Competition

Competition was fantastic!! We had a blast! We had a very busy morning, but the afternoon was a slower.  There was 4 categories in which  competed; Teamwork, Technical, Presentation, and of course the robot game. The first round of the robot game we only got 35 points. The Second round we got 125 points, this tied us with 1st place!! We received 120 points in the 3rd round. Once everyone had competed we were in 5th place in the robot game; which we thought was really good for our first competition!   We won 1st place in the presentation category!!! This means we get to go to State!!!!

Our Robot: Brick

 Competition is tomorrow!!!We have been working really hard to get all of our missions programmed, and the robot built to perfection, we sure hope it is good because we have changed several times. Here are some pictures of Brick.



This is Brick with the pusher attachment.

 We use it for most of the missions.







This is Brick with the claw/syringe arm/bone bridge arm!!!
 I was surprised with how much stuff we crammed on to one motor!!!!















 



Powerpoint for the skit!!

Click on the link below to see the power point the doctor uses to illustrate answers to questions in the skit. https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=d9q729z_0d7pn6bc2&revision=_latest&start=0&theme=blank&cwj=true

Emily's powerpoint about the eye!!

Please click on the link below to see a power point that Emily made on the eye.

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AccGYcsgDfHRZDlxNzI5el8xN2RmaHhqYnZw&hl=en

NXT-G Move Blocks

Well I am back and ready to tell you about move blocks.

This is what the move block looks like when it is in the workspace. Pretty simple but we have to be able to tell it exactly what we want it to do. So then we go down to this bar across the bottom.

With this panel we can tell it which port we want it to move(there are 3 ports we can hook motors to, B & C are default for wheels), which direction we want the motor to move, how much power, how long we want it to move(we can change this to degrees, seconds, rotations or unlimited) and if we want it to coast into the next action or brake immediately(this is mostly for if the next action is stop). You'll notice I left the steering out, we haven't figured this part out and decided that it is easier to just select one wheel and tell in how many degrees to go.

We mostly use degrees to tell the robot how far to go because it is the most precise way to measure. The robot has a program on it that we can use to measure rotations or degrees.

Programming with the NXT-G language

The language we use to program the robot is called NXT-G. It is not a text-based language. To program the robot that we also have to design and build we drag and drop blocks into the workspace. Some of the blocks include: move blocks, wait blocks, sound blocks, display blocks, loop blocks and switch blocks. I will give you an explanation of each block in future posts.

Color deficiency skit

For FLL competition  we have to do a presentation on a problem in the body and a solution of our own design. This is what we have decided to do for our presentation. We only have 5 minutes for set up and presentation.

Color deficiency skit

Characters
Student Teacher-Emily
Doctor Allie-Alexandria
Artie -Artimus
Teacher-Katie
Class mates-Nathan, Rebekah,Isaac,Ethan,Bryce.
Narrator-Becca

Place (Class Room) Props (Phone, Chairs,Whiteboard)


Emily:(intro) Hello we are team LEGOnaters! We are going to do a skit for you about color deficiency. (have every body say there name) Welcome to our classroom!

Narrator: Some people are Color deficient which means they can’t tell the difference between certain One way is by wearing colored contact lenses or red and green colored glasses lenses. Some research showed that taking Vitamin A and using red and green lenses helped color deficient peoples' eyes improve some. Red/green deficiency is the most common. It occurs most often in men.

Teacher Katie : We have a special guest today!
Emily: This is Doctor Allie. She is going to talk to us about color blindness
Doctor: Did you know we don’t call it color blindness. We call it color vision deficiency
because when we hear colorblindness, we think that means that they can’t see colors at all. Color deficiency doesn't mean they are totally color blind . They do see color, just not as much as we do.
Doctor: Some problems color deficient people face is that they can have a hard time telling whether their meat is well done or raw? And if they see a big glob of spinach on their plate, it doesn’t look very yummy. To a color deficient person it looks more like a cow pattie! Not very appetizing is it? Also when a color deficient person goes to the grocery store, they have a hard time distinguishing the colors of the different fruits and vegetables. If no one is there to help them, they wouldn’t know if the banana they bought was an unripe one. Shopping for clothes is another problem for a color deficient person. Sometimes they don’t match because they can’t see some colors.
Class mates: ( Giggle looking at Artie’s clothes)
Doctor: Do you have any questions for me?
(Classmates ask Questions)
(class mates raise there hand every time the doctor says any other Questions,)
class mates: (Raise hands )
Teacher Katie : Artie
Artie : How can you tell that you are color blind?
Doctor: This is a simple test we give to people to see if they are color deficient. Artie what do you see?
Artie:I see a bunch of dots
Doctor: you are probably color deficient then.
Doctor:(give Artie phone) This is a new gadget that is just out. All you have to do is aim the scanner at the object you are testing for color, push this button and it will tell you what color something is. Give it a try.
Narrator: What the Doctor just gave Artie is a phone with an application on it that scans things for color and then tells you what color the thing it scanned is. It can be especially helpful for picking out colors for clothes when out shopping.
Artie: (tries the scanner on his shirt.) Wow, this says I put on a red shirt, I thought it was green!
Doctor: any other Questions,
class mates: (raise hands) ,
Teacher Katie : Ethan
Ethan: What part of your eye do you use to see colors?
Doctor : Here in the retina, these rods and cones help you to see color.(point to the cones and rods at the back of the eye) The rods help us see at night and helps with our peripheral vision too. The cones help us see details.
Doctor: Any other Questions?
class mates: ( Raise hand )
Teacher Katie : Rebekah
Rebekah: How do you become color blind?
Doctor :It gets past down from your family. That means you are born with it. Some specific diseases can also cause it such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Narrator : Being color deficient doesn’t stop people from doing things.They just need help distinguishing some colors. For instance: color deficient people still drive ,they memorize that the red light is on the top of the traffic light and the green light is on the bottom so they can still drive and not get mixed up. With a little help from this handy tool and a little organization, a color deficient person can function very well and with little frustration. Thank you!

Info on the rules.

Team LEGOnators is so excited, because this is our first year to compete in the First Lego LeagueTM competition. Some of what we've (Team LEGOnators) learned about the rules is, that after the robot has left base on the table we are not allowed to touch it, if we do the robot is taken back to base with everything it is transporting.

How people become color deficient, and how they improve it

Color deficiency is mostly passed on genetically. Diseases such as diabetes, alzheimers and parkinsons can also cause it. Some color deficient people wear colored contact lenses, or glasses with colored lenses to help them see colors better. Taking Vitamin A and using colored lenses help improve their eyesight, but doesn't fix it completely.

Homeschooling

We are a group of homeschoolers. Some activities we participate in besides our lego group are marionettes, online classes, teen activities and book groups. We enjoy homeschooling because you can get your schoolwork done by noon if you work hard, and then you have the rest of the day to do chores and play, and take naps, and eat.