Day 8

Last week we had the Scrimmage at Glastonbury Smith Middle School. The kids did wonderfully, they really took ownership of the process and did on-the-fly problem solving, making decisions about what to do first on the robot table during the competition. Their highest score (of 5 runs) was 155, which was the third highest.

In today's meeting, we worked on a skit showing the idea for our Project, getting everyone involved.  We worked on Jigs to position the robot at the start, and discussed strategies for completing more missions, and the posters.

First, and most importantly: Our Regionals Competition is scheduled for Saturday November 16, 9 AM - 12 PM at Edwards Middle School in South Windsor. So the team can practice their presentations, I’d like to request that everyone get there a half hour early so we can run through each step right before we begin.

This means that we have only one additional meeting, next Saturday, to complete everything. That means that work must be completed in advance, at home, if we are to do well in competition. The team did very well (3rd place) with the robotics at the scrimmage, but we can improve a lot more, and have the Project and Core values to complete as well.

Before next Saturday, we have assignments for each student:

Jakshi and Zoharin will work on completing the Project poster.  Here’s a link for writing text, if that helps:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wPaxf5zm9xs5YX3kA0rMnyX1VzYBuw9dVUEibaAgH4Y/edit?usp=sharing

Jakshi and Zoharin, please also assign each person on the team a part of the poster to read (in advance), and be prepared to explain to judges. At the next meeting you will all practice doing the short play we practiced today, then giving your explanation of the poster - each person needs a part to do, and should be prepared to explain that section before coming to team meeting next week. So, Jakshi and Zoharin please email the other team members with an assignment for a bit of the poster to be ready to explain.

Hansini and Sreehan will work on completing the Core Values poster. Here’s a link to the text:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-RxY3UdqycYHdEgM-pyRlp7iLHRBpVjhh_oy70vuAwE/edit

The main tasks to do for this are to:

1)  Make a “Core Values” title

2) print photographs of the team members (we still lack photos of Hansini and Zoharin). You can also find photos of our practice sessions here:

https://glastonburyfllteam1.blogspot.com

which you could print out (color is preferable, to look nice, if you can manage), and paste on the poster. I

3) If you know how, provide judges with QR codes for links to these videos of the team practices:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kfUr6Sx-biIq5Izynlc8M2P8pP0iHOb7

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-yknrZS7ir996mIZUPTfNlooI38vaRUE

Making QR codes is easy. Here's one for this blog:

I just went here:
https://www.qr-code-generator.com
And pasted in the URL for the website or file I wanted to share.  here's another QR code for the video of you all doing a team-building exercise lifting the lego person up onto the table without speaking:

You can put these QR codes on the poster for Core Values to help judges see your work as a team in action.


4) Paste everything onto the poster so it looks nice

5)  Assign each person a bit of the Core values, email everyone with a list of who should be prepared (by the start of next meeting) to present each section. That way we are ready to efficiently practice our presentations.

Miriam and I will work on robot programming, and Jigs. I expect we will work on this from 1 PM to 3 PM tomorrow (Sunday) so if anyone wishes to join us, you are welcome to do so. We will assemble a table listing each robot mission, the program to use, which jig to use, the points it is worth, the robot arm attachment / position, and who will do it.

Miriam and I will also print and bind a color version of our Design Summary:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sMCNpSaNWbCVMo7mALvfW4UDVi5YOMlpTRHKPwqjiEE/edit?usp=sharing

Again, each student should be ready to tell the judges about one section of this, so please read in advance and be ready to explain:

Miriam:  Robot Facts & Fun

Sreehan:  Strategy

Hansini: Design Process

Jakshi: Mechanical Design

Zoharin: Programming 

You don’t need to memorize the text. Just be ready to say a couple sentences, and answer questions, assuming you have a copy of the report with you.

We also built a spreadsheet summarizing the robot mission components:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MrmQKUcIU-r2Inb44Gym-uOOcvN_6szaK2p1b6aeLQk/edit?usp=sharing



Some more movies of the team
https://drive.google.com/open?id=17WC6hJTScF0kz0_ExmiU05HDmeU9RjI_

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M6_ooK9K0zSGR-4kh4QJG0YfIh00BDgR

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bpb-vR_PgaJo8I4uCTwZjx2kIpswauk-

Day 7

Please be sure to show the following to your child, read the whole thing, and discuss how to achieve the mid-week goals this week, this is essential to our team's efforts next Saturday.

