FIRST Lego League Robotics Overview

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FIRST Lego League Robotics Overview

• Henry Kautz
• April 1, 2008

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Outline

• What is FLL?
• How do you start and run an FLL team?
• What was Brightons participation in FLL?
• What local resources are available to support
  families interested in FLL?

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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

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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 participatein science and
  technology

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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

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How Big is FIRST?

• FIRST overall
• 156,000 students
• 70,000 volunteers
• 3,000 sponsors
• FIRST Lego League
• 10,000 teams
• 100,000 students
• 38 countries
• 440 tournaments
• The Finger Lakes region is a FIRST hotbed!

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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 years 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

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Outline

• What is FLL?
• How do you start and run an FLL team?
• What was Brightons participation in FLL?
• What local resources are available to support
  families interested in FLL?

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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

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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 schools newsletter
• Meetings like this!

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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 teams 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

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Step Four Find a Place to Meet

• Teams can meet at a parents 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?

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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

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Cost Summary
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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,

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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

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Planning Meetings

• Make a simple lesson plan for each meeting time
  will go quickly!
• Example
• 340 350 Kids gather, have snack
• 350 410 Discuss ideas for solving the
  deploy solar panel robot challenge
• 410 445 Break into 3 groups
• Group A work on building robot
• Group B work on programming
• Group C work on building playing field
  structures
• 445 500 Run around outside until parents
  come!

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Meeting Goals

• 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

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Programming

• Mindstorms provides a wonderful introduction to
  computer programming!
• Dont 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

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Step Seven Attend Tournament

• Register for tournament in November
• Rochester area has so many teams there is a
  2-stage 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,

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Outline

• What is FLL?
• How do you start and run an FLL team?
• What was Brightons participation in FLL?
• What local resources are available to support
  families interested in FLL?

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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
  Sinclair-Chapman)
• FRES had no official involvement
• Many other Rochester-area schools do sponsor
  teams
• Needs teacher(s) excited about FIRST, supported
  by school administration

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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

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BrightonBots
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BrightonBots
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Flightless Chickens
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Flightless Chickens
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More Chickens
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Rochester Retro Robots
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Outline

• What is FLL?
• How do you start and run an FLL team?
• What was Brightons participation in FLL?
• What local resources are available to support
  families interested in FLL?

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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 rmulgrew_at_harris.com
• Ray is a Harris employee who is an incredibly
  active volunteer in all aspects of FIRST robotics

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Rolling Thunder

• The Penfield HS Rolling Thunder team helps advise
  and start FIRST Robotics and FLL teams throughout
  the region
• http//www.penfieldrobotics.com

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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.
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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 Presentationhttp//henrykautz.org/FIRST