We spent the time between runs and presentations at our table in the corridor or in the cafeteria, continuing to tweak and download programs with the laptop and doing practice runs. Here, you can see members of the other two Burroughs teams waiting for their next events.
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This is a big, intimidating event with lots of people, bright lights, and noise. Aidan and Alec kept their cool on the first run of the day, keeping at it even when things didn't go right.
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Our best event of the day was our research presentation. The research was solid, the skit went great (and everyone spoke loud enough!), and everyone participated--everything a coach could ask. In the Q&A they were even able to recall and explain Internet research that they hadn't used in the presentation itself. Another great example of thinking on their feet and applying the knowledge they've gained.
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My favorite part of watching Alex and Cam at the table was seeing how they thought on their feet. When they moved the CD from its spindle, it didn't quite make it to the desk. If it doesn't make it there, you get no points. After pushing in the chairs, they had the brilliant idea of using the little hook that was meant for the gate to push the CD onto the desk. It worked! They were also able to open the gate, but unfortunately the gate was damaged in the process so the points didn't count. Still, it was one of the most exciting moments of the day, and so cool to watch them improvise.
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"Final" results

The results are in. Well, those that can appear on a scoresheet are in, anyway. On paper, the MonkeyZ had a day of highs (a great performance and score on our research presentation) and lows (pretty much every other category FLL scores on). But the spreadsheet they gave us at the end of the day only tells a small part of the story of our team.

One of the main premises of FLL (FIRST LEGO League) is that the kids do the work. As coaches, we tried hard to follow that guideline, believing that the kids would learn far more about life if they were allowed to succeed or fail on their own. After watching a whole range of teams at the tournament, and seeing what our team did well--as well as what they didn't--we believe we did the right thing.

We started the season with seven kids: two pairs of friends and three kids who, for various reasons, prefer to work alone. We ended pretty much the same, and our teamwork score shows it. Teamwork is something that can't be forced; it needs to evolve on its own through the work, and (in my opinion anyway) it can really only happen when everyone's working toward the same goal. We really never were.

Our stated goals for the season included the FLL basics: Build and program a robot that performs missions, research and prepare a presentation. But not all of the kids bought into that. Some were there strictly to have fun playing with LEGOs. They had no patience for lessons in the basics of programming or building, preferring to just jump in and try things that interested them. Having fun building is not a bad goal, of course, but meeting that particular goal isn't going to gain you points at a tournament.

The kids who truly were interested in working on a robot for the tournament were, perhaps, too willing for too long to let the strong personalities of the "just have fun" crowd win out. Toward the end, those kids were able to put together a few successes. Before our Sunday meeting, our robot could only put the CD away fairly consistently. By the end of the day Sunday, the robot could also push in the chairs, and significant progress had been made towards opening the gate. They'd also had a chance to outline the features their ASL translator (the research project) should have and draw their own conceptions of what it would look like.

The kids were able to accomplish these things because they focused on a goal and found out that it felt really good to achieve it. Most importantly, every kid who was there contributed to the successes we had that day. There was no appreciable goofing around (we did take several well-timed breaks) and everyone felt good about what they'd done. Unfortunately, that turning point came just a little too late in the game to capitalize much on it.

As coaches, we learned so much this year about these kids and about how to coach. It was our first year, too, and not every decision we made turned out to be the right one. We're taking some time for self-examination, too, and thinking about what to do different next year. But we're even more firmly convinced that FLL is a wonderful, well-run, and imminently fair program--Sports for the Mind is an often-used and very appropriate tagline for the program.

There are many more things I'd like to share about the tournament and the successes that don't show up on the scorecard, but I'll save them for another post.

If your child is disappointed at how we did at the tournament, remind him that LEGO League is something where you get out what you put in. Next year could be entirely different--if whatever team he's on works together toward the same goals.

Tournament Saturday: Are We Ready??

Actually, we have no idea whether we're ready--probably it depends on how you define "ready!" We definitely could have done more (practiced the presentation, accomplished more missions) if we had more time, but with the holidays approaching and kids involved in other activities, most of the kids (and coaches, too) seem ready to be done with LEGO League.

Thanks to a lot of hard work at last Sunday's meeting, our robot can move the CD to the desk (and to the case much of the time) and push in the chairs like clockwork. It doesn't return to home base on its own, which will cost us a few points at the competition, but the kids felt the tradeoff (spending time programming the return vs. spending time practicing the moves it can already do) was worth the lost points.

