2015-16 Hayhurst Neighborhood School Lego Robotics Team
What a fun season! Just wait until next year.
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Week 14: 12/11/15It's been a great run for these two teams. These are photos from our last practice together. We had frozen yogurt from Sunny's-- yum! We shared our stories from the tournaments, looked at our scores from the judges and then just had a good old time playing and being together. It won't be the same when the 4th grade team practices alone to prepare for state. Our last exit pass was about what we enjoyed this season and/or about the tournament. A lot of us said we enjoyed EVERYTHING! How cool is that?
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The Trash Cops at the FLL Tournament
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The Trash Talkers at the FLL Tournament
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Week 13: 12/6/15
Wow- week 13 turned out to be our lucky week! Both teams worked incredibly hard to get prepared for the tournament. They had amazing performances at the FLL tournament. The Trash Cops broke the Hayhurst record for the highest number of points in one run on the competition board with a score of 389!!!! The Trash Talkers broke the record for total points in three runs at 1005! It was so much fun. Both teams won a trophy for the Rising Star Award. This award recognizes teams that the judges notice and expect great things from in the future. The Trash Talkers were also given an ACE Award and have been invited to compete in the state competition. We are so proud of both teams.
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Week 12: 11/27/15Only one week left- oh my!!!!
We had a great week. We pulled a lot of things together. We completed our videos, we designed our baubles, we finalized our scripts and we are close to perfecting our board runs. How cool is that? Of course, we couldn't have done it without the help of all our parents. Thank you everyone! Only two practice days left days left before we head to the competition. |
Week 11: 11/20/15
What a week!!! The Trash Talkers got their videos shot (thank you to all the parents!), both teams chose a team robot for the competition and both teams are well on their way to racking up big points at the competition. It's incredible to see how much progress we made in just two practices.
Many challenges lie ahead as both teams need to run the board faster and more efficiently. We realize that the key is teamwork. We only have 2 1/2 minutes to run the board. Yikes! We were encouraged on Friday when both teams were able to score 300+ points. Of course it took us way more than 2 1/2 minutes but we'll get there. We still have to learn all our lines for the research presentation and get our props made. We're all a little nervous about that but we are excited about the tournament and know that we have come so far and learned so much since our first day of practice. How can we only have four practices left? Oh, and before we forget, a bazillion thanks to Mr. Broberg for editing the videos for both of our teams. Mr. Broberg- you're the best! |
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Week 10: 11/13/15We made great progress this week. We started only using two robots for each team. It was interesting (and frustrating!) to see how differently the robots performed with our programs. We continue tweaking our programs and modifying our arms. We also are working on getting our jigs perfected. We've made our robots more sturdy, too. We are trying to get better at running the board. It's not easy to switch arms and get the jigs set up. It takes a lot of teamwork but we are improving. Next week we'll begin working with just one robot. Oh no!
We're moving along with our research projects. Scripts were written and revised, The Trash Cops even got their videos shot. We are thankful to all the parents (and Heather) for their help this week. It's made a huge difference. Thank you! |
Week 9: 11/7/15
This was the coaches' week to panic. Really, just 4 weeks left? Yikes! The team, on the other hand, remains calm and collected. We continue to improve our programs and modify our robot designs. We added notes to our programs and created jigs to help us have consistent starts. Little by little, missions are being completed and the potential to score points continues to rise. We have completed or plan to complete these missions: Careers/People (60pts), Plastic Bags (30pts ea), Compost (60pts), Animals (3 @ 20pts ea), Salvage (60pts), Truck (50pts + 60pts), Demolition (53pts), Black bars where they began (64pts). Not bad, huh?
We downloaded our programs onto all three team robots so that we could test how each robot performed for everyone's missions. Our goal was to eliminate one robot. For the 5th grade team it was easy, one of the robots was clearly an under-performer. For the 4th grade it was a different story. For a lot of good reasons, there was no consensus. We can only bring one robot to the tournament, so it is critical that we make this decision soon. We will try again at the next practice.
We made great headway on the research project. Wendy has offered to assist the 4th grade team and Gia and Lisa are working with the 5th grade team. We have decided to make videos to teach kids and adults how to properly use the recycling system at Hayhurst and why recycling is important. We are hoping to change the world's view of recycling by teaching our youth!
We downloaded our programs onto all three team robots so that we could test how each robot performed for everyone's missions. Our goal was to eliminate one robot. For the 5th grade team it was easy, one of the robots was clearly an under-performer. For the 4th grade it was a different story. For a lot of good reasons, there was no consensus. We can only bring one robot to the tournament, so it is critical that we make this decision soon. We will try again at the next practice.
We made great headway on the research project. Wendy has offered to assist the 4th grade team and Gia and Lisa are working with the 5th grade team. We have decided to make videos to teach kids and adults how to properly use the recycling system at Hayhurst and why recycling is important. We are hoping to change the world's view of recycling by teaching our youth!
Week 8 - See our robots in action!
