4-H Problem-Solving,
Teamwork and Fun
through LEGO
Mindstorm Robotics
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
So what is a LEGO
MINDSTORM NXT Robot?
Microprocessor
Motors
Sound Sensor
Ultrasonic
Sensor
Touch Sensor
Light Sensor
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
What can you do with it?
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
What is 4-H FIRST LEGO
League?
• Teams of up to 10 kids and
guided by at least one adult
coach, team members have
about 16 weeks to work on
the Annual Challenge
• Each annual Challenge has
two parts, the Project and
the Robot Game
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
The 3 Rs of
FIRST LEGO League
• Robots– learning to program the robots,
build add-ons to accomplish the tasks set
forth in the challenge on the Challenge Field
in the 2.5 minute opportunity to showcase
their robot and programming
• Research- Learning about the challenge and
how our community can make a difference
and presenting it in a creative way
• Report– Defend the robot, your
programming, your teamwork and your
research project
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
FIRST LEGO League Core Values
• We are a team
• We do the work to find solutions with guidance
from our coaches and mentors
• We honor the spirit of friendly competition
• What we discover is more important than what
we win
• We share our experiences with others
• We display gracious professionalism in
everything we do
• We have fun
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Positive Youth Development
=Meeting the Needs of Youth
 Belonging
 Mastery
 Independence
 Generosity
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
What are these 4 basic
needs of Youth?
• Belonging—
Finding that you have things in
common with others and you are
accepted and made to feel part of
the group
• Mastery — Encouraged to try new
experiences and find out what
things you are good at
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
What are these 4 basic needs
of Youth?
• Independence—
Giving youth a choice in what
they will do and a voice in where the
group is headed
• Generosity— When youth belong,
feel that they have skills they have
accomplished and are given
choices, youth will choose to share
with others
of their knowledge
time and skills
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Why do 4-H and FIRST
LEGO League fit so well
together?
• Our goal in 4-H is to help young
people develop skills in Decisionmaking, leadership, communication
and citizenship.
• In FIRST Lego League, youth need to make lots of
decisions and it is your job as coach to help them
focus and help facilitate their discussion around these
decisions. Think through the options and then make a
decision as a group.
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Why do 4-H and FIRST
LEGO League fit so well together?
• Our goal in 4-H is to help young
people develop skills in decisionmaking, leadership, communication
and citizenship.
• As a team they will develop leadership skills as some
of the team may emerge as leaders in the robot
programming or building, some in research, others in
how they communicate their creative solution to
community leaders.
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Why do 4-H and FIRST
LEGO League fit so well together?
• Our goal in 4-H is to help young
people develop skills in Decisionmaking, leadership, communication
and citizenship.
• In FIRST Lego League, youth interact as a team to
research and come up with a creative solution to an
issue or problem in a community based on the FLL
Yearly Theme and they communicate that
creative solution with community leaders.
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Why do 4-H and FIRST
LEGO League fit so well together?
• So you can see that our missions match in the
desire to build decision-making leadership,
citizenship and communication skills in young
people.
• We also have youth involved in 4-H FIRST Lego
League Clubs that may not have considered
joining 4-H before which is helping us to touch
more youth lives with the strength of 4-H in our
communities
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
FIRST LEGO League 4-H Clubs
•
•
•
•
Decision-making
Communication
Leadership
And Citizenship—Connecting research
to community
• Open House Presentations
• County Fair Club Project and
Demonstrations
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
So what is your mission as
an FLL Coach?
• Your job is to create an environment
where the team members (kids) direct
most of the activities, while you provide
support and guidance.
– The kids should be actively engaged in the work, with you in the
background asking questions and suggesting resources.
– Injecting fun and humor into the process will be an important
element of your success as a coach, as well as the success of
your team.
– You facilitate and guide your team to creative solutions—You
must direct them to discovery and making their own decisions
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
In conducting Team
Meetings…
• It’s good to have a plan, some goals for the
meeting
• You will sometimes have to let them try things
out before they figure out that their idea might
not work
• Always leave time for reflection and clean-up
• It will be your job to manage time for breaks,
snack and team building energizers
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
In conducting Team
Meetings…
• You must work with your team on technical
skills
– Planning Problem Solving, engineering and
programming
• You must work with your team on Social
Skills
– Responsibility, mutual respect, listening and
sharing ideas and seeing the strengths in
others
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
In conducting Team
Meetings…
• The team will be doing creative problem
solving
– Identify the problem
– Generate possible solutions
– Evaluate the solutions
– Try Them! Experiment!
– Evaluate Results and proceed or start
process again with another possible solution
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
So what is your mission as
an FLL Coach?
• Teamwork—We are a Team!
