Thanks Dazey. Yes, I know that FLL is not remote control robots. The museum set up was not remote control, it was similar to Mindstorms, just very simplified.

I just looked at the JFLL challenge and I think the girls are beyond that. Does anyone know any age restictions for FLL?

Still looking for girl parents who are involved!!!!!!!!!

I see Girl Scouts has partnered with First, that looks pretty interesting:

http://www.girlscouts.org/news/news_releases/2008/first_partnership.asp

KAR1200 - when you say "Elementary Engineering 2" are you referring to this product? http://www.legoeducation.com/store/detai...amp;t=0&l=0

or this one? http://www.legoeducation.com/store/detail.aspx?pl=6&ID=1468&c=0&t=0&l=0

Dazey

INcog - actually, the head of JFLL/FLL exhibition at the local university asked me about teaming up w/ Girl Scouts to teach them robotics.

There are no lower age limits for FLL. Generally, the guideline is 9-14yrs old. The 14yrs old is definite limit but no lower age limit really, it's up to the coaches.

Oh and if some are interested in the LEGO kits, LEGO Education has a homeschool catalogue as well. http://www.legoeducation.com/store/SearchResult.aspx?pl=6&c=0&t=0&l=0 The website his horrible however and I HIGHLY recommend you calling them to have them mail you a catalogue.

Thanks for the info on age, that helps. Are you considering helping out your local GS's. That would be very generous to volunteer your time that way.
You aren't anywhere in the midwest are you???

Neato, the league IS top heavy boys, but one of the teams that does fantastic locally is from an all girls school. I think I mostly saw all boy or all girl teams, but there were some mixed groups. We had one girl on our team. DD11 did the JFLL team two years back with DS9, but chose to "drop out" this year. The girl we had did beautifully with the boys.

I agree there is plenty to do for all! Our team was not thrilled about the research, and that was one of the things we "crammed" over the holidays. There is building, problem solving, programming, running the programs, research, team spirit and probably something else I'm missing.

A saw an NXT homeschool package at the Lego Education store and am considering it, however, it's pretty expensive.
I guessed the competitions are heavily populated by boys. I think both girls would do great on a boy's team. However, I also think they would contribute more in a girl's team. Especially DD8, she seems to clam up more around boys.
The girls met a young lady who was doing floor science demos at the Science Museum. She was studying physics at one of the city colleges and was involved locally in competion. She was talking to DD's about it and they were really interested in looking into it in the spring.
But perhaps I don't know what I'm getting into. Maybe we should start with the NXT on our own and look at FLL later on down the road.

Thanks much.
Neato

Incogneato - Is this the homeschool pack you're referring to? http://www.legoeducation.com/store/detail.aspx?pl=6&ID=1303&c=0&t=0&l=0

Well, here's my experience w/ NXT in the hope that it will help you decide what is right for your family. I bought it for DS hoping it was something he would do w/ his dad over the winter. Never really panned out as DH works a lot. DS, then 7, was amazing at the programming and debugging and was even correcting me, very quickly. He has excellent visual spatial skills. I'd be trying to help him build a robot, and he'd correct me. So I quickly learned to just let him do it. Ha Ha Ha. So long story short, I never got to play w/ the kit. So I convinced DH that DS, then 4, needed his own robot. We got another one for Christmas last year. Well, very quickly DS4 took over that kit. He could sit and do the tutorial on his own. I could show him simple programs and he could tell me pretty accurately how the robot should react. The trouble is that they will build a robot, then not want to take it apart to build another one.

B/c of the expense etc, I highly regulate robot kit use. When the robot is taken apart, we sort all the pieces back into the tackle box and take a quick count of pieces. I know, I'm anal that way.

From my reading online, many people buy the NXT for kids that are too young and it does mainly become a spectator sport for the kid. I think only you know your kid. Maybe they won't take to it, put it away for a year and try again.

Now if it's physics you're after ... I'd say get LEGO education sets - Motorized Simple machines and/or Motorized Mechanisms or the Elementary Engineering I or II. Those are hybrid bricks and Technic pieces which is nice for younger kids used to bricks only. They can build all sorts of cool stuff and they come with info to help you guide them in the scientific principles involved.

Now the other aspect is some fun science w/ the NXT. I spoke about my 7yr old's science fair project in another thread. Here's a quick recap. A question he had been pondering was does hot water cool down to room temp at the same rate as cold water warms up to room temp. So he decided to do that for his science fair project. I bought the LEGO Temperature sensor for the NXT. Using the NXT brick only, he wrote a program to log temp of two glasses of water, append those to a file, upload the file to the computer and analyze the data in Excel. Dh did the graphing in excel as we were very short on time. DS did all the data analysis though ie drawing conclusions. DH did shift the graph which allowed DS to see a different and correct interpretation of the data. My FIL who has a Ph.D. in chem engineering was shocked at how great the data was and showed the asymptote very nicely. DS showed his project to the engineers at the Power Plant and they were impressed this could all be done w/ a "toy." At the NXTSTep blog, Brian, does a lot w/ datalogging w/ the NXT. You can read there about his son's science fair project. they monitored the noise level in the hallway at his son's school while simultaneously counting the # of students passing by. There are companies which make 3rd party sensors for the NXT. One company is Vernier. they have oxygen sensors and carbon dioxide sensors, pH sensors etc. I saw an article on an all girl team which built an NXT robot which moved among the vege garden at their school analyzing soil temp, pH, and moisture levels and would alert someone when parameters needed attending to. I think the goal was to have it turn on the sprinkler to water etc that way they didn't over or under water the crops. Another company makes accelerometer for measuring g-forces, infrared sensors etc.

My point to all this, is that there is a lot that can be done w/ the NXT if your kids are interested. Now is it something you can just hand them and say go to it? Depends on the age and the kid. My kid is the type that he likes interaction on most things and robotics is something I enjoy so I don't mind helping.

But the NXT will sit on the shelf for months and not be picked up b/c a) he doesn't want to take that robot apart or b) he just got several 500-1000+ pc Mars LEGO kits he's been busy playing and building c) I haven't initiated an NXT activity d) no time b/c of school.

For ex: I bought the compass sensor and we had fun for a couple of weeks, setting up items to locate using the compass readings. Next we need to use the compass sensor to give the robot the ability to navigate using it. Once I get them going, they'll go with it.

Now that it's summer we'll have more time. Our summer project is the Mars Base Command challenge I linked to above. Since we have two kits, we'll likely also do some data logging perhaps, how high does the temp rise every time the freezer is opened which might help the kids to remember to not stand there w/ the fridge/freezer door open.

Also, in fostering independence, now that the NXT has been out for awhile, there are many books out there w/ complete building instructions.

OH OH OH I almost forgot.

Here is a website that is NOT to be missed. http://www.nxtprograms.com/ This website is built for kids. You can download all the programs. Additionally, he encourages kids to then modify the programs and to change the robot such that it can do X.

Neato - I know a bunch of girls who've done JFLL/FLL - though to be honest they are all from engineering families. Most of the girls I know have typically formed all girl teams. DD11 has VEX instead, and doesn't appear to have the peer group here to form a FLL team. She could probably round up some boys, but I think she would do more herself on an all girl team or puttering on her own.

Thank you all for all the input.
Dazey, thank you for taking the time to type all that out. It sounds like it could be a good thing for the girls on their own. I think we would start there rather than look for a team.
I like what your son did for science fair, that's the kind of thing I was trying to find out...is it flexible enough for the child to go rogue with, so to speak.
I was told by a friend that the programming is drag and click, so it's not really a child primer to computer programming and there really isn't much out there that is.

Thanks again