Saturday, November 20, 2010

Another Video on FLL 2010 Body Forward

Here is a video of a team from Mexico (CBRoboticSchool) working on the FLL 2010 Body Forward Challenge:

Thursday, November 11, 2010

FLL Body Forward YouTube Videos

FLL Body Forward videos are starting to appear on YouTube. Some are more helpful than others but it always helps teams to have a look at solutions provided by others. Here are a couple I have looked at and thought interesting:







Monday, November 08, 2010

Here is the official blog for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) organization:

It has some postings that give advice for teams on various parts of the FLL experience.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Robotics Online Conference

Hi Teams, Coaches, & Mentors,

I am running an online conference with Elluminate Live on October 19, 2010 at 7:00pm for LEGO robotics teams in Newfoundland and Labrador. I will be talking about the partnership between NL Skills Canada and FIRST LEGO League (FLL) NL, discuss some issues around this year's competition, provide some tips, and finsih with a Q&A session.

I recommend you use headphones with a mic if you have a set. If you don't you should at least have the sound working on your computer so you can hear the presentation. To make sure follow the instructions in the document and do an audio test when you get into the E-Live room.

I will be in the room early to prepare for my presentation. Please connect at least 10 minutes before the meeting to make sure you have no technical problems. I will want to start promptly at 7:00pm.

This online conference is also the first one in a series sponsored by the Technology Educators Special Interest Council (TESIC) at the NLTA. Also thanks to Jim Murphy at the VTV and CDLI for their help and support.

See the information below for accessing the E-Room:

-----Here is part of the instructions to get you into the room just in case anybody has trouble opening the document---------------------

Follow this link to the login page for your session.

http://elive.cdli.ca/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1158682050330

This will bring you to the login page for the Virtual Teacher Centre Room. You can also bookmark this location for future use or create a link on your desktop for it.
Here are the directions...
To join the session, you must complete the following information:

1. Email Address: your_email@yourdistrict.ca
2. Display Name: Your First Name and Last Initial (this is in case there are other participants with the same first name)
3. Session Password: vtc
4. Once you complete the info, click the log in button.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope to see you online.

Thomas

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

FLL Body Forward 2010 Challenge

One of my favourite times of the year is here once again. The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) challenge for 2010 has been released and this year’s theme is about biomedical engineering called Body Forward. Here is a list of resources that teams should visit:

FLL Body Forward 2010 Challenge (http://www.firstlegoleague.org/media/twocol.aspx?id=247) - On this official FLL page is all the information your team needs. It includes a section on the Robot Game with all the missions and rules explained with . There is also some important information about the Project.

TechBrick (http://www.techbrick.com/) - This is an awesome site with lots of great resources for teams competing in Body Forward. It includes sample scoring sheets, worksheets, and tips to help your team.

FLL Body Forward Scorer iPhone/iPod App by Sachin Patel (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fll-body-forward-scorer/id391265188?mt=8) - I used Sachin’s app for last year’s challenge and it was a great help keeping the scoring straight. This year’s app looks just as useful and Sachin has an update for the app already waiting approval in the iTunes Store.

The NXT Step Blog (http://www.thenxtstep.blogspot.com/) - This is one of my favourite NXT robotics sites to visit. I own several of the NXT robots books written by some of the blog contributors. James Floyd Kelly’s book, LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT: The Mayan Adventure, has been especially useful in my courses about NXT robotics.

FLL also has a good YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/FLLGlobal#p/c/ECD69862A53BE66D).

Well, that should get any FLL team off and running. Good luck to all FLL teams!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

TechBrick: Body Forward Challenge 2010-11

TechBrick is a great resource for teams involved in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and NL Skills Canada LEGO Robotics competitions held in Newfoundland and Labrador. They have posted resources to help out with this year's challenge:
Again this year I hope to use this site to help teams out across the province as we prepare for competition so please check back regularly.