Our town-wide scrimmage will be next Saturday October 26, in the Smith Middle School gym from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM. This will be a great chance for your kids to practice and see what the competitions scheduled for mid-November are all about.

To prepare for the scrimmage, we absolutely need team members to get some work done mid-week. The assignments are:

1. Sreehan and Hansini will work on the Core Values Poster. Sreehan started with an excellent draft on a Googledoc: (click the blue link to access and edit). I'd encourage everyone to read through it and made edits that you think would help. I will upload some photographs that could be used to demonstrate the team doing group problem solving, but it would help if one of the kids wrote captions explaining what these were (if I wrote the captions, we'd lose points). To complete a draft of the poster, it would be ideal if you can stop by and pick up the poster board from me before Saturday, print out the Googledoc materials, and attach them to the posterboard using something easily removed (so we can replace with final drafts later without damaging the posterboard). Saturday morning I will be transporting the whole robotics kit and game board and table, so I can't also transport and assemble the posters.  You can find more photos to use on this blog post. You might also want to provide the judges with a QR code or URL link to this blog.

2. Zoharin and Jakshita will work on the Project Poster. I have created a blank GoogleDoc page for this: here's the link, so everyone else can contribute and edit the text. To complete a draft of the poster, it would be ideal if you can stop by and pick up the poster board from me before Saturday, print out the Googledoc materials, and attach them to the posterboard using something easily removed (so we can replace with final drafts later without damaging the posterboard).





3. Miriam will work on the Engineering Summary document. Here's the link to the blank GoogleDoc for this. Again, everyone is encouraged to look at this before Friday evening and make additions and changes.
  Update Sunday Oct 20: Miriam completed a draft of the Engineering Summary.

4. We have four missions programmed: putting two blocks into circles, doing the elevator, and then going from the elevator to the ramp.  Miriam and I will work on building the robot's sensors to do the crane mission. The instructions for building are here, the entire crane mission solution is described here, and the program to run it is available for download here.  We will have the robot set up to run this by Saturday. So, Sazzad if you can recreate the code in the solution page or download the code (I'd do the former, just for computer security), hopefully we can run that mission.

This afternoon (Sunday Oct 20) is likely to be rainy. If anyone wants to come by and work on more missions (I'm sure we can do more blocks into circles and the swing), email me or call me at 512-809-6217 and we can arrange some extra session time today for those who can & want to work on more mission programming and building.
      Update Sunday Oct 20:  Miriam successfully programmed the swing mission.

See you all next Saturday at the Smith Middle School!

There's a lot of information in this page that's important. So I know everyone has read this to the end and discussed it with their kids, please email me (daniel.bolnick@uconn.edu) to confirm you've gotten this far! Thanks!



Looking back on what we achieved this weekend: we made a lot of progress on planning the posters. We discussed all the elements of the Project Poster, the Core Values Poster, and the Engineering Design Summary. The sub-groups listed above had each thought about their poster over the preceding week, and gave short presentations about their ideas for their poster, with feedback from the rest of the team and queries from the coaches to refine their thinking. We also started working on the swing problem on the game board. We built the attachment we need, but need to refine the programming.




We talked a lot about trial and error, and the process of discovery by making mistakes.

I'm really really pleased by how well the group is working together at this point. Everyone is respectful, contributes, and they encourage each other.


















And a video:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-yknrZS7ir996mIZUPTfNlooI38vaRUE

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kfUr6Sx-biIq5Izynlc8M2P8pP0iHOb7

Day 6

We had an extremely productive day today. We solved three robot missions on the game board, and are quickly getting a better idea of how to drive the robot. We have more progress to make, especially learning how to use sensors that help guide the robot more precisely. But even without the sensors, we have succeeded at measuring distances, estimating angles, and programming with 'dead reckoning'.

We have four meetings left before the competition season begins. That's not much time. It is essential that the students make progress on parts of the team tasks at home during the week, otherwise we will not be ready to compete in a month. Each student was sent home with an assignment: either to develop ideas for text and graphics for the Project, or for the Core Values. We need to make a poster for each of these. Your student should have a draft version of their poster done BEFORE we meet next week. Then everyone will comment on the text and graphics ideas, we will do a round of revision or further research, then we will get the posters finished two to three weeks from now. Please be sure to have your kid work on their poster assignment. I gave each student some information of what is expected for this, that can be used for ideas. Feel free to email me if you need additional details or feedback. I will be checking in mid-week to ask for a progress report. We cannot compete unless students make progress on this mid-week.

