Think+Tank+Week+3+(Yelena)

So far, I think this has been the most fun meeting! Kelli and I try to take photos of what's going on, but please-please, if you have interesting photos from the meetings, add them to this discussion! They will be very helpful as the team starts working on their Show Me! poster later in the season. So here's what happened:



Team builder
 We reviewed the Core Values and their importance to the team’s success.

In case you'd like to reflect on them with your child, here is the link -    @http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/jr.fll/jr.fll-core-values

Then kids got to choose 1 mini-figure and 4-5 Lego bricks. They had to think about their team and build a model that shows how they feel about being a part of the team. Everyone got to describe their model. Most descriptions had the word “happy” in them. Mark Daniel’s feeling was “like a ton of Lego bricks falling down from the ceiling and assembling themselves” which he said was a very good thing. Mark David's model showed how he felt when both anxious and happy. 

Next students brainstormed team name ideas. They were not allowed to use words for physical descriptions (boys, girls, tall, etc), words Lego, JrFLL; words like awesome, the best, super, terrific and such. Everyone had 2 chances and we ended up with a board full of ideas.  After 1 round of voting, ideas with the least number of votes were eliminated. So they were left with about 5 possible names and had to discuss this situation. They did great during the discussion - listened to each other, worked out a system of combining different parts of different ideas together, took turns talking, and were very positive toward each other. But in the end they couldn’t agree on the name or a combination of names. We will continue next time.

I know it seems like we're spending A WHOLE LOT of time on the team name. But I would like to get the kids to figure this out. It is their team, their ideas and their team name. Feeling like you contributed to naming something gives the sense of pride in and ownership of and responsibility for whatever it is you name. 

Simple Machines Discussion
We discussed simple machines. What’s a simple machines? We looked for examples of lever, wheel and axle, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, and screw. I then passed around the Simple Machines sets and split the team into 3 pairs. The task for each pair was to build a machine with either gears or pulleys. They could use building instructions that come with these kits (in which case they had to agree on the model) or choose to build their own model (even more joint decision-making). 

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alex and Louis - chose to build their own model with gears. They did a very good job working through it. It seemed that Louis made most of the design decisions and did most of the assembly work. But Alex observed very attentively and contributed to the model. Overall both boys felt a sense of ownership of the project. The model worked well, but when they connected the motor, the gears turned too fast and the model fell apart. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Teja and Daniil - Daniil had to be reminded several times that it was a team project, not just his own. This came up both when they were choosing what to build and building. But eventually him and Teja worked out a system of mutual participation. They chose to build a pulley system from the instruction. Their model worked, but when they connected the motor, the pulleys turned too fast and the belt kept slipping. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark David and Mark Daniil - these two did a terrific job working together. They started by discussing what to build, agreed on the project (same project as Teja and Daniil) and figured out how to build it together. They too had a problem with the motor spinning too fast. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">How to slow down the motor is a great technical problem that we need to work on next time. After doing this exercise, I realize that we need to spend a lot more time getting familiar with the simple machines, particularly with gears, gearing up/down, and transferring movement between horizontal and vertical planes. So that's pretty much the plan for next meeting - build with gears and pulleys and figure out how to control the motor speed mechanically (there is a way to do it through programming, but that will come later).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; vertical-align: baseline;">Silly Robot
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">We only had 10 min left in the meeting (90 minutes fly by really fast!). So we decided to play the Silly Robot. I was the robot and the kids had to “program” me - issue simple commands (within certain constraints) to get me to move to the white board, pick up a marker and write a word on it. Each child took turns giving 1-step commands. Lots of hilarity, lots of funny mistakes, the goal was reached and the kids enjoyed the game (they all wanted to play it again). Most decided that it felt like learning and not like playing.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; vertical-align: baseline;">Homework
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">(completely optional) > >
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">  Next Monday we will be looking at gears and pulleys, figuring out gearing up/down, changing direction of rotation, etc. There are quite a few books you can find at Wake Co libraries about simple machines. There are lots of videos on YouTube, including these for gears - @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P635XYxyFzI and for pulleys - __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6611cc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpChx_mksnE __ Lego Education site has a page about simple machines - __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6611cc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@http://education.lego.com/en-us/preschool-and-school/upper-primary/8plus-machines-and-mechanisms/constructopedia __ Also, here's a little fun applet for exploring gears - __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6611cc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@http://www.gearsket.ch/ __
 * 1) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">  Look for games that teach something (most do). What games do you play? What do these games teach? Now, build a model of a game that teaches something with LEGOs (take a picture or a video) or with other materials or draw a game. This can be an existing game (i.e. A chess game made of LEGOs) or a game you invent yourself.

See you all on Monday!