Teamwork, Mission Models, and Project Ideas

Today we did four things:

1) Homework review.  Most people had read the blog and watched the video, and Neshaya won the draw for the homework prize.  Congratulations, Neshaya!

2) Worked on defining what a team is, does, sounds like, and does not do.  We then tried to use what we learned in a teamwork exercise.  The exercise was to get the gummy worm through the gummy ring and into the plastic cup using nothing but paperclips.  The idea was to work  in teams of two and find the best way to solve the problem.

3) Built several of the mission models for this year's competition.  Congratulations to Alyssa, Lais, Hannah, Nick, and Neshaya.

4) Programmed the Shark Transport mission.  Congratulations Tara, Macy, Lily, and Olivia!

Homework for Monday:

Pick an animal and think about how it interacts with humans.  Hopefully you did this last week. What's new for this week is to talk to an expert about how those interactions might be improved.  For example, dogs' natural instinct is protect their owners and their property, which is part of the reason some people own them.  Their instinct, unfortunately, leads them to attack mail carriers, or to run into the road to bark at cars and get run over.  Is there a way their interactions with mail carriers and cars could be improved?  The secret word for next week, by the way, is Molly, which is the most common female dog name in the English language.

Ecole Catholique Cathedrale FLL 2016

Welcome back, Comets!  We've got a lot of work to do this season and not a lot of time to do it. The competition will be held November 19 at Duncan MacArthur Hall (Queen's West Campus).

We'll be using this blog again this season to keep you informed about news, tips, progress, dates, and so on during the season.  Please check back regularly to make sure you get all the necessary information!  Each week there will be a secret word contained in the week's blog post.  Please show up each week knowing the secret word for the week.  The word for this week is Flipper (a TV dolphin who helps people.)

Remember that the First Lego League competition consists of three main parts: 1) core values, 2) the project, and 3) the game.  The core values define how we work together as a team, and how we interact with other teams.  The project is a team research effort in a specific area, with the team required to develop and share a solution to a particular problem.  The game involves the design of a robot to complete as many missions as possible on a specially designed board.

Most participants find the robot component the most fun, but remember that the overall score is based on all three components, with each counting for roughly one third.  Your robot could complete every mission in the game successfully and your team could still finish last overall if you don't do well on the project and don't demonstrate the core values.

To get up to speed quickly on the core values, the project and the game, please check out the videos below:

Overview:

Project:

Robot Game:

The video, game rules, and project descriptions are also linked to from the First Lego League Challenge Page