EV3 and FLL in the Classroom

[Rebecca Wasmer]

Hey Chief Delphi!

It's been forever since I have been on here, but I have a few questions and I feel like this community might be one of the best ones to talk to.

First, a little background on me; I'm in my final semester of my Computer Engineering B.S. at the University at Buffalo. I joined FRC 340 my junior year of high school in 2010 and did their website. I then moved on to website, Chairman's Team, and secretary my senior year. I also helped run FLL teams. Throughout college I have helped run various FRC teams and even ran an FTC team for a year.

Now, the reason I am here:
Recently I was hired to be a robotics teaching consultant at a school district I have been working with on my undergraduate research. My goal/job is to help the teachers at various grade levels implement science, technology, and robotics into their classroom to help engage students. In the next few weeks I will be holding a class for some of the teachers in the district to become familiar with the EV3 system and how they can use it in their classrooms. (I am also hoping to stir up some interest in running FLL teams for the 2015 season, as that is something the superintendent is interested in) Luckily, I am still in contact with 340 and they have given me a field from this year's season of FLL to help, but instead of just picking the brains of mentors from 340, I figured the wealth of knowledge here that I have come to know and love would be useful. So, my questions are as follows (feel free to comment as well, I need input)

1. How long have you been involved with FLL?
2. How did you start learning to program for the LEGO systems?
3. If you have taught others how to use the EV3/NXT system, what has been your most effective method?
4. What challenges from this year's FLL game do you find the be the most interesting?
5. Are there any other types of challenges you have found to help inspire more creative thinking?
6. How have your seen/used the EV3/NXT or FLL in the classroom?

Other thoughts: The teachers I will be teaching range from kindergarten to senior high and are of various backgrounds and ages. We recommended that science and math teachers attend, but it is open to all teachers.

These are all of the questions I have for now and I do have my "base lesson" written and ready to go, I just figured getting some additional input from "experts" would be helpful since I'm the only one in the district with any experience.

THANK YOU!

[Clayton E]

1. Fall 2011 was my first year with FLL

2. Having never seen a NXT before I jumped right in with a Team who had their first competition in 3 short weeks. We didn't use a single sensor and changed our programs after every run, but we had a blast.

3. I have taught several workshops of up to 30 teachers at a time. My favorite was to divide them into teams of 3 and have them build the 5 minute bot . I also gave them build instructions on how to attach a touch sensor, light sensor, and ultrasonic sensor. After building their robot their job was to navigate through a maze in which different parts required that they must use a specific sensor.

I taught them how to program the touch sensor and let them figure out how to get through that portion of the maze. Same thing for the light sensor and ultrasonic. The last part of the maze had FLL mission models and they were required to complete one mission before crossing the finish line. Each sensor section had a place for the robot to start a new program to learn that sensor. After teams made it through the maze I challenged them to combine all their programs and send their robot through the maze all on its own.

The maze was just on one FLL table and split up using 2x4 boards and orange cones as obstacles. The ultrasonic obstacles were a couple of slow moving gates using Jr. FLL motors. I had the teachers for a full day 9 am - 2 pm with a lunch break. They really enjoyed it. Later on I used the same maze workshop for the returning and new FLL students on my team.

4. This year I liked my teams solution for the search engine mission, which the problem they had to solve changed every time.

5. When we have robotics camps or just groups visiting our building LEGO sumo is definitely our go to activity. It helps get them interested in LEGO robots. Most have never seen FLL before so we give them the Sumo program to run on their robot. We give them about an hour to 1.5 hours to build their sumo bot from scratch. If they need help we give them a guide with different ways to attach motors to the NXT. Every team has at least made a moving robot at the end of their build time. We then run a round robin tournament for fun.

6. Mostly just the maze and sumo workshops. I have also used previous FLL mission models to make a simpler FLL board. I then let the kids pick their own missions and make the programs to try to complete as many as they can in 2:30 to get a feel of the FLL style. The board was simpler so they could do a few missions in just the 1 or 2 days that we had to meet.