Thanks! Great help!

My JFLL team which consisted of 4 boys (all 7yrs old except my 4yr old). We met Sundays for 2hrs. I won't do that again. It cut too much into family time considering we have soccer on Saturdays and Sundays. The boys only get to see their dad on the weekend so next year, we'll have to meet during the week. But I tell you, with all the sports (kids doing multiple sports except mine) it's very hard to get them all together.

Be ware, some FLL competitions are in November or December so the season can be shorter. Our exhibition for JFLL (non-competitive - each time got an award for what they were best at) and the FLL competition was Feb 10 so our season was much longer than most.

JFLL: the kit last year for the challenge was the Science and Technology kit sold by LEGO Education. If you can't find it, let me know b/c it was recently renamed. I bought kid since I planned on keeping it. This kit is a hybrid of basic LEGO bricks and Technic parts.

FLL: the LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics kit is mostly Technic pieces. The engineering is different from the RCX system (LEGO bricks). I've read several places that younger kids have a larger learning curve for Technic but I didn't see that w/ my 4yr old and 7yr old but the 4yr old has amazing fine motor skills.

If you want to get a feel for FLL competition, the author of "The Mayan Adventure" has a summer challenge. It's the Mars BAse Command challenge. It's all done at home and you can upload photos and challenge times to the website.

Here is a good blog. http://www.thenxtstep.blogspot.com/
Here is the link for Mars BAse Command Challenge. http://www.marsbasecommand.com/

I had the Mars Base command mat printed at staples today for $4. It has the look and feel of a FLL mat but smaller and paper so easy to roll up and put away. I think this will be perfect for us to get our feet wet at home in an FLL-like format. You download the mission for free. If you decide to do it, it's $14.95 for the book which contains the design specs for the items which go on the mat that the robot will have to manipulate.

Brian Davis at the NXTSTep blog does some amazing stuff with datalogging and the NXT. My son did something similar for his science fair project and it went very well. LEGO Education sells a lot more stuff for the education side. I have two of LEGO Eds temperature sensors which can be used to test if snow is really a good insulator, if coffee mugs are good insulators, you can use to measure how far the temp changes every time you open the fridge....it's endless. Vernier also produces alot of sensors to be used w/ NXT as well. I also have the Compass sensor which we had great fun introducing a compass, locating items based on compass readings etc. My next purchase will likely be an infrared sensor which you use w/ an infrared-emitting ball to play Robo-soccer. Robo-soccer isn't as popular here in the US as it is in Europe but I know my boys will love it. I'm sure the programming will be quite challenging but they will learn tons.

We did one 2-hour meeting a week for JFLL last year and that was fine... My main concern about having a too-small team is that I know someone will drop out and I really don't want to have to pressure the kids to finish, especially since we have a late-November deadline here -- like 12 weeks total! (eek!)

There is a research component too. I can't speak to the FLL level research (Dottie?) but the JFLL was a fair bit of work entirely aside from the building. We have another team in our homeschool group who really excels at the research end of things, but I know they also put a huge amount of time and energy into it.

Our Lego Engineering must have been a different thing altogether... That's one thing I can't stand about the whole Lego system... it's so hard to tell what's what and whether you're getting what you intend! Just on all the different kits called "Mindstorms" you have a ridiculous range of possibilities. *sigh*

SO -- I think I'm hitting "submit" in ten minutes... wish me luck!

Did it! Now we're even Dazey

I got the NXT, the Mayan Adventure, and the NXT Zoo book... and they're supposed to ship next Tuesday, so I might have them within a week! Woohoo!!

We're going to get nothing else done this summer, aren't we! LOL

I hope it's all good stuff!

For those thinking of coaching FLL teams. Take a look at this. http://www.legoeducation.com/store/detai...;l=0&bhcp=1

I've not seen it personally but it's from Jim Kelly, it's probably pretty darn good.

And just to add to the confusion - I believe DS' robotics leads to Robocup, not First. As I understand the difference, the competitions focus on autonomous as opposed to remote control operated robots. Supposedly, more concentration on programming, less on building. He's not there yet, but here's a link to robocup: http://rcj.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/

And thanks for the link to Mars Base Command.

Wow, thanks for all the great info on FLL and JFLL. Is everyone that is posting working with sons? I have two girls I have been thinking might like this. They had a mini display at the science museum that was a very watered down version and you could build very simple robots and program them to do two things. Both girls were very interested, except is was so basic it was almost confusing if that makes sense.
Anyone have any experience with girls participating in Mindstorms?

The FLL is not remote control robots. the robots navigate around the mat. They can come back to home base to have a program run on the brick or to change attachments. Generally, the FLL challenges are not done with only one program but rather several programs which kids run with specific buttons on the brick or by a menu. But they are not controlling the robots movements via a remote control.

For my JFLL team, the theme was energy. The boys had to pick something in a room in the house and determine where it's energy came from. My team did an energy audit of the kitchen. they chose the blender. So we determined where our electricity comes from - not easy b/c of the deregulation of the power company. Much to my shock, the power plant was very excited to have the team come. they had this whole presentation ready for them including snacks and drinks. We all got official manager hard hats to keep and had a tour of the plant. the boys then went home and built out of legos, where the electricity comes from, how it gets to our house, right down to the blender. After the competition, we took the whole LEGO creation back to the powerplant so the boys could show it to the engineers. we had lunch with them all and had a great time. Of course, being a company, the took photos and wrote an article for their national company newspaper. lol.

Oh and the LEGO creation had to use at least one simple machine and have at least one moving part. I basically let the team do all the work. However, when we got to hte exhibition, where most teams were school teams, the posters were all typed up, no spelling errors, perfect grammar, etc ...

No girls here but there were several all girls teams at the JFLL/FLL competition as well as mixed-gender teams.

the think about FLL is that there can be something for everyone. Some teams are quite large w/ 8-10kids. Some kids don't like building but like programming. Some will like building but not programming. SOme kids do most of the research. The discussion w/ the judges can be an important part of the competition especially if you're lacking points on the robot performance end - from what I've gathered.

Also, for those interested, 4H now has LEGO MINDSTORMS clubs as well as K'nex clubs. they are solely centered on those two platforms (you don't have to have cows lol). So even if your local 4H doesn't already have one, you can contact them about starting one. If they don't know what to do, I can put them in touch w/ the head of our 4H here. the LEGO Mindstorms ran an ad and got twice as many kids as they expected. they were scrambling to try to get more robot kits.

My friend runs a robotics club. I think she strives for 1 kit per 3 kids at the most.