LEGOs for Learning in School

I know, yes there are computers and iPads and other fancy gadgets that are tasked to help kids learn in school. They are valuable tools, but how cool would it have been to be able to program little robots and build LEGO sets with math and science principles in mind? Well the people at LEGO have done a masterful job of helping teachers incorporate these childhood toys into mainstream education.

I recently came across an article, 20 Amazing Examples of LEGOS in the Classroom that listed how teachers from elementary schools through colleges are using LEGOs in their classrooms to facilitate learning and problem solving. It's a pretty good list of the applications out there. There are hundreds more teachers who also use LEGOs, but didn't make the list. There's a growing community of educators who have access to LEGO books, software, user groups, conferences and much more. We're learning from each other what are best practices from a worldwide network of teachers using LEGOs.

Winter Camp Success!

Just on a whim, I decided that I might try to run a winter camp this year. I was hopeful that there might be interest, but I prepared myself to be ready in case kids would rather rest during their Christmas break or were traveling instead. Registrations were a little slow at first. I wasn't even sure if I would run the afternoon camp since there were only 2 kids registered up until the week before. Suddenly, I got so many registrations that my morning camp filled up and had a 4 person wait list. Then my afternoon camp had a few more registrations and had 6 kids participating.

It was quite interesting moving things back and forth from the YMCA to my van. It was actually a lot of work. What made it worse was that there was a significant snow storm on Thursday. It didn't break any records, but the city was on accident alert AND I'm pretty sure they would have canceled school had it been a regular school day. HOWEVER, nothing would stop those kids from coming to LEGO CAMP!! They were so excited the whole week that it would have taken more than a few icy roads to keep them from attending. I commend those precious parents and grandparents who were willing to tackle the weather. People came that day from as far as Security. The only student who didn't make it was someone from Castle Rock. I totally get that decision!

Here's some photos from a wonderful week.

In the afternoon class, we spend a lot of time on the floor.

Two sumobots in a battle to the end.

Wonderful Time as State!

All 62 teams crowded into this pit area. Our team is in the front center with the rainbow feather hats.

We went to state last Saturday. It was a great time of meeting with 62 other teams all over Colorado. We were jammed packed into the pit area, but the kids didn't mind. It gave them easier access to network and meet new people.

Our robot didn't perform as well at State because we were having battery issues. For some unknown reason, the two NXT recharageable batteries I bought ran out of juice even before the end of the 2.5 minute robot run. When you have a bad battery, it also affects how the robot performs. I may be switching to good ole alkaline for next year. At least that way I can count on the backups. I was so proud that none of the boys got really stressed out about it. They were disappointed, but no one "lost" it. However, they got to see Gracious Professionalism in action when one other team was kind enough to loan us their WORKING NXT recharagable backup battery. Wow! We were quite blessed and our robot worked fine again for the last two out of five rounds. I sent both batteries back for Lego Education to check out.

The boys did improve on their project presentation. It worked out so much better after we brought in a very experienced public speaker and debater who also happened to be a sister to one of the kids. She went through every single kid and pointed out what they could do to improve. It helped tremendously and the boys did better than at regionals.

So we all came away happy that it was a positive experience. Everyone who participates in state gets a medal, but only the really exceptional teams win further trophies. And only one team goes to the World Festival.

As for me, I'm glad to have a break until we start thinking of Senior Solutions!

Robot Performance 1st Place

Wow! After a very long day that lasted 10 hours our Mindstorms Maniacs came away with the #1 Robot Performance Award. This award is based on the points your robot scores on the table runs. We had 3 chances to practice in the morning and 3 real runs in the afternoon. Our afternoon scores were 122, 155 and 153. That may not seem a lot out of the total possible 452, but this year's challenges didn't assign a very high point value for any one activity. I don't know how much higher we are compared to the other 45 groups we competed against. I'll wait for the final results on the Southern Colorado Qualifier site.

Yes, this is within regulation height!

The kids really had a good time and enjoyed showing off their robot. One of our attachments barely came under the 16 inches when attached to the robot so it was humungous! Kids got a kick out of seeing what it was capable of accomplishing.