We'd planned for our robot to be able to do at least one other mission by the time of the tournament--we're close on opening the gate, but just didn't have the time to pull it off. Who knows--maybe we'll get it working by our third performance round on Saturday! But of course that depends on whether the kids care enough about the "points" part of the competition to work on it; this year, our team was more about enjoying building with LEGOs than about winning an award.

Our research presentation is great (in our humble opinion). I was concerned about whether the kids had absorbed much from the research we did at PACER and with Susan, but when the kids were asked to fire off facts they learned from the research, they easily filled the white board. Ali wrote a skit that presents their problem/solution as an infomercial--she and Alex are narrators, Brendan is portraying their robotic translator invention, Erik plays a deaf child who wants to join in a schoolyard game, and Cam, Alec, and Aidan are hearing kids who don't understand ASL After the skit, each kid gets a chance to share a couple of things they learned.

We're all looking forward (a little nervously!) to the competition. Most of us (kids and coaches) have never been to one. I'm anticipating that most of the kids on our team will want to do LEGO League again next year (given the opportunity--Anthony doesn't have a program). Those that do will learn so much on Saturday about how they want to do things next year.

Another LEGO League blog

Today I stumbled on a blog authored by a LEGO League team in California, the LEGO Mountaineers. It's a team of girls, all home-schooled. After three years, they've got a raft of mentors and sponsors, and they won the Director's Award at their competition this year. Their entries really show that LEGO League is a process, not a one-shot thing. They did well their first year, and each year they've learned more about building, programming, researching, and planning which missions to do and how to do them. It's an interesting, inspiring read. For our kids, this is only the beginning!

Freedom Machines

We had great fun at PACER yesterday. Those people know how to educate kids. They got to do several hands-on activities to get a feel for what it's like to be disabled. It was very funny watching them try to open a Starburst while wearing heavy sweatsocks on their hands. Alec got a chance to try to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while blindfolded, and after Aidan had moved all the ingredients and utensils to different places! The assistive devices--especially the remote control toys for kids who can't get down on the floor to play--were a big hit.

We also got to see a clip from a documentary called Freedom Machines, which aired on PBS's POV show in September. It's all about how various technologies have enhanced the lives of people with different disabilities. Very cool. You can watch a clip at the PBS Web site to get a sense of it.

Non-mandatory Sunday working session

As we scream towards our deadline, we've decided to host the team at Lee and Jan's place on Sunday afternoon. We'll use the time to work on the robot challenges and the research presentation.

Team members can show up anytime between 1:00 and 5:00 and stay as long (or as short) as they want. We'll have all the robots and the mat here (but not the table; it's a pain to move), and more computers than we could possibly need. Maybe we'll even order a pizza or two.

Parents: Please let us know if your child can come and about what time he'll be there. It'd be great if your child could bring a snack to share.

Want to see a tournament?

If you or your child wants to see what a tournament is like before we go to our tournament on December 11, you might want to take an hour or so on Saturday, December 4, to go over to Sanford Middle School in SE Minneapolis. Tournament runs from 8:30 until 4:00, but the robot challenge rounds don't start until 9:30.

Lee and Jan and family will be there for at least part of the morning, probably getting there in time to see the first round at 9:30 and leaving after the second round is done at about 11:30. If your child would like to go, but you don't have the time yourself, let us know. We'd be happy to take a team member or two with us.

Research presentation

There's a skit in the works for the research presentation.

The kids get 5 minutes to show the results of their research in front of the judges and the tournament. The kids on the team have varying comfort levels when it comes to acting in front of an audience, but it sounds like the skit they have in mind will work for everyone.

The Gate

Progress! Right now, we're working with two similar (but not quite identical) robots, with different groups trying to work out solutions to different challenges. Yesterday, one of the teams developed an attachment and program for their robot to open a gate. We tell them they have to be able to perform the task three times before we'll consider the goal met, and this one did.

If you look back in the archives, you'll see that some time ago the kids created an attachment and program to move the CD from its spindle to the desk. It was repeatable, but the attachment fell by the wayside during some re-design efforts. Hopefully, we'll be able to add that task back to our repertoire soon.

Robot Challenge progress

Well, the coaches are in a panic over our robot's readiness to perform any of the challenges at the 12/11 tournament, and the kids are thinking two weeks sounds like forever. From what we understand, this is very typical of LEGO teams!

The kids have learned so much in just a few weeks, and have gotten really creative about their robot building. Now we need to get them to focus on the challenges and completing the building and programming needed to meet at least two or three of them.

