What’s new in the world of LEGO® Education?

This week we’ve been celebrating the success of a robotics team from Bath who scooped the top award at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival in the United States.

Untitled 1, a team of seven students aged between 11 and 15, beat more than 21,000 teams around the world and won the Champion’s Award at the festival – the first team from the UK ever to do so. You can read more about this amazing team and their LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education robot called The Beast, here.

This week we also brought you a free Maths lesson plan for pupils in Year 3 working with odd and even numbers and equations, using LEGO Education WeDo. Find out more about the activity here. You can also find out more about a Maths activity called Diameter Difference using the WeDo dancing birds here.

Don’t forget that there is lots to watch on the  LEGO Education UK YouTube channel, including a film of the new LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Robot Arm in action. You can also see a film highlighting some of the features of the EV3 platform, alongside one of the EV3′s lead designers Lee Magpili,  talking about Gyro Boy and EVan – both created using LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3.

We recently reported on a unique social networking experiment in which students around the world worked together to solve engineering projects.The online learning program, called Dr. E’s Challenges was the brainchild of engineering experts from the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO)  at Tufts University in the US. The aim was to encourage more students to become involved in engineering before the age of 18. Find out more about the challenges here.

Picture: Langton Lions

Finally we want to wish good luck to Langton Lions, a team of schoolboys from Kent. They’ll be representing the UK at the FIRST LEGO League Open European Championships in Germany next week. Find out more about them here and we’ll bring you the results of the competition at the end of next week!

 

Bath robotics team are world champs!

A team of Bath students have been crowned World Champions at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival in the US – beating 21,000 teams around the globe to the title.

The team, Untitled 1, and their LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education robot called The Beast, won the Champion’s Award, beating 79 other teams taking part in the festival. Around 21,000 teams around the world had taken part in the past year’s competition. You can see the moment the award was announced by watching this YouTube video.

Team members Freya Alder, Tom Mason, Dani Workman, Rafi Borries Gruber, Joe Mason, Max Workman and Claudia Moorhouse are all students at two Bath schools – Ralph Allen and Kind Edward’s. They raised £10,000 in sponsorship money to attend the event after winning the UK final of the robotics competition in January.

The theme of the 2012/2013 competition was Senior Solutions and the team came up with a revolutionary doorbell fingerprint scanner, a project which took more than 300 hours to complete. The team also had to build and program their own LEGO MINDSTORMS Education robot, a task which they spent more than 500 hours on.

After the results were announced the team said: “Wow. What a crazy couple of days. From such a low when our robot suffered such travel sickness and refused to work at all, to being absolutely ecstatic.

“We knew that it was good news when the judges were returning to our pits to talk to us about the product, the prototype, the robot design and the team, but when the robot only managed a fraction of what it was achieving in the UK, we felt completely crushed. We came 23rd overall in the robot performance.

“Looking at the judges feedback, we got top scores in almost everything.They recognised how we had bonded into a great team and learnt to balance our skills and use everyone to the best of their ability.”

To find out more about the team, click here. To find out more about the FLL competition in the UK, take a look at this YouTube video made by the UK organisers, The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Watch all the World Festival robotics action live!

The FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival 2013 opens today (Wednesday) in Saint Louis in the United States – and you can watch the action live! 

The competition sees 80 teams of young robotics champs from around the world competing in challenges over the four-day event which begins with an opening ceremony tomorrow evening and finishes on Saturday (April 27).

Teams from as far afield as Slovenia, India, Mexico, China and New Zealand will be competing and the UK is being represented by Untitled 1, a team of students from two Bath schools, who won the national championships at Loughborough University in January.

The teams have had to build and program LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education robots to perform a series of challenges, as well as this year devising a project aimed at improving the quality of life for senior citizens. For more about the UK team, click here.

The FLL World Festival is part of the FIRST® Robotics Championships, which also includes the Junior FIRST® LEGO® League Expo, the FIRST® Tech Challenge World Championship and the FIRST® Robotics Competition Championship.

You can learn more about FIRST® Robotics Championships and FLL World Festival here: http://championship.usfirst.org/ and you will be able to watch live streaming here:  http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/

For more about the competition in the UK, visit the website.

