2009 Theme Released!

Transforming Transportation

Can FIRST LEGO League teams transform the way we look at transportation? The key to the 2009 “Smart Move” Challenge is accessing people, places, goods and services in the safest, most efficient way possible. In this journey, teams will consider many modes of transportation beyond their daily routine and streamline their options by making smart moves!

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for helping us fulfill our presentation requirement. I hope you enjoyed the demo and now have a little better understanding of what the students have been up to for the last couple of months.

Demo Event Trailer

Demo Event

We will have a demonstration on Monday, November 24th at 9am in the BVMS guided discovery room (room 106). This should last an hour or so and will be a great opportunity for teams to show their work to date. All please come.

Meeting Saturday Canceled

I have canceled our meeting for this Saturday November 8th. Sorry for the late notice!

Cow Town ThrowDown

This event will be a great opportunity for the students to see what the high school competition is like. Wear your team shirt and check it out. Feel free to contact me if you want to caravan down. I plan to leave my house at about 9am.

This Saturday's Meeting Canceled

I have canceled the meeting for this Saturday, November 1st.

Thanks,
Chris.

What a group!

I know some students were missing the day we took this so we will need to take another at some point. At the end of the season I'll try to make all the pictures available.

Teamwork is Hard Work

We will persevere through the hard part!

Innovative Ideas

During our research we talk a lot about what makes an idea innovative. We talked about the merry-go-round water pump. Have a look at this one!

Waffles

Yesterday we had some team building down time and visited about what the competitions are like.

The students are making great progress with their robots and at this point are ready to conquer their missions based on the strategy they have developed.

I hope FLL makes math COOL

We all think things that are made using math are cool so why isn't math cool? I hope FIRST related programs can help change this stigma.

Presentation work in progress...

Finally hardware!

Yesterday the three teams got started on their basic bots. They will build on these to accomplish the FLL missions. I think it was a fun meeting...I hope the students agree!

Someday...

I have NO doubt that these students will someday be capable of stuff like this!

Research is Tough

Yesterday we started to study the robot rules and had a fun LEGO building and communications activity. Hopefully this time next week we will be nearing completion of the research.

These are some great students and I am impressed by attendance and enthusiasm in spite of the fact that we have done little robotics to this point.

Thanks for the support!
Chris

Two Lines

We are breaking down our research while continuing to build our teams. Today we also learned how to make Norbert cross one line and stop on the second line. I will continue to sprinkle in some robotics during this tough research project phase.

BTW, you can get a copy of the student handbook HERE.

We have our challenge!

This is a repeat of an email I sent to all parents that I have email for. If you didn't get the email, please email me and I will make sure I have your correct email.

Welcome to the 2008 BVMS robotics season. We have 2 meetings under our belt but the season is now going into full swing. The challenge from FIRST has been published and we will start working it on Tuesday.

We have a large group of 23 students so far this year so we will be breaking up into 3 FLL teams. I will coach each team with help from Mrs. Sullivan and others. Feel free to come to any meeting to help and/or see what we are up to. We all will work together on many things but FIRST requires a maximum of 10 students per team. I feel this is a good rule as it makes the teams most effective. We will be breaking the group up into the 3 teams soon.

I had coaches training yesterday from FIRST and in addition to the good training I received; we will get a grant for ONE team registration from the Kauffman Foundation and UMKC. We are required to register all teams that go to competition so the other 2 registrations will come from last years fund raisers and/or Blue Valley Middle School.

I have a student handbook for each student so look for those to come home soon. Please help your student remember to bring this handbook to each meeting. I do not and will not require any homework for this team. If students get bored after homework and chores, there is plenty of material in the handbook to look at.

I plan to take pictures and occasional video to document our efforts but I take privacy very seriously. I occasionally will post these on the web log for you to see but please let me know if you have any concerns in this area.

We will be working on shirts very soon and as you know I have the sizes for most of your students already. The shirts will run $10 to $12 and if you want one in addition to your student's, please let me know ASAP. The sizes are adult small, medium, large, XL, and XXL. The youth sizes are small, medium, and large.

