FLL RoboCamp
Date: June 23 - 27, 2014
Time: 8:30 A.M. - 3:30 P.M.
# of Members: 5
FLL RoboCamp is a five-day summer program designed to teach students around the community how to build and program their own LEGO Mindstorms robot. Throughout the course, students learn important life values such as leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving. While raising funds for the club’s financial needs, the Whitney Robotics Club encourages young students to pursue a future in STEM. This year, FLL RoboCamp took place from Monday, June 23 to Friday, June 28 from 8:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. at Whitney High School’s MPR. Five team members from FLL Team 66 taught 29 students ranging from ages 8-14. Members from FTC and VEX also came to help and prepare for their respective RoboCamp weeks.
On the first day, we went through introductions and arranged an ice-breaker activity called “Going on a Picnic” to get to know everyone’s names better. The students chose their own seats and teams were divided by table. Once everyone was seated, ten teams with two or three students each were formed. Each student was handed a simple 15-question quiz to monitor areas of improvement throughout the course. Over the next two days, we taught seven different lessons with interactive activities, all teaching students how to build and program their own robot. Between every few lessons, we allotted a ten minute break with snacks. Daily lunch breaks were an hour long, but often, students would come in early to continue working on their robot. At the end of the day, we held a class review quiz and passed out candy to those who answered a question correctly. Eventually, a simplified version of the FLL game was introduced and students had two days to prep for the Friday competition. Parent were invited to watch the competition, resulting in several parents becoming audience members. Every team competed in a practice round and three competition rounds, and the highest score from the competition rounds was used for ranking against other teams. At the end, awards and prizes were given out to every participant. Award categories included Gracious Professionalism, robot performance, robot design, programming, strategy, and energy. The short quiz that was passed out at the beginning of the week was distributed again on the last day. Its results showed how students were pleased with appropriate modifications that we made.
One challenge we faced was keeping the younger students under control. Although we appreciated their enthusiasm, we had to prevent them from running around the room, throwing and play-fighting with parts, while trying to convince them to cooperate with their team. As a result, we decided to raise the age minimum from 8 to 10. Another issue we came across was the absence of names on the short quizzes. Originally, we planned to collect the papers in a certain order to identify which paper belonged to whom; however, a mistake was made and the order was changed. Therefore, we could only compare the class averages and not the individual scores.
A definite positive from this year’s event was the surprisingly large number of people who signed up. We had enough materials to accommodate up to 30 people, but since we received so many requests, we had to turn a few people away. Unfortunately, one student dropped out on the first day, so we ended up with 29 students instead of 30. All together, although one week was not nearly enough time for us to teach every facet of FLL, the students were quick, enthusiastic learners and put up a good competition. Several parents who visited expressed interest in robotics and wished something like RoboCamp was available to them during their childhood.
Time: 8:30 A.M. - 3:30 P.M.
# of Members: 5
FLL RoboCamp is a five-day summer program designed to teach students around the community how to build and program their own LEGO Mindstorms robot. Throughout the course, students learn important life values such as leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving. While raising funds for the club’s financial needs, the Whitney Robotics Club encourages young students to pursue a future in STEM. This year, FLL RoboCamp took place from Monday, June 23 to Friday, June 28 from 8:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. at Whitney High School’s MPR. Five team members from FLL Team 66 taught 29 students ranging from ages 8-14. Members from FTC and VEX also came to help and prepare for their respective RoboCamp weeks.
On the first day, we went through introductions and arranged an ice-breaker activity called “Going on a Picnic” to get to know everyone’s names better. The students chose their own seats and teams were divided by table. Once everyone was seated, ten teams with two or three students each were formed. Each student was handed a simple 15-question quiz to monitor areas of improvement throughout the course. Over the next two days, we taught seven different lessons with interactive activities, all teaching students how to build and program their own robot. Between every few lessons, we allotted a ten minute break with snacks. Daily lunch breaks were an hour long, but often, students would come in early to continue working on their robot. At the end of the day, we held a class review quiz and passed out candy to those who answered a question correctly. Eventually, a simplified version of the FLL game was introduced and students had two days to prep for the Friday competition. Parent were invited to watch the competition, resulting in several parents becoming audience members. Every team competed in a practice round and three competition rounds, and the highest score from the competition rounds was used for ranking against other teams. At the end, awards and prizes were given out to every participant. Award categories included Gracious Professionalism, robot performance, robot design, programming, strategy, and energy. The short quiz that was passed out at the beginning of the week was distributed again on the last day. Its results showed how students were pleased with appropriate modifications that we made.
One challenge we faced was keeping the younger students under control. Although we appreciated their enthusiasm, we had to prevent them from running around the room, throwing and play-fighting with parts, while trying to convince them to cooperate with their team. As a result, we decided to raise the age minimum from 8 to 10. Another issue we came across was the absence of names on the short quizzes. Originally, we planned to collect the papers in a certain order to identify which paper belonged to whom; however, a mistake was made and the order was changed. Therefore, we could only compare the class averages and not the individual scores.
A definite positive from this year’s event was the surprisingly large number of people who signed up. We had enough materials to accommodate up to 30 people, but since we received so many requests, we had to turn a few people away. Unfortunately, one student dropped out on the first day, so we ended up with 29 students instead of 30. All together, although one week was not nearly enough time for us to teach every facet of FLL, the students were quick, enthusiastic learners and put up a good competition. Several parents who visited expressed interest in robotics and wished something like RoboCamp was available to them during their childhood.