2010 FIRST LEGO League

The 2010 FLL season is underway! If you've been reading for some time, then you know that Dan and I coach a FIRST LEGO League team. This is our second season with FLL. I also continue to coach JrFLL teams (which will gather soon during our homeschool co-op). If you are interested, you can check out some posts from last season.

Last spring we taught an FLL programming class at homeschool co-op to further practice with the kids the programming of the robots. By the end of the semester, we had our new FLL team for the fall season (which includes two girls this year!!). We've been meeting all summer. We meet for four hour practices and this past Sunday we had the new mat and kits for the 2010 season. This year's theme is Body Forward and it's all about biomedical engineering.

During the first meeting in June, the kids voted on a new name. They are The Alps- The Amazing Lego People

This year's mat- the LEGO models will be in various spots and the robot will have to perform tasks with each one.

I was in charge of some fun team building exercises on Sunday (Dan put my Masters degree to good use) and we built the models the rest of the time. And of course there was pizza.

I broke the kids into groups and gave them roles to fill within their group (encourager, time checker, etc.) to come up with ideas for our Team Goals. Success! One of the hallmarks of an FLL Team is GRACIOUS PROFESSIONALISM. Kids need ample practice at it! In the end, they came up with a fine set of goals for this season.

Some built models- there's eyeballs, a heart, a bone and some other stuff. The kids had a great time building these using the directions.

Here's a bone that is broken. Our guess is that the robot will have to move it together and apply a cast. Pretty cool.

Our official season kick-off is Friday, September 3rd when the actual challenge is released by US First. We have a bonfire and hot dog party planned as we get the kids psyched for a new season!

We will teach a co-op class each week and we'll have a 3 hour practice weekly in addition to that once things really ramp up. The competition will be in November.

Stay tuned for more FLL news as our season progresses. I should add that E11 and R10 are both on the team this year.