How are they brainstorming? And how are they handling the "form vs. function" debate? Are they understanding that function is more important than how the final bot looks? And how are the programming and building assignments being divided up?
The pictures that are posted on the site are from the school club not the FLL competition team meetings. I started the school club and offered it 40 kids for 8 sessions in the FALL. After that we'll start up with a brand new crop in the Winter. The idea is to get as many kids through the program as possible.
The kids on the current club Fall roster have all been recruited by parents to join their own FLL teams which meet separately on the weekends. I actually formed a team from the youngest kids in the club ( 3rd and 4th graders) and meet with them at my house on Sunday. There are five teams in total. I can't speak for the other coaches, but for my team, everyone takes part in the research project, as well as the robotics challenge. For the robotics challenge the kids are broken down into groups of two. Each group currently has one assigned field model.
now back to the school club.... I don't have curriculum yet so kids were tasked to get through the basics in the LME tutorials and then complete some arbitrary missions ( i.e. figure-8 , line following....) After that , I thought it best to use the nano-challenges to keep them busy. This works quite well from the others coaches point of view. To them it's extra table time for the kids. There is also a 2 to 1 ratio of kids to robots at the club.
So far this process has worked ( kids focus on research project and robot building at their team meeting, and focus on table navigation at the club). We'll see what happens as we get closer to the tournament date. Currently the kids can not take the school's robots home, and I don't allow them to bring in their team robot to the club.
Comments
Jim
I call that the "wheaties" shot
Jim
Jim
The kids on the current club Fall roster have all been recruited by parents to join their own FLL teams which meet separately on the weekends. I actually formed a team from the youngest kids in the club ( 3rd and 4th graders) and meet with them at my house on Sunday. There are five teams in total. I can't speak for the other coaches, but for my team, everyone takes part in the research project, as well as the robotics challenge. For the robotics challenge the kids are broken down into groups of two. Each group currently has one assigned field model.
now back to the school club....
I don't have curriculum yet so kids were tasked to get through the basics in the LME tutorials and then complete some arbitrary missions ( i.e. figure-8 , line following....)
After that , I thought it best to use the nano-challenges to keep them busy. This works quite well from the others coaches point of view. To them it's extra table time for the kids. There is also a 2 to 1 ratio of kids to robots at the club.
So far this process has worked ( kids focus on research project and robot building at their team meeting, and focus on table navigation at the club). We'll see what happens as we get closer to the tournament date. Currently the kids can not take the school's robots home, and I don't allow them to bring in their team robot to the club.
-david