Thank you for giving your student the opportunity to respond to this challenge. I promise that they will be rewarded for their "hard fun" efforts.

Feel free to contact me ANYTIME.

Sincerely,
Chris aka Coach Locke

Playing with Blocks

More fun today playing with blocks and lining up. Ask the students about it. I hope they had fun and learned something.

Here is a link to the meeting schedule.

Tomorrow or Saturday I will post pointers to our challenge to be published tomorrow.

Can't wait!

Chris.

Wow!

We had 21 students this morning. It was a sincere pleasure meeting them all. We had some great conversation and we are off to a great start getting to know one another. Thursday we will have some fun and games while continuing to build some fellowship. Stay tuned here for details about the FLL challenge to be published Friday. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to meet and work to inspire these bright students.

Chris.

Here We Go

Thanks to all those who attend last night's kickoff. I had a great time meeting many of you and look forward to meeting others.

Don't forget to fill out both sides of the Signup/Contract and have your student bring it to the next meeting.

Here are the first 4 meetings which will all be in the Guided Discovery Room which is strait back as you enter the school:

• Tuesday, September 2nd, 6:30am
• Thursday, September 4th, 6:30am
• Tuesday, September 9th, 6:30am
• Thursday, September 11th, 6:30am

See you Tuesday,
Coach Locke

Welcome to Season #2

Updated 26Aug2008
Thanks for visiting the BVMS Robotics Team Coach's Blog. I can't wait for this year's challenges!

My Promise

• The students come first. This team is about the students having fun and getting excited about science and technology. Everything my team does starts and ends with that principle.
• The students do the work. This is their opportunity to learn and grow. The students on my team do all of the programming, research, problem solving, and building. Adults can help them find the answers, but cannot give them the answers or make the decisions.
  

Important facts and events

• This Web log is my primary means for communicating with parents.
• More info about FIRST and FIRST LEGO League is found here.
  
• Info meeting for parents and students on Wednesday, August 27th in the BVMS commons at 6:30 pm.
• Meetings start September 2nd at 6:30 am in the Guided Discovery room at BVMS.
• Regular meetings are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 am till 7:30 am and Saturdays at 9:30 am.
  
• Most Saturday meetings will be at BVMS but some will be at the Blue Valley Rec Center east of Metcalf on 151st and they will last two hours.
  
• The season ends this year on December 14 with our Kansas City Regional FLL competition at Liberty High School.

Thanks,
Chris - bvrobotics@gmail.com

Kansas City Star

Teamwork

Congratulation to the Blue Valley Middle School CyberCardinals on their recognition for teamwork in this years Kansas City Regional First LEGO League Celebration Tournament!

What an awesome group!

Dean's Challenges

This is an excellent web site for discussion of the challenges that the members of this team will meet soon. HIGHLY recommended reading.

Daniel's idea

See the this article about the same idea Daniel had for saving energy at the school.

College of Computing Offers First Interdisciplinary Robotics Doctoral Program in the U.S.

ATLANTA (January 30, 2008)

– The College of Computing at Georgia Tech today announced the nation’s first interdisciplinary doctoral degree in robotics, to be offered at Georgia Tech. The program, which starts fall semester of 2008, was developed through Georgia Tech’s new Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (RIM@Georgia Tech)

Also, Roboticists answer ???'s

To Reiterate my Promise

• The students come first. This team is about the students having fun and getting excited about science and technology. Everything my team does starts and ends with that principle.

• The students do the work. This is their opportunity to learn and grow. The students on my team do all of the programming, research, problem solving, and building. Adults can help them find the answers, but cannot give them the answers or make the decisions.

FLL Values

One of the guiding principles of FIRST is mentorship. Tomorrow we will be mentored by one of last year's great teams.

No School Today

We will meet Saturday as planned. Check back here in case of more bad weather. I use the Blue Valley Recreation and Mrs. Sullivan for guidance on canceling Saturday meetings.

Thanks,
Chris.

Check out the 2008 FRC game!