
Practice Table
About $50
Optional
Team spirit: T-shirts, buttons
$50
Yearly
Storage boxes, extension cords
About $50
Resusable
TOTAL
First year: $790
Next: $365
Ways to Handle Costs
• Split evenly among team
• Coach buys and keeps Mindstorms kit, splits
other costs
• Get sponsorships from local business
– Not just high tech companies: also local stores,
restaurants
• Hold fundraising events over the summer: car
washes, yard work, …
Step Six: Hold Meetings
• Starting in September (2nd week of school)
meet weekly
• Schedule a few extra meetings right before
regional tournament for “fine tuning”
Planning Meetings
• Make a simple lesson plan for each meeting –
time will go quickly!
• Example:
3:40 – 3:50: Kids gather, have snack
3:50 – 4:10: Discuss ideas for solving the “deploy solar
panel” robot challenge
4:10 – 4:45: Break into 3 groups:
Group A: work on building robot
Group B: work on programming
Group C: work on building playing field structures
4:45 – 5:00: Run around outside until parents come!
Meeting Goals
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Foster teamwork
Make sure everyone is listened to
Positive discussions of different approaches
No negative criticism!
For the robot: analyze problem, build, program,
test, re-design, re-build…
• For the project: ask questions, research, explore
creative ways to present solutions, practice
Programming
• Mindstorms provides a wonderful
introduction to computer programming!
• Don’t be intimidated!
• Many of your kids may already be familiar
with it: let experienced kids teach others!
• Great to have several
laptops available, so
kids can work in
groups of 2
Step Seven: Attend Tournament
• Register for tournament in November
• Rochester area has so many teams there is a 2stage tournament:
– Qualifying tournament in early December
– 13 teams from each move on to Regional tournament
at UR two weeks later
• Awards for teamwork, presentations, robot
performance, …
Outline
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What is FLL?
How do you start and run an FLL team?
What was Brighton’s participation in FLL?
What local resources are available to support
families interested in FLL?
2007 Brighton Teams
• Last fall, 3 parent led and sponsored teams of
kids from French Road Elementary School formed
– Flightless Chickens (coach: Henry Kautz)
– BrightonBots (coach: Jennifer Kruschwitz)
– Retro Rochester Robots (coach: Valeria SinclairChapman)
• FRES had no official involvement
– Many other Rochester-area schools do sponsor teams
– Needs teacher(s) excited about FIRST, supported by
school administration
2007 Challenge
• 2007 theme: Power Puzzle
• Project:
– Perform an energy audit of a community building
• Wegmans in Pittsford Plaza
• Brighton Town Hall
– Learn about energy conservation & alternative energy
• Tour of UR Laser Fusion Lab
• Robot challenge:
– Deploy alternative energy resources in a model village
BrightonBots
BrightonBots
Flightless Chickens
Flightless Chickens
More Chickens
Rochester Retro Robots
Outline
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What is FLL?
How do you start and run an FLL team?
What was Brighton’s participation in FLL?
What local resources are available to support
families interested in FLL?
Summer Camps
• Your child can get experience with Lego
Robotics through
– Summer camps at the Rochester Museum of
Science (2 week sessions)
– 3-Day summer FLL mini-camps at Penfield High
School
• contact: Ray Mulgrew [email protected]
• Ray is a Harris employee who is an incredibly active
volunteer in all aspects of FIRST robotics
Rolling Thunder
• The Penfield HS Rolling Thunder team helps
advise and start FIRST Robotics and FLL teams
throughout the region
• http://www.penfieldrobotics.com
Lego Education
• Lego Education sells Mindstorm-based
curriculums for schools to use to teach science
and math through robotics
• http://www.legoeducation.com
Exploration Mars:
Take your students on the field trip of
their lives – to the Red Planet! This
challenge takes teams of four students
through 60 hours of activities and
curriculum contained in two main
challenges, each of which fully
integrates math, science, and
technology into exciting inquiry-based
activities.
Links
US FIRST Lego League:
http://www.usfirst.org
Finger Lake FIRST:
http://www.firstrochester.org/
Penfield High School Rolling Thunder:
http://www.penfieldrobotics.com
LEGO Mindstorms home:
http://mindstorms.lego.com/
This Presentation:
http://henrykautz.org/FIRST