Week 8: 10/30/15What a week! We did a waste audit of the Neighborhood School classrooms on Wednesday. It was a little weird to be digging around in paper recycling and trash but kind of fun in a strange way, too. We learned that some classrooms were rock stars with recycling and some could use a little help. Now we need to decide how we can help students better understand why they should be recycling EVERYTHING possible. On Friday we chose team names. The 4th grade team has decided to be the "Trash Talkers" and the 5th Grade team are the "Trash Cops". We also did a lot of programming, modified our arms and began adding notes to our programs. We are pretty excited about how well our robots are performing Then we headed to the Metro Waste Treatment Center for a tour. What an experience! We had a "ah ha" moment when we saw the sorter and then the compost pile and then the building demo material- we noticed that those were all challenges we have on the competition board. It was interesting to see how the trash is managed and to learn that the unsorted trash is actually sorted by hand. We met a few of the sorters and waved to then during our tour. They have tough jobs! We also learned that all of the trash that leaves this station goes to Arlington, OR. An average of 25-28 containers are sent to Arlington every day. That's just too many! |
Classroom waste audits, field trip and choosing our team names.
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Week Seven: 10/24/15Wow- it's amazing how much difference two days of practice can make. We are on a roll! We are becoming better builders and better programmers with each practice. Our robots are beginning to perform more consistently as we add sensors and modify our attachments.
We also made great strides on the research project. We will be conducting waste audits in all of the Neighborhood classrooms and interviewing teachers on Wednesday. Friday we are taking a field trip to the landfill. We are all excited to see how Portland's trash is managed. |
Week Six: 10/16/15It was a fun week! Both teams have successfully completed two missions: the people and the compost. That's 120 points so far. If we leave all the black bars and other pieces in their original set up, we get an additional 96 points. That means we have 216 points already! All that in just two and a half days of programming.
We also made progress on the research project. We have decided to focus on the lack of recycling being done in the classrooms. We learned from Kendall that, despite having recycling bins in the classroom, paper is still not being recycled. Our teams will interview teachers, do a waste audit and then propose ways to improve recycling efforts in the classroom. The hope is that it will not only improve recycling in the classrooms but that it will also improve recycling in the cafeteria and in student homes. |
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Week Five: 10/7/15We were all sad that we only had one day to practice this week. It went way too fast! Surprisingly, we accomplished a lot in a short time. Kendall returned to work with us a little more on our research project. We are brainstorming ideas to improve recycling at Hayhurst. We are also trying to come up with create ways to educate the students, staff and parents about recycling. We need to do a little more research first.
Each team chose a robot design. Funny thing is, they both chose the same one. Guess it's a good design! Then we worked with partners to take apart and rebuild the other robots. Now we have six matching robots to work with. Next, each team chose three missions to begin tackling. Immediately, we realized we needed to add color sensors to the robots. That's harder than you think. Time ran out and everybody groaned - the fun was just beginning! We are all looking forward to next week. |
Week Four: 10/1/15
What a week! We are making progress. We worked with partners to design a robot. We shared our robots with the team before they were done to get input. We talked about what was working and offered ideas on how to improve designs. We were surprised at how difficult it was to attach the motors to the EV3 brick. When we finished building our robot we tested it with a simple program. It was fun to finally start programming and it was a blast to see the robots in action. Next week each team will choose a robot design and we will begin working on missions.
We also made headway on the research project. The team is very concerned about trash, especially it's negative impact on wildlife. We are convinced that the best place to make a change is at our school. We are hoping to educate the students, teachers and parents about the importance of recycling and reducing reducing food waste. We have a lot of ideas about how to do that: TV commercials, skits, posters, website, social networking, etc. Next week we will meet with Kendall again and begin brainstorming ways to make Hayhurst a greener school. |
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Week Three: 9/25/15We had a productive week. Each member of the team researched a mission and became our expert on that mission. Each expert presented the details of their mission to the team on Wednesday. We began looking at the competition board and trying to determine the best approach to choosing the missions. There's so much to think about.
We made progress on our research project. Kendall (Master Recycler) and Chau (Without a Trace Chairperson) came to share more information about trash, recycling and the details of food waste at Hayhurst. They agreed to field any future questions we might have. We finished the week by working with partners to design robots. Next week we'll share our designs and try to narrow down a robot design for the competition. It was fun to build without instructions! |
Week Two: 9/18/15It's been a busy week. We are glad to finally be done with building the mat pieces. It was exciting to see them laid out in their proper places on the board. Now we can begin deciding which missions we'd like to do.
We each researched a mission and became the team expert on that mission. We'll be sharing the details with our teammates in next Wednesday's meeting. There are a lot of details to be aware of when studying a mission. We have to consider points, location and difficulty. We have some important decision to make. We started trash talking at snack today. We talked about plastics bags, sixpack rings, cigarette butts and other problems. We'll be doing some research this weekend and sharing what we've learned in a team Google doc. Hopefully we can narrow down a problem that is important to us and begin working on a solution soon. |
Week One: 9/11/15
We started the season talking about what it means to be a team. We talked about being committed to coming to every practice, doing our best and being kind to each other. All of the players added to the team contract and then everybody signed it. Then we worked with partners to begin building the mat pieces. It didn't look like we had that much to build but there are a lot of pieces! It looks like we will have to finish next week.
There's a great chemistry with this group of kids. It's going to be a fun season! |