Are You Up for Robotics This Weekend?

Body Forward Competition mat (8x4)

COME ON DOWN AND SEE WHY YOU WANT YOUR SCHOOL INVOLVED NEXT YEAR.

From almost the minute I retired in 2002, I have been involved with FIRST LEGO League (FLL) in New York City, one of three tournaments going on at the Jacobs Javits center this weekend. The ages of kids involved are 9-14, which covers elementary, middle school and 9th graders in high school. All competing at the same level.

There is even a Junior FIRST LEGO League exhibition for kids aged 6-9.

I have run a blog devoted to NYC FLL robotics for years: http://normsrobotics.blogspot.com/

FIRST (http://usfirst.org/) is an orgnization that promotes Science and Technology among school age children. This weekend is the NYC Championship Tournament at Jacob Javits Center.

There will be several competitions going on simultaneously.

Friday will be FRC's (FIRST Robotics Competition) practice competition day.

Saturday will be FRC qualification matches and FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) championship matches.

Sunday will be be FRC's championship matches as well as FLL (FIRST Lego League) and Jr. FLL champioship matches.

I work with FLL on Sunday. This year we had 200 teams from NYC - public, private, charter, home-schooled, community centers start out. We held qualifying borough tournaments in January to choose the final 80 teams going to the NYC championship on Sunday. The winner goes on to the World Festival in St. Louis in April. If you show up on Sunday, look for me near the FLL pit area. You might see schools like Dalton seated next to schools from Bed-Stuy. This is one of the great social mixing events you can find.

What is FLL? Each year there is a theme. This year is Body Forward: engineering meets medicine. Check it out here. I have a kit in my house - there is an 8x4 mat with a giant human body on it and the robots have to navigate and accomplish tasks like putting a stint in. Great stuff.

The "game" is played on a table with about 15 teams trying to gain as many points as possible in 2 and a half minutes. But that is only a part of the event. Each team does research on the topic and present to a panel of judges. And they also present a technical presentation telling the judges how they solved the problems.

Teams are 10 kids but many schools bring cheerleaders and boosters and lots of parents. who often gaze in wonder at the energy of the day. Lots of awards and trophies given out. And a medal to each participant. Want to see kids, teachers and parents having a blast? BE THERE!

Check out this article on the Brooklyn qualifier.

The 3 day FRC high school event attracts 66 teams, some from around the world (Brazil, Hawaii). These are big robots, 6 on the giant field at the same time - 3 against 3. See these high schoolers from elite schools mix and work with kids from all over the place. (Check out the list and the heavyweight sponsors).


I won't go on. I'm too excited. I'm heading down to Javits to hang out today (my wife's mah jhong crew has arrived is the real reason) before the heavy lifting on Sunday. Here is some info if you want to check it out. All free and open to the public.

Oh, has there been any support from the NYC DOE for this amazing event that involves so many NYC schools and students doing the very opposite of test prep? Go ask them.

Here is some info from my robotics blog.

See lists of all the teams and the sponsors:

NYC First Mega Robotics Celebration Program

NYC LEGO Teams for Javits 2011 With Pit Table Assignments (where you can find them)

Javits 2011 FLL Championaship, Sunday March 13 - Floor Plan and Schedule

Solar Powered Bike Will Be At Javits Robo Event March 13

See bike on NY1 news. Size of a large adult bike....

http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/132679/lego-champs-to-head-to-first-robotics-competition?ap=1&MP4

 
An event this big need a lot of people to pull it off. We have hundreds of volunteers already but we are still in need of more. We would greatly appreciate your help. Registration closes tomorrow, however we do take walk-ins on each day of the event. We also welcome spectators. If you you dont desire to volunteer then please do come to any of the events and observe the cheer intelligence and creativity of children younger than 8 years to 18 years doing things most engineers didn't learn until college.

Please join us.

To those who volunteer you will be given a free t-shirt for the event, as well as breakfast and lunch. Further information can be found via http://nycnjfirst.org/ or directly via http://nycnjfirst.org/blog/2010/12/29/11th-annual-nyc-first-robotics-regional-competition-frc-week-2-event/

Hope to see you all there!

Email Norm if you want to help: normsco@gmail.com

Today- Brooklyn FIRST LEGO League Qualifying Event

COME ON DOWN

I've been involved in FIRST LEGO Robotics in NYC and nationally - even internationally (as a referee in Tokyo two years ago), since I retired. The tournaments have grown each year as more schools get involved. It is one of the best things I've done. My role is to liaison with the teacher/coaches.

FIRST puts on tournaments all over the world. FLL is for ages 9-14. There are over 16,000 teams in every neck of the world. All competing in the same type of events. The season culminates with the World Festival in April. I went to one in Atlanta and it was quite an experience.

This year's theme is SMART Moves, relating to building and programming robots using LEGO that can navigate through various transportation issues. See more here.

Today is the first of 5 borough tournaments to chose teams that will qualify for the NYC championship at the Javits convention center in March. The Brooklyn tournament is taking place at Polytechnic/NYU in downtown Brooklyn on Jay St. It is free and open to the public and you get to see what all the excitement is about.

I'll be there most of the day so stop by and say hello.

Tomorrow is Staten Island at Wagner College. Next Saturday (Jan. 16) is the Bronx event at Lehman HS and the week after (Jan. 23) is Queens at Aviation HS followed the next day by Manhattan at CCNY.

