Congratulations to Duncan, Matthew, Oliver, Phoebe and William who won first place for the research project at the FLL National Robotics Championship on Saturday 12th December 2009. Our school team was competing against 22 other schools (Mainly Intermediates and High Schools) from around New Zealand. They came 14th equal (with a Long Bay College team) in the robot competition section.
Thank you to parents Darren and Emma Tolmie, Caroline Wearn, Janet Pope and Sally Rae for coaching and mentoring the team for such a successful outcome!
Our Mairangi Bay School team were called Mairangi Robots United (MRU). The robot they designed to compete in this year’s ‘Smart Move Transportation’ competition was called ‘BOB’ (Big Optimistic ‘Bot)
The Competition has 4 components to it:- Robotics, Research, Teamwork and Technical Knowledge. Each year the winning overall team is sponsored by Lego to compete in Atlanta, USA.
First Lego League is an international problem-solving robotics competition where teams apply real-world math and science concepts.
Every year in the first week of September, the robotic packs are delivered worldwide. The teams (aged 9-16 years old) excitedly open the challenge competition box. (2010 topic will be ‘Biomedical Engineering) Teams compete on 4 levels. Firstly they build a robot to complete as many challenges as they can in 2.30minutes. For each challenge completed successfully the team collect points. The maximum number of points is 400. Secondly they are asked to research something in their community relating to the topic. They then present their findings to their community and then again to a panel of judges on the day. Thirdly, they are marked on their technical knowledge and finally they are marked on their teamwork. Each section involves group interviews.
This year the research topic has been “ a transport problem in your community”. The topic the Mairangi Bay Robots United Team chose for the 2009 challenge was about the lack of parking at the Northern Bus Way Stations adjoining the motorway. After researching at the Takapuna Library, the team met with the North Shore City Council Bus way expert Anthony Blom. (The children were surprised at how fun and enthusiastic he was!) The team used a questionnaire to interview commuters on these buses to find out what impacts them and their use of the bus way.
These 5 budding engineers worked solidly until competition day, problem solving, building and rebuilding their robot, programming, researching, working on their presentation, modifying everything and team building.
In 2010 the robotics programme will be introduced to the Mairangi Bay Senior School programme as we have received a $10,000 Lions Foundation Grant to be used for the initial start-up and next year’s FLL competition.
As a result Emma Tolmie will be running a Robotics club one lunchtime a week for any school children interested in working with the robots. If we get enough donated Lego - there will be a section for Year 1’s. Any donations phone Emma or drop in to the school office during opening hours.
For more information call Emma 0273 757 353.
For more information about FLL...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQqFjWYMZtY
http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/fll/default.aspx?id=970
Comments noted by some of the team in reflection before competition day...
William: “The ramp and set of cogs was well designed and got over the judder bars without any fuss and it’s very consistent”
Duncan: “We tested every idea we could think of, to see if they would work”
Oliver: “I attached a friction jammer that make the ultrasonic sensor level”
Phoebe: “Once I built the robot so that the motors were upside down to see if that would help it get over the judder bars. But we discovered we would have to programme everything backwards”
Matthew: “We learnt to share and take turns and problem solve – rather than hog the robot”
Duncan: “We found the research part was far more fun than we thought it would be”
Oliver: “I enjoyed making up a name for our team and all designing the team uniform”