We only have four regularly scheduled (Tuesday/Thursday) meetings left, and one of them will be the field trip to PACER to get information for our research project (also an important part of the No Limits challenge). Don't be surprised if we contact you about an extra meeting or two. Most likely times: Sunday afternoon (12/5) and a week from Friday (12/10) after school. We'll keep you posted!

PACER Field Trip Scheduled!

We'll be visiting PACER Center's Simon Technology Center on Thursday, December 2, during our normal meeting time. Lee and Jan will transport the team to PACER right after school (kids should meet us in Room 320 as usual) and Amy will meet us there. We'll be at PACER from 3:30 until 5:00, and will probably be back at school between 5:20 and 5:30.

If you'd like to join us, just let us know.

Thanks, Susan!

A big thank you to Susan Jerabek who came in last Tuesday to talk to the kids about the deaf community and American Sign Language. We were surprised by many of the things we heard:

• Common myth: Lip reading is easy. It's quite hard!
  
• There's a big difference in fluency if a deaf person starts learning ASL between birth and age 3 rather than after 3 (because ASL is then their native language).
• ASL is organic, always being added to, just like English or any other spoken language.
• If deaf kids don't know ASL, they and their families and friends will figure out signs of their own to communicate. These signs are called Homesigns.
  

Susan's information (much more than these few bullet points) was very helpful, and it's so much easier to listen to her than read a bunch of books or Web pages!

A few of us also played around with some speech recognition software on Tuesday, just to get a feel for translation. In this case, we were translating spoken English to written English.

PACER Field Trip

We're planning a field trip for the week after Thanksgiving! PACER Center, a group that educates parents on how to advocate for their children with disabilities, has graciously offered to host tours and presentations for LEGO League groups working on the No Limits challenge. The trip will be to PACER's Simon Technology Center in Bloomington.

The schedule is still being worked out, but most likely we'll carpool over after school during our regular meeting time (Tuesday or Thursday), or maybe after school on Friday. Parents: If you'd like to join us (and possibly help with transportation) please let us know!

Also, if your child would like to do a little online research, PACER's site is a great place to start.

Research Project

In addition to building and programming a robot that can perform certain missions, our team must prepare a research project related to this year’s theme (No Limits). The building and programming is so much fun that we sometimes forget that only 25% of our tournament score will come from our robot's performance. Another 25% is based on a 5 minute presentation the kids will prepare about their research project.

Our team has chosen to research the idea of a robotic American Sign Language (ASL) translator.
During our Tuesday meeting, we are scheduled to interview a real ASL translator and teacher who also happens to be the mom of a Burroughs LEGO Leaguer on one of the other teams. We already have a few questions planned, but if parents can "prime the pump" by asking the kids a few questions about their research project, that would be very helpful.

If you know anything about ASL or working with the deaf community, please let us know.

Thinking of Mindstorms for Christmas?

A few parents have asked for details about how to buy a LEGO Mindstorms kit for home use. On the surface, the kits look expensive. But relative to other electronic toys, like video game systems, they're still a great value. If you have any doubts about whether and how much your child would use a Mindstorms kit, come over to school a little early on a practice day and observe our team as they build and program. We're constantly impressed by the creativity and focus the kids display when they're trying to make an idea into reality.

The best price we've found is $179 at Hobbytron. Visit their site for more information on what's in the box.

Scoping Out a Tournament

If you’re curious about what happens at a LEGO League tournament (we know we are!), there are regional tournaments happening this weekend and the weekend of December 4. Lee and Jan are planning to spend a couple of hours on Saturday morning at Field Community School in Minneapolis. If your family wants to check out a tournament, here’s the schedule:

• Nov 20 Sandburg Middle School, Golden Valley
• Nov 20 Field Community School, Minneapolis
• Nov 21 Sandburg Middle School, Golden Valley
• Nov 21 Field Community School, Minneapolis
• Dec 4 Sanford Middle School, Minneapolis
• Dec 4 Crosswinds Middle School, Woodbury

Tournament Volunteers

Are you an adult who was not able to coach this year but interested in participating in FIRST LEGO League? The League, and the tournaments, are entirely volunteer-driven. Each team needs to supply two volunteers to help out at the tournament. If you’re interested in volunteering for all or part of the day, let one of the coaches know.

Media Release Form

Monkeyz parents: Please return a signed Media Release form for your child to one of the coaches as soon as possible. We need them in hand when we go to our tournament on December 11. We sent forms home with the kids last week; if you didn't get one, email us and we'll send one to you.