Follow events at my robotics blog: http://normsrobotics.blogspot.com/

Back to the Fray

I'm back from 4 days at the annual FIRST LEGO League partners conference in Manchester, NH, where people live free or die. A place with elected school boards. No mayors controlling their schools. Or no-nothing about education superintendents like Joel Klein. New Hampshire must be missing African-American and Hispanic parents who need the guidance of dictators. If NH had mayor Mike running things, the cemeteries would be overflowing.

Being away from the NYC ed/pol scene can be a good thing, especially in the FIRST environment where the focus is on creating wonderful experiences for kids - truly Children First. It is nice to see so many people who understand one of the prime missions in education. There is a great mix of educators, engineers and people from the business community. Many got involved as parents. A couple from Arkansas started out that way and now are handling the FLL in the state. They mentioned that one of the former members of a high school team called "The Bomb Squad" is now helping us in NY as a mentor.

I had some great conversations. One in particular with an engineer associated with a university who has seen the deterioration of the public schools in parts of his state due to the charter school invasion.

FLL is expected to have over 8000 teams in the US and Canada and 8000 more in 45 countries. This was a North American conference and most states were represented, as was Haiti and Colombia.

We got an exclusive look at the new Smart Moves game but are embargoed from revealing details until Kickoff on Sept. 3.


Teachers who get involved in FLL say it is the best thing they do all year. Registration is open now. The season runs from the beginning of the school year through mid-March, with borough qualifying tournaments and a citywide at the Javits Center which will take place concurrently with the high school events (FTC and FRC. Learn about all FIRST events: http://www.usfirst.org/).

FLL is for ages 9-14. Elementary, middle and even 9th graders in high school can take part. We had 150 teams from NYC take part in this past year's Climate Connections game.

Learn more about FIRST LEGO League: http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/default.aspx?id=970.

Register a team (you can pay later): https://gofll.usfirst.org/.

Follow NYC robotics on my robotics blog.

Training and support are provided. Contact me if your school is interested.

FIRST LEGO League Robotics at PS 261 Brooklyn

Last Wed. after school I stopped by for what I thought was a few minutes (that turned into an hour and a half) to visit the 4th/5th grade robotics teams (called "Nanorama I and II") at PS 261K in downtown Brooklyn in Region 8. They are preparing for the FIRST LEGO League tournament to be held at Riverbank State Park in upper Manhattan on Jan. 27/28 where 155 teams from NYC area schools (both public and private) and community centers will compete by building robots out of LEGO blocks that must complete a number of tasks (in 2 1/2 minutes in each round) related to Nanotechnology, this year's theme (Nanoquest).

The teams are coached by teachers Maureen Reilly, Allisyn Levy, and Jennifer Lindauer-Thompson. I was still there an hour an a half later observing the incredibly well organized operation as the 22 children accomplished an amazing amount of work with the guidance of their teachers.

After an opening warm-up session they broke into distinct groups – research, programming, building – and ended with a whole group sharing session.

Maureen, a 2nd year teacher, began the program last year and recruited Alyson and Jennifer this year after getting support from Brain Pop. Maureen is not your average robotics coach as she worked for LEGO for 7 years and is still a consultant, even getting to go to Denmark every summer to visit the Mecca of LEGO.


Jennifer meets with the group preparing a research report on Nanotechnology, which will be presented to a panel of judges at Riverbank



Allisyn works with the programmers





A pep rally send-off was held for the robotics teams at the school the Friday before the Brooklyn tournament. A Daily News reporter was in the building for another reason and, looking in, asked what the rally was for. She was incredulous when told it was for the robotics team. Another pep rally will be held on Jan. 26th the day before the massive citywide event.

Teaching Nanotechnology as it relates to one of the FLL challenges


How she stores all the stuff - this is just a small section as Maureen's classroom is the Brooklyn version of LEGOLAND.


Maureen and I discussed the idea of getting Region 8 coaches and may be some other Brooklyn teams together post tournament to plan a follow-up robotics event in the spring.

Nanomaniacs gather around the competition table at the Brooklyn borough FLL tournament at Brooklyn Tech HS on Dec. 9




Maureen prays for a good score







FIRST, the organization behind all the excitement, bills these tournaments as sporting events for the mind. We expect well over 1000 people at the Riverbank gymnasium each day as teams come with cheerleaders, colorful banners and tee-shirts. The excitement is pumped up by a d-jay, a jumbo TV screen and all sorts of other activities. The first time I saw one of these events 5 years ago when they had only 35 teams, I was hooked and have been a volunteer registration and team recruitment coordinator for NYCFIRST.

No matter how much I tell people how great an event this is, they are still overwhelmed when they actually see this in person. FLL is for ages 9-14 and we have elementary, middle and a number of high schools with 9th graders all taking part in the same event. AND THEY ALL HAVE SO MUCH FUN. And their teachers too, who often tell me this is one of the most enjoyable things they have ever done as a teacher, despite all the incredible work involved.

The NYC event is special because it is so massive and is one place where children from the poorest schools mingle with and compete with children from the most exclusive private schools. A teacher from PS 193 in Brooklyn, a rookie school that has jumped in with both feet, sent an email after the Brooklyn tournament (with 27 teams) with a quote from a child who said that was the best day of her life. She ain't seen nothin' yet.

Volunteers are needed as:
Team Quers
Crowd Control
Research/Tech Schedulers
Referees
Field Re-setters

Contact Elizabeth Almonte at: nycfllvolunteer@yahoo.com