We are learning and having fun!

So far we have been learning about the cardiovascular system and heart, programming on our robot 'spencer' and building our robots. Right now we have 779 views of our blog!!! Crushing Techno Tigers also have chosen our unique Lego names: M"Ash"Potato, Bob-E-Bob, Northbound, Banana Pop, Robotic Robo Rithik, Techno Brick, Creature-man, Lizard and Coach Daddio. We plan to continue researching, learning and working with Legos to complete the challenges and research project.

Trip to FLL Rookie Camp

First we did a continuous line drawing team building exercise. We drew a robot.

Discussed the different types of robots and what they do.

• There are three parts to a robot: Body, programming, purpose
• We built the body of a robot.
• We played Follow the line blindfolded to teach us pseudocoding.
• Then they taught us programming.with our robots that we built.
• They explained to us about all the differnt sensors and how they work.
• They taught us how to program different blocks.

They gave us challenges while we programmed:

• go forward, turn left beep once, backup
• go forward until robot hits wall, back up, turn left, beep
• follow a line

There was a guest speaker Walt H, he reviewed the challenge and what was important.

Completed two robot designs!

Well, the team has been hard at work trying to complete their two robot designs that each provide different, good, options. Tonight the team completed both :)

The kids refused to go home until they were done.

Tonight was also fun on another note. We had two team members that programmed for the first time and completed the task, in a short period of time. They did a wonderful job, communicated extremely well with one another and followed an engineering 'process' in completing the program.

I love the attitude of this team!

Work, work, work!

Tonight the team shared their research with one another and from this they narrowed our topics down to a few. At the next full meeting the team will choose one topic to study for the remainder of the season.

The rest of the meeting was spent working on our two competing robot designs. Making the robot frames stronger, adding critical elements and getting them ready to share with the whole team.

A third group worked on programming and trying to solve one of the missions.

brainstorming for the project

First we checked out our blog and saw pictures of us doing activities. Plus 565 people have visited our blog!

Then we brainstormed body parts, systems and functions. After listing the body parts, etc. each team member picked their favorite two items from the list.

Next Coach Daddio quizzed us on how many points each mission is worth. Then he placed mission pieces in various places on the challenge board and asked if we would get the points that the mission was worth.

Then we revealed our two favorite items from the list to the team. We were then split into different groups by Coach Daddio to share our ideas and study each others choices.

written by, Robotic Robo Rithik

A CTT Celebration - Body Forward Challenge Release Party

Well Tonight we partied... CTT style.

The team was anxiously awaiting the release of the challenge and we decided to have a party to celebrate the release of the 2010 Body Forward challenge. While we enjoyed some fun snacks and drinks we also explored:

- The field setup
- The rules
- The points

We also discussed:
- Robot and field strategy
- The details of the project

I am really impressed with the questions that this rookie team asked and the strategies that are already being discussed. The entire team is VERY excited and ready to get moving on the challenge!


The challenge release party begins.

The Crushing Techno Tigers explore the Robot Game Rules

Now this guy knows how to party eh?

Interview with Multiple Sclerosis Society - More Body Forward Research

Today the Crushing Techno Tigers and the Robo Hippies met with three wonderful people from the Multiple Sclerosis Society. The representatives from MS did a wonderful job explaining:
- What MS is
- Describing the how it is diagnosed
- Describing the many ways that it can affect people

The kids really enjoyed and learned a lot from the interview. A big hit with the kids was the "Try it on" program that was brought in by Tammy, Bris and Lennie. This consisted of four stations, that the kids rotated through, that enabled them to learn what it might be like to accomplish 'every day' tasks if they were to have MS. It is one thing to discuss what the symptoms are it is another to really try simple things like buttoning up a shirt when you can't feel the buttons with your fingers or how tiring it can be to walk 10 feet when your fighting to keep your balance and your ankles feel like they weigh 10 pounds each.

Simply a wonderful experience.

New visitors!!

The team was very excited to learn that we have had:

- Over 450 views of our blog
- 185 unique visitors (different computers)
- Visitors from U.S, India & Spain

marshmallow challenge

First, we did 2 teamwork challenges using marshmallows. For the first challenge we had to build a tower out of the marshmallows. The second challenge was to build a tower of marshmallows but only letting 8 marshmallows touch the ground.

Then, we talked about what we could have done better. After that, we split in to 2 groups of 3, 1 group practicing programming and the other group fixing a robot. Then, we talked about what we did.

After that, we did 1 more teamwork challenge using marshmallows again. We had to build anything we wanted. Then, we talked about sites where we could find more information for FLL.

We are waiting for the challenge to be released later this week.!

Study, Practice & Review

Tonight we had a great time doing some internet studying, teamwork practice & review of all things FLL. I am very impressed with this crew of amazing kids!

More Body Forward Research - Biomedical Lab Tour

Today we our team got the opportunity to go on another interview/tour. This was to a biomedical lab where we were exposed to MANY different types of experiments, physical models and technology. We are really ready for the challenge to be released!

We were in the Oakland Press News Paper - Sunday August 15th, 2010

This picture was HUGE!!! The picture and write-up filled a 1/2 page of the Sunday Oakland Press newspaper. Wow was that exciting.



Click on the image to see a better view of the Oakland Press Corkboard.

Body Forward Research Interview

This week we went on our first research interview. It was a very interesting tour/interview!! We toured a facility that builds prosthetic limbs and got to see and explore the entire process from raw materials all the way through the patients working hard with physical therapy. What a wonderful experience for the kids (and the coach)!

Project research and interview preparation

Tonight the team learned more about the Body Forward theme and did some computer research.

Afterward the team used the rest of the time talking about our first interview at a local business and brainstorming the questions the team would like to ask.


The team doing some computer research.

Readying for the release of the challenge on Sept 3rd

The last two meetings were great and team has been focusing on learning about how to build strong and sturdy robots and how to evaluate their designs. In addition we have had a lot of success exploring the programming environment and I think all the team members are comfortable with programming the robot now. We are all really excited for September 3rd to learn about the details of the Body Forward challenge!

Our team loves to build with technics!

"Programming the robot is a blast."

More building and working together.