Bath students ready for robotics World Festival

The UK champions of the FIRST® LEGO® League 2012/2013 competition will be heading to America tomorrow (Saturday) for the FLL World Festival after managing to raise £10,000 in sponsorship. 

The team, Untitled 1, and their LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education robot called The Beast, will be making the trip to St Louis in Missouri for the contest starting on April 24, after carrying out lots of fundraising activities as well as gaining sponsors at a national and local level.

Team member Freya Alder said: “We are all very excited about the competition next week. There will be four tense days of robot rounds, judges’ interviews and presentations. It will be very tough with 90 teams from all over the world competing. We are honoured to be representing the UK and will endeavour to make ourselves, our schools and our sponsors proud.”

The theme of the competition was Senior Solutions and the team came up with a revolutionary doorbell fingerprint scanner, a project which took more than 300 hours to complete. The team also had to build and program their own LEGO MINDSTORMS Education robot, a task which they spent more than 500 hours on.

Freya said: “Competing in the World Festival is like a dream, a prize in itself, however, we are very ambitious and rest assured we’ll be trying our hardest to win!”

To find out more about the team, click here. To find out more about the FLL competition in the UK, take a look at this YouTube video made by the UK organisers, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, or read this article about the 2012 competition (pictured at the top of the page).

Robotics champs are on the road to America

Students from Ralph Allen School and Kind Edward’s School in Bath are getting ready to represent the UK at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival in St Louis, USA, after winning the national robotics championships in January.

The team called Untitled 1, made up of youngsters aged between 11 and 15, won the UK final after presenting a project which improved the quality of life for elderly people, as well as building, testing and programming a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education robot to complete a set of missions on an obstacle course.

But there’s still a lot to do before Freya Alder, Tom Mason, Dani Workman, Rafi Borries Gruber, Joe Mason, Max Workman and Claudia Moorhouse (pictured above) can head for America in April. Team member Freya Alder reports on the hectic preparations for the big event.

“After the national finals we decided to redesign our robot completely as it didn’t perform as we had hoped in the performance part of the event. We came to the conclusion that our beloved ‘Beast’ was simply too complicated and couldn’t survive under such precise conditions. Also, we didn’t fancy facing customs with such a complex thing in our suitcases! So, we devised a clever Master Plan – well, we like to think so anyway!

“Essentially there are now not one, not two but three robot structures – a big one, a medium one and a baby-bot. All three motors are in the smallest robot, which then powers the other two. To reduce changeover time the robot completes the missions on the mat in a circle as the smaller robots disembark from the bigger one.

“At the national competition, the judges seemed to love the presentation of our fingerprint doorbell scanner. It seemed there was one thing missing though – a prototype. We contacted the Head of Electronics at Bath Institute of Medical Engineering and a team of engineers from Rotork, a local engineering company, in the hope that they would help us. To our delight, we met with both and designed a plan of action. We have bought a fingerprint scanner, a micro-controller board and a Raspberry Pi. We have also downloaded some software, MySQL, PHP and a web server.

“As a team we now have to connect the pieces of equipment together, learn the programming language PHP and create a database containing photos, reasons for visits and other information about recognised visitors. Our device should be up and running before America, however we’ve had to compromise a few luxury features like making it wireless because the time is ticking!

“We have to raise £10,000 to fund our trip to America, so the team spent an entire day selling doughnuts at the Bath Half Marathon. A few hundred hungry spectators and fourteen cold hands and several hoarse voices later, we had managed to sell everything, making a profit of £200. At Ralph Allen School we have also presented our robot and our doorbell for the elderly rather anxiously to potential sponsors. We are also going to do bag packing at our local supermarket to try and raise donations from the general public. In a few weeks’ time, we’ll stand outside Sainsbury’s with a table full of LEGO and a hopeful donation bucket, and try to engage the Saturday shoppers. The good news is that we are promisingly half way to our target of £10,000. From Bath to Canada all sorts of companies have sponsored us and with any luck have been a little inspired along the way.

“FLL UK organisers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, invited us to The Big Bang Fair in London on March 17 to show off our robot. We have our own website which we update with news to keep anyone and everyone informed. We’re also gaining as much publicity as possible.

