The Forest Hills Robotics League sponsored four First Lego League teams this year for the Body Forward challenge. For their research project, each team did an extensive investigation of the various different body part and zeroed in on a specific topic which they set out to find a creative solution to a real problem in that topic.
The Planetary Forces team consulted with Dr. Robert Meditz whose specialty is in Internal Medicine and Cardiac Rehabilitation. The kids learned all about heart disease, and how a stent works to keep the artery open, how heart patches and heart pump functions to keep the heart working. They also had a talk from Registered Dietitian Caroline Walter, who taught the children the importance of eating a healthy diet to help reduce the plaque build up in the artery.
Team iBot focused on cancer research and designed their own nano patches with kids friendly designs and inspirational messages to help cure cancer with nanobots. the team will be consulting with cancer research specialist Dr. Marcela Maus from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center about their their proposed patch solution for cancer. They enjoyed building their own Lego DNA helix model as well as conducting their nano patch experiment on chicken skin.
Team Robo Squad chose to study the human brain. After reviewing all the different brain disease, they settled on solving the problems of Multiple Sclerosis. The team had a talk about MS by Dr. Macaluso, director of Macaluso Tysabri Infusion Center, who is not only a specialist on Multiple Sclerosis, but is also a patient with the MS disease himself.
Dr. Macaluso shared with the kids all the latest development in MS treatment that is available in the country today. The team also enjoyed their field trip to the Brain exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, where they learned more about how the brain works.
Team Mindstorm Mechanics explored the human eyes and tried to understand the difficulties blind people experience without the use of their eye sight. They then came up with some very creative use of echolocation, and designed a unique device for the blind that utilizes echolocation to guide them as they move around. The team consulted with Dr. Ben Epstein, who is a Technology Entrepeneur with a PhD in BioEngineering.
If you are interested in learning more about our research project, come by our Presentation to the Boy Scout group next Tue evening(Jan 11, 2011, 7-8pm) at Our Lady of Mercy's Basement in Forest Hills, Queens.
Our teams are eager to share their findings and discoveries with our community!
The First Lego League's challenge for this upcoming season is Body forward, and the theme is all about Bio- medical engineering. Just check out the new field table mat and all the medical imagery on it!
Of course the challenge detail will be released on September 1, 2010, but who can wait that long! As soon as I received the set, I rounded up my free child labor, and put them to work to quickly assemble all the model sets.
So let's take a quick look at all these fantastic models this year. Starting with the upper left corner, we have the ramp and syringe. It looks easy enough with a red crank shaft that when tapped can release the syringe that is on wheels! and my guess is the syringe need to be released and returned to the base to score some points.
Next we have the artery and stent and the mission must be to push the stent into the artery to hold the artery straight and open. The question is are they going to let us place the stent at the mouth of the artery, or are they going to make us bring it from base and deliver it into the artery.
Next we have a large bone broken in the middle. Since one side of it is mounted to a rotating base, my guess is you need to rotate the broken piece and set the broken bone aligned then cover it with a blue cast.
This is not going to be too easy here!
Below the small bones, there is the large Bone Bridge with a blue ball and the goal. The placement of the bridge looks very interesting, why the 6 degree angle, I'm not sure, but again, with 2 pieces to the bridge, does that mean we have to deliver the lower half, lock it with the little lock piece then spin the bridge to kick the ball into the goal?
On the lower right side of the mat is the tissue areas, which has a clever image of a tissue box and a large organ(as in musical organ) on the board. This model consists of five square pieces that has one side black and the other side white. With a quick two click you can turn the square around.So my guess is they are going to make us turn the square so that all of them will be black or white. Do you think they will throw in the twist, where the referee will set the pattern right before each round, so you don't even know which squares need to be turned?
At the far right end of the mat is the brain and the connected door. There are some interesting sticks on the side of the brain that looks like it needs to be pushed but it doesn't seem to be doing anything....or does it? The stick on the bottom end controls the door, so my guess is we need to push it to open the door, and then deliver those lovely little people through the doors?
Next to the door is the pressure tester, this is a puzzling one, I wonder if this one have anything to do with those two eye balls? if so, how are they related? There is a tiny little hole in the front of the pressure tester, do you think we need to stick something in there to trigger the pressure tester to drop? Hmmmmm... can't wait to find out if that is the case!
On the top of the mat, there is a medicine dispenser and container, it looks like we need to push the dispenser and drop the little lego pieces into the container. Since the container is not locked onto the mat, do you think that means we need to move the container back to the base to score some points?
To the left of the dispenser, we have a mechanical hand ready to grab onto the tray with handle sitting atop on the platform that straddles between the edge of the tables. Does that mean, the other table's platform will be adjacent to ours, and can we grab their handle and steal the points? Hmmm....interesting!
Next to the hands is the heart, and the pace maker and patch, my guess is they need to be delivered into the heart. That should be easy enough, right?
