We are going to Atria Woodbridge Senior Living Center this weekend to see the man cave they have created. Inspired by Al Ladine they have created a complete workshop to pursue their hobbies. We are going to talk to them about first lego league and our Senior Solutions Project. Here is a video about them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYnkjzAbXEU&feature=player_embedded
For our first field trip of the Senior Solutions season we volunteered with Meals on Wheels. Our fearless drivers are pictured above with their route binders. The kids delivered meals to about 20 homes. We were able to visit with the Seniors for a few minutes and ask them questions about the daily challenges they have.
The theme for the 2012 season has been annouced: Senior Solutions. Can FLL teams improve the quality of life for seniors by helping them continue to be independent, engaged, and connected in their communities? In the 2012 Senior Solutions Challenge, over 200,000 children from more than 60 countries will explore the topic of aging and how it may affect a person’s ability to maintain his or her lifestyle – solving issues like getting around, keeping in touch, or staying fit. Teams will research obstacles and then suggest ways to improve the quality of life for the seniors affected. Teams will also build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS® robot to solve a set of missions on an obstacle course.
Over the last two weeks we split the team in half. Then we had each team build their own sumo bot. They had to fit into a 10 by 10 box. Then we had sumo matches where a team could win by disabling an opponent (flipping over) or if your oponent left a four foot square. One team build a pusher bot with a lift on the front. They called their robot the Super Duper Pooper Scooper. The other team built their robot with a bumper and a jack hammer ram. The other team named themselves the Blue Ninjas. The matches were very close but the Blue Ninjas were the victors. We forgot to take pictures DOH!
At the Southern California Championship Tournament at Legoland in Carlsbad our robot placed 5th in Robot Performance and we were chose for the title sponsor’s Award of Excellence. An awesome capper to a wonderful season. Good Job Rockstars!
Good Job Rockstars! 1st Place Over all and 1st Place for Robot Performance! Stellar performance by Jem and Noah at the table. Awesome teamwork and fantastic spirit. R-O-C-K in the FLL…
We had a Halloween party today. We wore our costumes, played pictionary, did Halloween MadLibs and we practiced our skit. We also had a ton of yummy munchies. Thanks to everyone who brought snacks!
We have been working very hard on the Food Factor Challenge for the last few weeks. We continue to improve our programs and our robot. We even managed to incorporate a pneumatic system on our robot this year. Our robot lab is in a garage. Sometimes when we work at night moths fly in if the garage door is open. They are attracted to the lights we have over the practice table. We named our robot last night. We called it the “Man I really hope this works Bot”, ha! Our qualifier tournament is fast approaching on Sunday 11/13 at Eastlake High School. We are really looking forward to our first tournament. Only 6 teams of 24 will advance to the championship tournament at LegoLand.
We played mine field today. You have to help a team member navigate a mind field blindfolded without touching them. When you work together it is easy. We you work against each other it is impossible.