Also during competition we found so much variation in the tables that it wasn't easy getting as high of a score as we did during our practices. The team knew it was pretty pointless to try any major re-programming of our robot during the day. They mostly practiced their hand offs and pulling off and putting on attachments.

The day went smoothly and the kids had a great time having to interact with other teams during the alliance rounds. Alliance rounds are when 2-3 teams pick their best missions that run consistently and try to combine to get the highest score during the 2.5 minutes. This really got our kids out of their shell in having to interact and really take a look at other people's robot build and strategy for solving the problem.

The crowd of parents and supporters.

The folks who organized this year's tournament did not disappoint. UCCS is a great facility to have this tournament in. Nothing was too far away and parking was free! Thanks to all the volunteers who put on this valuable event for our kids. They learned how to talk to judges on a very professional level explaining their projects and robot designs. They had to problem solve as a team on the spot and mostly they learned how to respond to high pressure situations with a lot of grace for one another and for other teams.

Our fearless MC.

We also qualified for the Colorado State Championships for the first time this year. It's free and open to the public, but you do have to pay for parking. It's on December 10th at DU. Come cheer us on if you are in the neighborhood. Here we go again!

It's Not About the Robots!

Here's a wonderful quote from Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST, "It’s not about the robots. Robots are just a vehicle. What you are building is way bigger. It’s about self-confidence. It’s about relationships. It’s about making sure the future is better than the past."

After attending our first and only scrimmage of the season, sharing with hundreds of people about our project and robot and working through team issues, I'm so reminded of Dean Kamen's thoughts from above. It rings true that the FLL season is filled with opportunities for growth for both the kids and the coach. Take a bunch of boys who love, love, love LEGOs, put them in a room where they have to decide the best way of programming a robot or presenting a solution and you'll get a bunch of different ideas. We had to work through relational issues, technical issues, time issues, teamwork issues, who's in charge issues, who get's their way issues, who gets the robot to work with issues... the list goes on and on.

But in the end we showed up as a team last Saturday for our scrimmage and had a wonderful time. FLL has set up a problem/challenge that is great training in maturing these kids into real world problem solvers that can operate in both the technical and the relational realms.

Here's where I got the Kamen quote from above.

Russell Middle School Scrimmage Champs!

Definition SCRIMMAGE - A practice session or informal game.

Yesterday we competed at a local middle school against 15 other FLL teams and we actually won! I was losing hope of winning anything since we didn't get anything for the project  or robot design. I thought we were pretty strong in those areas. It turned out in the end we wound up with the plaque for the overall Scrimmage Champions. It doesn't advance us to anything at the state level or do anything really special since this was just a practice session, but we were proud to get the award.

It's only about half way through the season and no team is really ready to compete, but  we learned so much of what we needed to do from all the wonderful volunteer judges who shared with us honestly what we did well and what we could improve upon. We can only get better from here.

I LOVE what FLL teaches the kids. It's not really about the robots. The scrimmage helped the kids learn about working under pressure. They had to interact with adults who had very pointed questions about their research, teamwork and robot building design and held them accountable. Best of all, they got a chance to experience failure & disappointment and how to pick themselves up from that and continue the competition. I was so proud to be part of a team of kids who encouraged one another. One kid was really discouraged about one of the robot runs and another sat down with him and encouraged him about the whole situation. Our team definitely came together as a unit yesterday and so now I hope they will take these lessons learned and grow from it. It's not about Championships or robots or LEGOs. I'll speak to that in my next post.

We share our experiences with others

We went to Cool Science on Saturday and it was a day of non-stop talking for our kids. They interacted with hundreds of people young and old. It was such a neat event to get share with the public both the research and the robot game with the folks who came by. Kudos to the organizers who made our lives so much easier by providing wonderful volunteers and food & water.

I was so proud of all the boys who participated. For some, it was a stretch to talk to so many different people in one two hour time slot, but I absolutely think it's a terrific skill to acquire. Everybody was so nice to the boys and were genuinely interested in the MIndstorms and all they had to say about food safety.

