NXT Robots on Guard Duty ...

Check out what you can do with an NXT robot and a little candy!

Thanks to Westminster colleague Clark M. for the lead.

Robocats 3: The Road to State

Technical

Rather than having the robot run all over the table attempting to accomplish the missions, our team used wind-up motors to push various objects into place. Through six wind-ups, we have developed solutions to seven of the missions. These contraptions, together with our robot, make it possible for us to attempt more missions within the allotted time. For missions too complex for a wind-up, we designed specialized attachments for our robot. These designs are unique to our team and are created to efficiently and effectively accomplish a specific mission. Once we had developed an attachment, we would modify it in order to connect it to our robot. Our next step would be to write, through trial and error, a program that incorporated the attachment and allowed it to solve part of the challenge. Overall, this combination of wind-up motors and unique attachments has led to our team's successful accomplishment of many missions. We just need to practice to maintain the consistency of our success.

Research

Our team first collaborated to choose which building to analyze and then learned all we could about the Junior High’s energy efficiency opportunities. We learned that, although the Junior High, being a modern structure, was designed to be efficient, it could benefit from use of an alternative power source. After much research and analysis, we determined that using solar power, in conjunction with other energy saving techniques, would be the best option for the building itself. Through our environmentally-themed Christian Emphasis Week, we plan to ask for student donations to purchase solar panels, as this can be an immense initial expense. We then decided to move beyond our original goal of making just the Junior High more efficient to lessening the environmental impact of the entire Westminster campus. Our team learned that the cafeteria’s waste vegetable oil could be used to run the sports transportation buses. After talking to students, the school has decided to set up a vegetable oil processing facility at the Physical Plant, the campus building dealing with energy use. The planting of deciduous trees around campus is also being considered. Because of our environmental concerns, Robocats 3 decided to expand our research to cover not only the Junior High, but also the entire Westminster campus.

Teamwork

Our team found out early on in the year that two members of our team, Hailey Brown and Lilly Chin, would not be able to attend the qualifier and therefore no longer desired to be a part of the team. Hailey had been instrumental in the original design of the robot and was the only one who knew how to repair it. Lilly was in charge of research and, at the time that her conflict was realized, was the only one who truly understood the entire project. Anna Lee and Blake, whose only expertise at the time was in programming, had to work incredibly hard to learn the design of the robot and the details of the project, and, even though they were initially reluctant to do so, they persevered. Although both were educated in each area, Blake chose to specialize in research while Anna Lee continued to focus on the robot. Both now feel that, despite this obstacle, they are now a stronger and better team due to their increased knowledge of all aspects of the challenge. Thanks to their effort and continuing passion for robotics, Robocats 3, despite early setbacks, managed to beat the odds and make it to State.

Rookie Team Qualifies for State FLL Competition!!!

In our first year in the FIRST Lego League competitions, one of our junior high school teams (Robocats 3) qualified at the Clayton State University Tournament (January 12, 2008) for the Georgia state tournament to be held at GA Tech February 9, 2008.


They began the year as an all-girls team of four (three 8th graders and one 7th) and added two boys early in the fall semester 2007. Despite scheduling conflicts, declining participation, and other difficulties, two of the girls persevered, discovering that even when everything else fell apart around them, they were strong and determined enough to see it through on their commitments.

Over their four months of robot design and development, they evolved a technically complicated NXT robot with some quite sophisticated approaches to solving the many missions in the 2007 FLL Power Puzzle Challenge. While they had many operational difficulties with the performance of their robot in Saturday's tournament, the students hit home runs in the Robot Design and Teamwork categories and they won the Project Award, proving that performance on all fronts is necessary for true team success.

Concerning their only weak spot from the tournament, they know their robot could and should have performed much better. They are re-energized and more determined than ever to refine their NXT robot to fix their shortcomings before the January 9th tournament.

This has been one of the most spectacular experiences in my 18-year teaching career. I am more convinced than ever that we must put our students in open-ended situations where they use what they know to find creative, original solutions to problems and they solve them on their own with appropriate minimal assistance and guidance from those around them. These two girls found a way to conquer a litany of obstacles stacked against them and they emerged confident, energized and determined. Look out world!