“We really want to take advantage of the legacy that we can create from this. So, with that in mind, we have set up taster sessions for our local scout groups and encouraged our schools to create LEGO robotics clubs to promote the STEM subjects in a fun and exciting way.”

For more about the FIRST LEGO League and to find out how your school can take part, visit the website.

FLL Food Factor Robot Rounds take centre stage

Here’s the final update from TSM Roboteam, the UK’s representatives at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival in St Louis, US.

Friday 27^th April

Friday is robot day! There are only three robot rounds unless there is a tie.

Our first round was at 11:15. Back to the Edward Jones dome again. Four parents were also allowed to join us there like in the judging sessions. The first round went well except for the thermometer which stuck again! But we were allowed the points. The problem was that it skewed the robot off course so it failed the following mission. We could only hope for better luck next time!

Next robot round. Thermometer stuck again! Score given. But the kitchen timer mission still worked. Scored 193.

Before our final round we were interviewed to tell people about ourselves and about how we are enjoying the event. We were on the big screen and it was also on NASA TV and people back home saw us!

Final robot round. Thermometer stuck again! Score not given. We also had an accidental spillage of bacteria which pushed our score down a bit.

The robot rounds are over, but we’re happy we did our best and enjoyed demonstrating our work. The judges and referees are all very friendly and we had fun with them.

Another judge came to talk to us at our pit table. She asked a lot of questions about our team and she was really interested in our research project work.

Our team t-shirts and UK hats are now covered with badges, so we’d better not get too close to any magnets!

We had to clear our team table today as the FLL World Festival is nearly over.

We went to a Baseball game this evening and watched the St Louis Cardinals play. It was fun, especially as they won.

We will be going to the awards ceremony tomorrow and it’ll be the last time we see all the teams together.

Saturday and beyond……..

We had a chance to do a bit more sightseeing and final shopping on Saturday morning. Macy’s store was especially popular!

Saturday afternoon was the FLL awards ceremony in the Ballroom at the America’s Centre. All the teams went up on stage to receive World Festival medals in recognition of the time and work put into qualifying for this event. We didn’t receive an award, but still knew that we had done well and our best award was the whole experience of being here. The World Champions are the Falcons from Japan. We all cheered as they got their prize.

We were handed our judging results sheets. Although our robot performance was a bit disappointing compared with what we normally expect, the overall score for Research Project, Robot Technical and Core Values was over 80% which we are very pleased with.

As we left we said goodbye to some of the other teams. We’re going to keep in touch with our Friendship Day team from St Louis, and with our Alliance team from Texas (we both really liked the chef’s hats we made for each other).

Saturday night we were about to head out for a meal when a thunderstorm passed over and there were hailstones the size of golfballs. We had to wait about half an hour before it was safe to go outside. On the news it said that the hail had broken some car windscreens!

We flew back home on Sunday. We were worried that we might miss our connecting flight from Chicago as there was only about 50 minutes between flights, so we hoped our Chicago flight wouldn’t be delayed. It turned out alright but we were half an hour late arriving at Heathrow because of congestion and had to fly round in circles for a while!

We arrived back home around midday which was about 06:00 St Louis time. So it’s going to take a while to adjust to UK time. We’re back to school on Tuesday….can’t wait to tell all our friends about our adventure!

Judging Complete at FLL World Festival

TSM Roboteam complete their Core Values, Project Presentation and Technical Design judging at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival.

Thursday 26^th April

Today we had our sessions with the judges to present and talk about our work. We started at 09:00 and all the judging sessions took place in one hour, not spread over the day like we’ve been used to. So we did our final practice in a hotel room the night before. There’s just a five minute break in between each of the judging sessions! Judging was in the America’s Center not far from our pits. For the first time, four parents were also allowed to watch us being judged as well as our coaches.

First up it was our research presentation. We’ve normally used a table to represent eating at a kitchen table – but there wasn’t a table there. Fortunately we’d planned for this and had our ‘meal’ as a picnic on the floor instead. We don’t know why they didn’t think that was unhygienic. It seemed to go well, and they really liked our special freezer monitor device that we’d made.

Next it was the robot technical discussion. Unlike in the UK, we had to do a four minute presentation on our design and programming, and then the judges asked questions. We also had to demonstrate our favourite robot trip. We think we did well and the judges seemed to like our design.