–
–
–
–
Build Teamwork
Capture Teamwork
Celebrate Teamwork
Build an understanding of the FLL Core Values
and how they are put into practice
– Highlight an act of Gracious Professionalism each
meeting
– Have team capture the success of the team at the
end of each meeting, last 5 minutes…everything
put away and highlight what the team
accomplished
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
So what is your mission as
an FLL Coach?
• Robot and Missions
– Help the youth to understand the Missions
• Have them be responsible and become the experts
• Youtube FLL Video, Techbrick, Robot Game
Updates
– Get a robot Built and start programming
– Assign a couple of builders to come up with
robot attachments that will help accomplish
the missions…
• What will you need? An arm? a plow?
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
So what is your mission as
an FLL Coach?
• Go on the journey through Their Project
learning and research
– This year the process is well prescribed
• Choose a community
• Choose a force of Nature and the problem that it
creates
Avalanche or landside
Earthquake
Flood
Tornado or Cyclone
Hurricane
Wildfire
Storm
(wind, sand,
or rain)solution
Volcanic
Tsunami
• Choose
an blizzard
innovative
thatEruption
helps people:
– Prepare
– Stay Safe
– Or Rebuild
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
So what is your mission as
an FLL Coach?
• It is very important as a part of your research to
identify some experts that you can contact for
more information and for developing a
partnership to plan your innovation or project.
• When you develop your Research Project
Presentation..
– Time Frame—5 Minutes
– Creatively present your findings and innovation
– Everyone on team must be involved in presentation
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
So what is your mission as
an FLL Coach?
• You will need to plan to present your Research
Project Presentation to one or two community
groups before your participation in the Regional
FLL Event.
• You could present to parents and invite a service
club to come and hear them or go to their
meeting. Think of community members or
groups that might be involved in your solution
and invite them to come to a meeting and share
with them your presentation.
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
You are preparing your team for doing their
best and participating in a Regional FLL
Event to share what they have learned
• Research Project Presentation—5 minutes
• Teamwork activity and interview
• Technical Interview where you will share
your robot and mission strategies
• 3 Robot Matches—2.5 minutes each
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Regional Competition
• Technical Interview
»
»
»
»
»
Run Missions completed
for 5 minutes
Explain how you
designed your
Apparatuses
Share how your design
Process progressed
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Regional Competition
• Teamwork Interview
»
Accomplish Task
Share how you worked
as a team
What did you learn
working together?
What role did each player
take?
How did you get along?
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Regional Competition
• Project Research Presentation
»
•Research a community
connection to the year’s theme
•Brainstorm a way your
community could impact that
theme
•Plan a project to impact that
theme
•Plan a creative way to share
•Share it with the community
•5 Minutes including Setup
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
Regional Competition
• Robotics Challenge
»
•2 ½ minutes to complete as
many missions as possible
•Only 2 members at the board
at one time…can tag and
change
•Use only one robot
•Must practice changing
apparatuses so that doesn’t
slow you up
•Don’t shy away from Regional
if you only have a few missions
completed
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
2013 Challenge
Engineering Meets Natural
Disasters
Can FIRST® LEGO® League teams help
us master natural disasters? In the
2013 NATURE’S FURY℠ Challenge,
over 200,000 children ages 9 to 14
from over 70 countries will explore the
awe-inspiring storms, quakes, waves
and more that we call natural
disasters. Teams will discover what
can be done when intense natural
events meet the places people live,
work, and play. Brace yourself for
NATURE’S FURY!
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
How do teams get Started?
Starting to build the LEGO pieces that make up
each of the missions
– You have a website with building plans to
download for each mission piece
– Check out the Mission pieces, pictures and video
of the how the constructed LEGO piece fits into
the Nature’s Fury Challenge…see what your
Robot has to do to accomplish each mission
– Lay out the mat and start building the pieces that
go on it
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb5xj0FUSPY&feature=c4overview-vl&list=PLpaPRqT711ti2dn-QFXOwHbkm8i7kmz59
MISSION PIECES AND
MISSIONS
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNa4perHN5c&feature=youtu.be
HOW TO START WORKING
ON YOUR PROJECT
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
How do we get started?
3. Start learning about building the robot and
programming it
a) Build a robot…there are lots of sites online to
help you design the building of your robot. Just
get one built so you can start programming. Just
Google LEGO NXT Building Instructions
a) NXT Consctructopedia:
http://legoengineering.com/library/doc_details/150nxt-constructopedia-beta-21.html
b) Build the standard Tribot in Manual with kit
b) Begin the NXT Tutorial on the disk or online to
learn how to use the software to program the
robot
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont
REGION 17 4-H Program
Harrison, West Pottawattamie, East Pottawattamie,
Mills, Montgomery, Page and Fremont