What happens at an FLL scrimmage?

Last Saturday the First Lego League (FLL) team that Spider Droid is on (TheFanatix) hosted a scrimmage in advance of the December 17th regional. It was quite a bit of fun.

The scrimmage was held at the Elgin Tower, the tallest building in Elgin. It's a cool building with a fully dunctional old time elevator manned by an elevator operator. The kids loved that elevator almost as much as the robots they created and programmed. Almost. Thanks again to the Elgin Technology Center (ETC) who let the host team use the facility.

I recently caught up with the coach of the Fanatix and asked her for a little more info on ETC.

While at the scrimmage armed with a camera, an ipod touch and no official capacity, I decided to interview participants, coaches, mentors and parents and give you an idea of what happens at a robotics scrimmage.

I talked to one of the hosts of the event ...

I spoke with a mentor of the fanatix who had participated in a scrimmage before. She told me of some of the personal benefits of a scrimmage.

Team spirit is a big part of FLL it is not uncommon for the team to dress alike. Many teams have custom t-shirts made.

Some can only afford milk jugs

Two of the 5 teams at the scrimmage were rookie teams. Both teams were from the same school. I spoke with one of the parents about what FLL has meant to him so far.

I talked to two members of last years state champion I-Lego Team.

One of the main reasons for the scrimmage is to practice table runs and technical judging in an atmosphere that is as close to competition as possible. At the onset of the scrimmage the coach for the Fanatix explained and demonstrated a bit about how the runs are scored.

The table challenges are based on the theme for the year. This year the theme is Food Factor. What makes FLL unique is that the robots are only part of the competition. Each year every team has to research to a theme related problem and then create a solution and then present that solution in several ways. I will be talking about this in a little more detail in a post later this week when I talk about Ask magazine's December Robotics Issue. In the radio biz, that is what we call a tease. I'm not in the radio biz, but some say I have the perfect face for it. Enough about me, lets get back to the scrimmage.

Here is a clip from one of I-lego's runs. I added the music with the help of youtube. It does have a food related theme.

I talked to members of the HCA Roarbots along with their coach about their experience so far as a rookie team.

Here they are demonstrating some of their program . . .

G2 is another one of the teams that was at the scrimmage. I spoke with their coach.

and his son, a member of G2.

Watching A Practice Run

The Fanatix discuss their technical judging component.

Fll means differen things to different people here is what one of the Fanatix had to say.

I hope you have enjoyed this behind the scenes look at an FLL scrimmage. Hopefully you have discovered like I did that FLL robotics packs in everything . . .

Plus the Kitchen Sink

100 Books





Reading opens many doors.

I can't believe I read the whole thing.





My son is not only an action hero, but he is also a super genius.  Granted a super genius who doesn't yet read at grade level.  He has the mind of an inventor and a magnificent memory.  Yet he is having difficulty inputting knowledge in his mind through reading.  This has been a concern of ours as parents for a number of years.  We had tried many things tutoring, summer school, Lamaze (which did not help with his reading but you should see the kid breathe!); we tried it all.

When Amy and I attended the local home school convention this past June I went to a seminar about helping your under performing readers.  It was really encouraging and had many good take-a-ways.  One thing I decided to try was a 100 book chart.  You have the child read 100 picture books and write them on a chart in their room.  When the chart is full you give a GREAT reward. 

From June to October 31st we only put 23 books on the chart. Spider Droid probably read more than that but I didn't always get to writing them down.  In short my inconsistency didn't help him take ownership of the project.

In the meantime Spider Droid was taking vision therapy that was beginning to show some signs of progress with his reading ability.  On November 1st, his birthday.  I took him to the chart and added something to the top.  It showed how many books were left and how many days were left in the year.  He had 77 books remaining and 61 days before the end of the year.  We set two goals: 1) To get to a point where there were  more days reaming  in the years than books remaining to be read.  2) to finish the chart before the end of 2011.

He read 3 books that day and 17 by the 7th.  23 from June to October and 17 in a week!   He reached his first goal on 11/16.  40 books remained with 45 days left to read them in.  That's when SD upped his game and decided he wanted to finish the 100 by the end of November.  At about that time life began to get very busy with our home school co-op, robotics, Thanksgiving and the like.  Yet he was driven and diligent.  We went to the local library on Saturday and he checked out as many books as he had left to read.  Tuesday morning he had 10 left.  This morning he had 5 left.  In between lessons he finished the last 5 before lunch time. 

Here are 2 pictures worth 100 books. 

My Son the Reader



Our Story So Far



Here is some live footage .  . .

 Not only has SD's reading quantity increased, the quality piece has improved substantially.  In a few months time he has gone up one full grade in his reading level.

We still have a way to go but we are very pleased with his progress.  Too bad he isn't a little more excited about his achievement, as the picture below attests.