When we first started putting the framework together for a team, we had just one team member. Despite a few snafus with the school, we now have a 10 member team and all are excited at the challenges ahead. It was great to meet all of them on Friday.

I introduced the team and parents to the world of FLL by showing the promo video for team Zoom. After getting to know the team a little and doing a team building exercise, it was time for pizza! It was after this, that we got down to some serious learning. Not only about the robot and programming, but the importance of working as a team. When it was time for the kids to build their first test robot, 20 hands dived into the parts bucket and it was a chaotic free for all. I gave them 5 minutes to brainstorm a basic design and at the end of the initial 5 minutes, they realized that their approach wasn’t working. Then something great happened. There was talking, not shouting, there was sharing, not grabbing, and some really great ideas came out.

With a basic robot constructed, the team members each had a chance to tell the robot what to do. The task at first was simple. Go forwards. go backwards. Then, they learned about the touch sensor and added that to the robot. Now the robot had even more potential. They were eager to figure out how to get the robot to turn and that will be tackled next meeting.

Next weeks tasks:

For kids that have had limited exposure to robotics and programming, they all picked up on the concepts pretty quick. We are starting a few weeks behind other established teams, but at the rate that they are learning and if they continue working as a team, then I know this is going to be a fun season!

See you all at the next meeting!