I will send around a video by email of a successful robot mission

For future reference, here are instructions for building various features onto the robot base.

Day 4

Day 4

We started by discussing the logo


The idea is to add color (lego-themed), and two more ants so each student can have their own ant and pick their ant's color. We can color the letters too, or leave them metallic (robotic) looking.


We did a team building exercise where the kids had to complete a task (lifting a hula hoop, then a box with a lego person on it) without talking with each other, and move the box without the lego person falling over. They did a great job. They are all acting as a team more and more, which is great to watch.



Next, we settled on a Project. The idea is to propose a system of wearable devices for pedestrians (and/or cars) that communicate with each other to prevent accidents, for safety. Please ask your kid to brainstorm a list of 5 ideas, and 5 difficulties that need to be solved to make it work.

We then worked on programming the robot to move: turning and in straight lines. I set up a wooden block obstacle course: they had to make the robot move down a corridor, stop before a barrier, turn 90 degrees left, then move and hit a bell. They did it!

Day 3

Day 3 began by setting up the mission board on the new table, delivered by Mary from FLL Glastonbury. We then discussed the team name (brainstorming board pictured below):

We settled on Antroids. Ants work together as groups to build ant colonies that are carefully engineered to manage their environment for food, comfort, and safety. We thought they illustrate our core values of teamwork and hard work. The latter half of the name is a word play on 'Androids'. So, Antroids are robots that work together to form a team. We even sketched out a logo, which I developed more after. A draft logo is pictured below, but is still open to modification if anyone has any suggestions


We then worked on starting the robot programming, but ran into difficulties connecting the iPad. While Coach Sazzad worked on fixing that, we turned to a discussion of our project.

Project ideas included:
1) wireless technology to connect pedestrians (joggers, bikers) with possible hazards (cars), to alert them to oncoming risks.
2) Protecting animals in the community
3) reducing fossil fuel reliance by shifting to solar power
4) solar cars and promoting use of electric cars powered by renewable electricity sources
5) Picking up litter. Can we make a robot that picks up litter? We also talked about ocean plastics as a serious pollution problem.

We ended with a tutorial on how to program the robot. We got it to drive on the game board a bit, and will focus on this next time.




ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE WEEK:
1. Zoharin took remaining legos home to work on more lego parts for our game goard
2. Everyone should write a few sentences in their engineering notebook to answer  the following question:
a) What is your perferred Project Topic?
b) What do you want to  do about the project? Can you  think of a possible solution to the community problem?


Some resources, looking ahead:
After extensive searching, I finally found the detailed lesson plans for the robot lessons.
There's an overview of the lessons here, and shorter information on each here.

They also kindly provide instructions on how to build the robot to do the crane mission, and program it.

Turns out, we spent this past week building the wrong base, because the instructions were ambiguous. Looks like we were supposed to start with this base instead: INSTRUCTIONS.

Looking ahead, I found a website with suggested tricks for solving various missions.

Day 2

Day 2: Sunday September 8, 2019.

Some basics:

Name Tags, Rest room is upstairs; You are welcome to bring snack / water bottle

1. Please remember to come to each meeting on time. We need at least the full hour and a half each day. We have a very tight schedule to complete the many tasks for the competition.

2. Please remember to complete ‘homework’ assignments such as building parts before arriving. If you have questions or need parts let me know. That reminds me, I have some parts still at my house that one of you might need to complete your lego constructions for the game boards (pictures below).  The instructions for the game board parts can be found here: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/missionmodelbuildinginstructions

Reminder (on board): 

-      Core Values (most important)  

-      Project 

-      Robot 

The Rubrics that judges will use to score us on these elements  can be found here:
https://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/fll/city-shaper/first-lego-league-rubrics.pdf
Please go over these with your child before the next meeting.