Finally the core values judging. Firstly we had a short teamwork exercise which was to work out from a list which of the items are most important to take with us for a long trip. We had some fun with this and we also made the judges laugh at our ideas and choices. We’d had to make a Core Values poster before we came to St Louis. So we presented this and explained the information that we’d listed. This finished off with questions about how we worked together and planned things. They asked us what was the biggest decision we had to make as a team. We all said letting Joe join our team. That got everyone laughing, including Joe!

We had two practice rounds today. These were run just like the real event tomorrow, but the scores didn’t count. We didn’t do as well as we hoped, mostly because the thermometers kept sticking! However we still got scores over 180 so it wasn’t too bad. We’re hoping things will improve tomorrow, but it was great to go into the huge Edward Jones dome and take part.

We’ve met many more teams today and swapped badges and other items. The team from China were very friendly  (like us of course) and keen to get photographed with us, but then so are all the other teams.

We had an Alliance project to do and we were paired with a team from Texas. Each team had to decorate paper chefs hats and present them to the other team. We had a good time with that.

We’ve taken a look at the FTC and FRC robots and they are ‘awesome’ as they say in these parts.

We’ve also heard that our families back home have seen us on NASA TV!

Tomorrow we have our three robot rounds. Fingers crossed they go well.

TSM Roboteam get set for FLL Kick-off!

Here’s the latest report from TSM Roboteam, the UK representatives at the FIRST® LEGO® League World Festival in St Louis, USA.

Tuesday 24^th April

It’s Friendship Day today, and many of the international teams signed up to meet host teams from St Louis. We’d already been in touch with a team by email, but now we were actually going to meet them.

We walked from our hotel to the America’s Center, and then we travelled by bus to the Science Center. All the teams were greeted by their hosts on arrival and we exchanged gifts. Our hosts were very friendly and we enjoyed some of the activities together. There was a science demonstration with exploding balloons, dry ice, electrical sparks and lots more. Some of our team went up on stage to have a go.

There was lots of choice of different kinds of American food to eat, and we could choose anything we liked.  There was a chance to dance to some music near the end – a bit like at the national finals, which was fun.

Before we left we had an official photo taken with our host team and we hope to keep in touch. Our host team isn’t in the World Festival, but will be taking part in an American Open Championships in a few weeks’ time – so we wished them luck.

Tomorrow we register our team and set up our pits. We’ll also get practicing our presentations.

Wednesday 25^th April

Although the weather has been dry so far and reasonably warm, today is about 26C. So it makes for a very warm walk to the America’s Center.

Early afternoon we registered our team and decorated our pit tables. There’s no mistaking we’re from the UK with all the union flag bunting we’ve used! We’ve even had some made with TSM Roboteam printed on it. We are the first table in the corner of the room that you see when entering the pit area.

As teams started to arrive we’ve been able to meet a few and say hello. We’ve already collected quite a few badges.

We’ve had a bit more practice of our presentations today. We have to make a very early start tomorrow as our three judging sessions start at 09:00! After that we have two robot practice rounds in the afternoon.

We’ll let you know soon how we got on!

TSM Roboteam arrive in St Louis!

TSM Roboteam, winners of this year's FIRST® LEGO® League UK

The UK winners of the Food Factor FIRST® LEGO® League season have arrived in St Louis, USA ahead of their participation in the World Festival this week. We will be watching the progress of TSM Roboteam from Trimley St Martins Primary School closely as they participate against FLL teams from across the world.

The team arrived in St Louis on Sunday following a connecting flight through Chicago. On Monday took the opportunity to do some sightseeing with some members of the team going on a riverboat cruise down the Mississipi and others visiting the top of the famous arch. They also visited the city museum, which has includes all sorts of steel and wire structures to climb up and through, both inside and outside the building.

A lot of the public in St Louis are aware of FIRST and the presence within the city includes billboards, local magazines and cards in the hotel lobbies. The team will next get together late on Tuesday morning to attend Friendship Day and meet their host team in the St Louis Science Center. We look forward to hearing how they get on and hope they have a fantastic experience at the event!

Good luck TSM Roboteam!