Check out this nice video that Jonathan from Tech Brick put together showing you how to put the pieces together in 120 seconds
CyberKids Robotics is hosting a National Robotics Competition this summer to give teams the opportunity to compete on a national stage and get some extra practice in for the upcoming FLL Robotics season.
You've Got Mail !
National Robotics Competition
CyberKids Robotics is a non-profit education company dedicated to improving the STEM education of students in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia through our exciting robotics competition program. CyberKids Robotics is hosting a National Robotics Competition called "You've Got Mail!". The theme of this competition will be helping the Postal Service process and deliver the mail using a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot of your design.
For this competition, your robotics team cannot have more than six team members. All team members must be between the ages of 9 and 14 as of June 1, 2010. All construction, programming and robot execution must be performed by the registered robotics team members.
After registering your team, you will receive a "You've Got Mail !" competition mat, field setup kit and a set of detailed rules and regulations for the competition.
Each team's robot must be built entirely out of LEGO elements, and must be controlled by LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT elements. Only one LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Intelligent Brick is allowed for each robot. All robots must be programmed with LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT-G.
Each team will have until midnight on August 16, 2010 to complete all building and programming and submit a video of their robot completing as many "You've Got Mail !" missions as possible within two minutes and thirty seconds. The robotics team accumulating the most points in the shortest amount of time....WINS!
Each robotics team must also submit a "no longer than five minute" video explaining the design of their robot, the team's strategy in solving the "You've Got Mail !" missions and each team member must explain their primary role for this competition.
The registration for the You've Got Mail ! National Robotics Competition is $115.00 per team.
Team Registration Fee $35.00
Competition Mat & Field Setup Kit $70.00
Shipping and Handling $10.00
Registration is limited to the first 1,000 teams. Register early so your team can have a "head start" on the competition. Competition mats and field setup kits will be shipped in the order of registration. Please allow 5 to 7 days for the delivery of your competition mat and field setup kit.
If you have more than one robotics team, register your first team online to get the competition mat and field setup kit shipped to you then call 828-292-2393 to register each additional team for only the $35.00 Team Registration Fee.
The Top Ten teams in the You've Got Mail ! National Robotics Competition will receive prizes.
Each team member on the Championship Team will receive a new LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit.
The First, Second and Third place teams will receive a free registration and field setup kit for the upcoming FIRST Lego League Body Forward robotics competition.
If you have questions, please e-mail us at cyberkids@charter.net or call 828-292-2393.
Excellent news for kids 9 and up, the Moonbots competition has lowered its age requirement from 13 to 9! I guess they realized, that since FLL is 9 to 14, setting the age requirement to 13 was too limiting.
So dust of your Mindstorm robot, and get ready for a fun challenge while you are waiting between your FLL season! All you need is one adult and 3-5 kids to start a team.
This challenge is basically a simulated lunar exploration, similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, except it is using the Lego Mindstorm robot plus video essays, team website and running the Robot game through a Live Webcast!
The competition has two phases, phase one requires your robot design documented in digital form and showing off your creativity and video blogging. All this must be done before May 28 (only 22 more days left!). From Phase one, 20 winners will be selected to participate in phase two. The 20 winners selected from phase one, each team will get a robot kit and the game table pieces so they can participate in the game challenge. During Phase two the 20 teams are also required to upload video blogging (min. once a week)from the robot as it explores the moon! Near the end of phase 2, the teams will run the robot game through a live webcast. The robot game round is 3 minutes long, and a max of 350 points can be scored on the game table, but you only get ONE shot at it.
The main difference between this game and the FLL game is that you have to mount a video camera onto your robot, and have your robot take picture or video while it is on a mission. Also, sensor wise, you have a wider selection of different sensors that you can use, as long as it is from LEGO or HiTechnic !
The grand prize is a free trip (3 days/2 nights) for the team to visit the Lego Campus in Denmark, plus FIRST team registrations for the next season.
Here is a clip of our team performing on the game table at the NYC citywide chapionship - Javits Center Out team is the ones in green shirts, watch our great cheering squad's exciting cheers.
Come cheer for the Forest Hills Lego Club teams this Sunday, March 14 at the Javits Center (9:00 - 3:30) We have three FLL teams competing in the First Lego League NYC Citywide Championship Tournament. The event is Free and open to the public. Come see what Lego Robotics is all about!
Below the small bones, there is the large Bone Bridge with a blue ball and the goal. The placement of the bridge looks very interesting, why the 6 degree angle, I'm not sure, but again, with 2 pieces to the bridge, does that mean we have to deliver the lower half, lock it with the little lock piece then spin the bridge to kick the ball into the goal?
At the far right end of the mat is the brain and the connected door. There are some interesting sticks on the side of the brain that looks like it needs to be pushed but it doesn't seem to be doing anything....or does it? The stick on the bottom end controls the door, so my guess is we need to push it to open the door, and then deliver those lovely little people through the doors?
On the top of the mat, there is a medicine dispenser and container, it looks like we need to push the dispenser and drop the little lego pieces into the container. Since the container is not locked onto the mat, do you think that means we need to move the container back to the base to score some points?