Map of time-line for the team

Date	Build:	Program	Core Values	Project	Other
Aug 31	Build lego parts for game board	View challenge video	Discuss core values	Discuss project	Introductions
Sept 8	Build base robot	Learn programming basics	Teamwork activity	Brainstorm ideas	Team name
Sept 14		Program robot to move	Teamwork activity	Choose idea & discuss how to research solutions	Team logo
Sept 21	Build add-ons	Program robot to interact with objects	Teamwork activity	Research reports 1	Team costume ?
Sept 28	Add sensors	Program robot to use sensors & loops	What goes on core value poster	Research reports 2
Oct 5		Stop and follow lines	Design core value poster	Brainstorm solutions again
Oct 12	Crane mission	Crane mission	Make core value poster	Research	Discuss which missions to prioritize
Oct 19	Mission A	Mission A		Discuss final project elements
Oct 26	Mission B	Mission B		Make project poster
Nov 2	Mission C & practice	Mission C & practice	Practice core value presentation	Present project to outside experts for feedback	Finalize  design notebooks
Nov 9	Practice	Practice	Practice core value presentation	Practice poster presentation	Create executive summary
Comp.

            

Core value activities:

            5 minute lego retrieval 

            How to contain whole team in paper

Team building discussion

-      How do we make sure everyone’s ideas are heard, how do we make decisions?

o  Vote? Unanimous? Take turns? Mayor for the day

-      How do we encourage you to not override each other?

-      Team name (logo comes next)

Go over the robot challenge, place parts on mat on floor / table

One team works on building robot base, the other team works on programming lesson,

If you have your own iPad, install software & bring it if you want

Instructions for robot base:

http://ev3lessons.com/en/RobotDesigns.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5fzepIrFw8

Programming group:

Idea of flow diagram / pseudocode

Block guide powerpoint files here:

http://ev3lessons.com/en/Lessons.html?tab=beginner
Some videos here:
https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/mindstorms/learntoprogram

Project Group does the SPARK activity:

Examine game board for ideas.

Visit: 

https://fllblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/resources-to-build-your-innovation-project/

Share what they learned.

Identify core values they demonstrated, and where they could improve.

________

Letter to team members recaping the day and with reminders:

Hello everyone,

Thanks again for a successful meeting 2. There’s information below for everyone, especially those who could not attend today.

1. Please remember to come to each meeting on time. We need at least the full hour and a half each day. We have a very tight schedule to complete the many tasks for the competition.

2. Please remember to complete ‘homework’ assignments such as building parts before arriving. If you have questions or need parts let me know. That reminds me, I have some parts still at my house that one of you might need to complete your lego constructions for the game boards (pictures below).  The instructions for the game board parts can be found here: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/missionmodelbuildinginstructions

3. The Rubrics that judges will use to score us on these elements  can be found here:

https://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/fll/city-shaper/first-lego-league-rubrics.pdf

Please go over these with your child before the next meeting.

4. I have begun a blog about the team. Your kids are encouraged to send me text, photos, or anything to add to the posts. I will post resources, assignments, and summaries of the meeting there, so you don;’t have to go searching for old emails.

5. For today’s session, in your engineering notebook,please:

a) write down a problem in the community, perhaps inspired by the game board. Who does it affect? Explain the problem? Describe an idea for a solution. Be prepared to present this to the group next meeting to begin picking a Project. You can think about the themes illustrated by the robot game board (traffic, parks, buildings, sustainability, access, and so on, for inspiration). Here are some suggestions on how to get ideas: https://fllblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/09/resources-to-build-your-innovation-project/

b) pick your preference for a team name, and think about why. A photo of the brainstorming board is attached here. Names included Legocy, Antroids, and a concatenation of the first two letters of everyones names: ZoZoMiJaSrHaAa

c) If you feel artistic, draw a logo for the team

d) We will try to operate by consensus, coming to an agreement on a topic by considering all ideas, discussing them, and finding one everyone accepts. Sometimes, however, there may be two groups that prefer differentt ideas even after discussion. How should we proceed to make a decision in that context?

6) Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the lego programming approach, using these videos and resources:

Some videos here:

https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/mindstorms/learntoprogram

Many guide powerpoint files here:

http://ev3lessons.com/en/Lessons.html?tab=beginner

We started building the COR3 robot:

Instructions are here: http://ev3lessons.com/RobotDesigns/instructions/COR3.pdf

There are some other basic designs here:

http://ev3lessons.com/en/RobotDesigns.html

If anyone has their own Lego Mindstorm robot set, you’d be welcome to build your own at home and bring it (keeping parts separate from the group kit), so we have two robots to play with at once.