Fundamentals

We are working away at robot and programming fundamentals but soon will also dive into the specifics of our Research Project. I'm excited to see what the students decide to research. Soon we will start designing and building our final competition robot.

This free program from LEGO will let them work on virtual builds at home. I may spend some time on it in meetings but it is well worth the download and it beats video games :)

Kitty Litter

We found out today why kitty litter comes in a square box! Actually we learned a ton about how packages are shipped and where there is lots of room for optimization in the shipping business. A great talk given by Abigail's dad. Thanks Jeff!

Can't

We also watched a video today from the 60-minutes episode where Dean Kamen's new bionic arm design was featured. I despise the word "can't" and this program shows how we can do just about anything if we try. These students will be the ones to solve these hard problems.

T-shirts and Teams

We will split into our 4 teams on Thursday. I have all the information to order the student's shirts. If you want additional shirts, now is the time to let me know.

Meetings

Remember you can check the schedule of upcoming meetings in the upper right corner of the blog.

Thanks for all the support. The attendance has been astounding!

Chris.

Playing Field

The students have been busily building and we now have our "playing field" complete (minus a few details on the bridge). It looks very cool and should prove interesting. I can't wait to see if teams can keep their robot on top of the bridge should they attempt to go up there.

Sponsors

We are lucky and grateful to have 3 gracious sponsors this year. This will allow us to break into 4 official FLL teams which means that each team will be smaller and more agile. With 26 students, we will have two teams of 6 and two teams of 7. I really look forward to that. I will be forming the teams in the coming week or so. Note that there are still a couple of students that have not turned in a sign-up sheet. I will bug you directly next week for those if they are not turned in because we will be ordering shirts soon.

Handbooks

You can get a soft copy of the student's handbook HERE. We keep each student's handbook in the room but feel free to download and/or print a copy for your student to study after homework and chores.

Come to a Meeting

Please feel free to come to a meeting anytime and see what we are up to. I always keep the little box in the upper right of the blog up-to-date with a list of the coming meetings.

As usual, call me or Mrs. Sullivan anytime with issues or questions.

Thanks for reading,
Chris.

Our Challenge

Our challenge for this year is released! (That's me on the far left)

Smart Move

To see the details click HERE. It would be awesome if you want to spend some time with your student looking the site over. FIRST did a good job this year on the site. Look at the robot missions, rules and the research project. Of course we will cover all this in much detail in the coming weeks. If you get bored, you can see the design team here (grin).

Awesome First Meeting

Thursday was our first meeting. I'm excited that we had 24 in attendance. We visited and just talked about each other and the FLL program. Wow how this program has grown. I started this Blog a couple of days before year #1 so scroll down if you want to see how far we have come.

Next Week

Next week we will start building the models for the table. I will also be at the BVMS Family Fun Night in the 7th grade quad next Friday night (the 11th). Students are welcome to come and hang out in our area if they want but we don't require that anybody be there.

Other Stuff

• We would like to have all corporate donations identified by September 15th so let Jamie (LockeJamie@yahoo.com) know if you or anyone you know is interested.
• Remember that you can send a message to all the robotics parents via the mail list at bvms-blog-subscribers@googlegroups.com but don't worry if you post accidentally because I moderate all postings anyway.
• All days on the schedule that are grayed out are NO MEETING days and the schedule is subject to change. I will let you know a week or 2 in advance if we change the schedule.
  
• Don't worry, I don't plan to fill your email with these postings but I may post a few times the first couple of weeks to let you know how we are doing.
• Please feel free come to any meeting anytime.
  

Thanks for sharing these wonderful students. I am excited by the possibilities this year and it was a real pleasure to meet each and every student!

Thanks,
Chris.

Welcome to BVMS Robotics!

Thanks to all who attended the kickoff. I know how busy you all are.

I'm very excited to get started Thursday morning at 6:30am in room 701!

You can get a copy of the sign-up form here.

You can get a copy of the schedule and contact info here.

Thanks,
Chris.

Season Kickoff and CandyBot

We will have our 2009 season kickoff meeting on Tuesday, September 1st at 7pm in the BVMS Commons.

All parents and students interested are encouraged to attend. See you then!

What: BVMS Robotics Kickoff

When: Tuesday, September 1st, 7pm

Where: BVMS Commons (Cafeteria)

I was 5

What a great accomplishment 40 years ago to land on the moon. Can we learn how to do it again? Will we go to Mars? I hope so...lets help our kids do something great to push the envelope of learning!