My favorite moment of the day was when this 6 year old boy saw the robot retrieving the fish back into base. His jaw dropped wide open when he saw that. I missed catching the picture, but I did get a photo of the boy with his mom as he stayed to continue watching the robot retrieve fish.

We're going to be at Cool Science at UCCS

I've always tried to seek out those science fairs where people in business, education and the community could share their technology with young, curious minds. My kids love the hands on atmosphere and encouragement they would get from the many adult and student volunteers.

Well this year our FLL team, the Mindstorms Maniacs, are going to be at the Cool Science Festival at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Our 6 member team has been hard at work trying to come up with a good robot as well as they will be sharing some of their findings about keeping food safe.

This is our attempt to meet the FLL criteria of sharing our research and our robot. It's the first time out for the group so we're not exactly sure how it will go, but at least we'll have tried. We will have demonstrations of our current robot and have a hands on LEGO power car trying to make its way up a ramp with a load of canned chicken.

First Impressions of Food Factor FLL Season

Mission Build Day is always so hectic.

Back in July we got our mat and parts and yesterday we found out what we were supposed to do with them. Although the kids are still somewhat in "summer" mode, we got a few brain cells connecting by asking them to research the topic of FOOD. What's not to like about this year's challenge theme? It seemed more accessible for the kids this year.

Much improved this year was the project description and suggested activities. The kids and coaches really like direction in terms of what and how to research. Also improved is the new rubric for the year. It had been so confusing last year we didn't much bother with it. This year, I plan to have it on hand for all the activities we do.

Looks like we are able to use the color sensor again this year. Yeah since I've migrated all our software to Mindstorms 2.0 where the old light sensor doesn't seem to work. Also, I think we are allowed more sensors this year. Last year our team didn't use any. I want to strongly encourage the kids to try using them this year.

Oh yes, only 18 hours after the challenge release, I found someone had already uploaded their own YouTube video describing all the challenges. It's very well done. The only glaring mistake was they got East and West mixed up. Otherwise it helped me envision what the missions were.

Why a LEGO Summer Camp?

I'm what you'd call "frugal". During our kitchen remodel last year, I sold everything but the kitchen sink on Craigslist. I enjoy bargaining down at garage sales from 50 cents to 25 cents. I find great joy in getting a hotel room for less than $30 on Priceline.

So why would I offer a LEGO camp to folks who, if they are cheap like me, couldn't fathom paying money for something their kids could just do at home? How many LEGOs could you buy for the typical cost of camp? Being me, I would first try to find kits cheaper on eBay. Then I would surmise that even if I had to buy a kit for my kids, they would be able to build to their hearts content at home which would be cheaper than sending them to camp for a week. Hmmmm... now why would I want to sign up for camp?

COMMUNITY
Last week we had our first summer camp of the year. It was a great success. The children were so excited about all that they were able to build that they were playing as much as they were learning the relationships between gears, axles, motors, sails, pulleys, etc. However what the camp captured was a sense that it was OK to be curious and interested in all these mechanical things. One of the kids in the last camp said it was so much fun coming because it was OK to be smart. Wow! That's the best compliment this program could ever get! Sure he could have built in the privacy of his own home, but there's something to be said about the community that gets developed whenever you get together with like minded people.

COMPETITION
Although I didn't plan this, the week seemed like it was all about competition. Even though I wasn't keeping track of which car went the farthest or could pull the most chicken cans, kids were very in tune with trying to outdo others.  They naturally gravitated towards competing and they were quite proud when they did well or improved on their old designs. Working on your own at home would not have fostered this. Weather or not others agree or disagree with this, kids just naturally do it. I didn't offer any prizes or anything, but just ask any 5 year old soccer player if they know the score at the "no scoring" game and you'd better believe they'll be able to spout off a score.

CHALLENGE
This kind of goes with community, but I was just reading the story of Dr. Ben Carson and after the 50 member team successfully completed the complex separation of the Siamese Binder twins Mark Rogers said, "We are capable of doing even better things than we believe we are, if we challenge each other to do it." I liked that thought. Sure, there are times we can  build on our own, but there are also times having others around can push us beyond what we thought.

So here's a picture of my kitchen sink. Just didn't think this would sell well.