2007 FLL Competition Season

Now in its seventh year, Catlin Gabel’s robotics program is recognized as one of the finest in the state. Last year six teams of Catlin middle school students took part in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Robotics competition

This is a unique opportunity for students to do real-world engineering, research, and team management in a hands-on way not possible in the classroom or at home. Whether a student eventually decides they’d like to be an engineer or not, many of the project management and teamwork skills we use here transfer directly to almost any field.

This Year’s Theme

The theme of the competition and the exact challenges change every year. This year the theme is Alternative Energy. More information on FLL can be found here. 

How it Works

Working in teams of 3-4, students design, build, and program a robot that can accomplish a set of missions within a fixed period of time. Robots are made from LEGO Technics parts and miniature computer controllers. Programs are developed on the lab’s PCs and downloaded. Some missions are easy…some are fiendishly complex. The national contest organizers announce these challenges, which change every year, in September. Teams work together two days a week after school on campus from late-September thru mid December. (We’re getting a slightly later start this year because our lab in Nutshell is currently occupied by the Learning Center due to campus construction. Our start date will be driven by when we get it back!) In December the teams enter their robot in a local competition. Teams that do especially there will compete in the January state finals. For more information visit the state site.

No Experience Required

Absolutely no experience with LEGO or computer programming is required. In fact, some of the most dedicated members of our teams had never done anything like this before.

What About Girls?

We like to have as many girls taking part as boys. The past teams that have included girls have consistently done better than those who don’t. Our top team at state last season was made up of 2 girls and three boys. The best programmers and researchers of our teams are often girls. Winning teams are those with a collection of members with different skills who work well as a team. Since teams must explain their designs and methods to several panels of judges, winning teams are also those with good communication skills.

How Much Time?

Teams meet twice a week from 3:15pm to 5:00pm.  In order to fit this in with other after-school activities, the robotics lab is normally open Monday-Friday depending on how many volunteers we get. At the very least it will be open three days a week. Students can come on different days from one week to the next. The sessions will be over mid-December for some teams. Those going on to the state finals will be fine-tuning their robots until mid-January.

Location

Except for the competitions, all robotics sessions are held on campus in the Nutshell building out between the Barn and the track. If you need to contact a student while the sessions are going on, feel free to call 503-297-1894 x 436. We’re lucky to have such a great facility for middle school robotics.

Who Should Do This, and Who Shouldn’t

Students who like science, math, or playing a musical instrument are often attracted to engineering. It’s certainly worth a try. Students don’t need to commit to seeing this through until we finalize the teams mid-October.

This is not for everybody. Those who aren’t crazy about working as part of a team or have a hard time focusing on one project for three months won’t have much fun here. The team members count on each other to do what they say they’ll do and teams are student managed for the most part. Students who have to be constantly monitored to stay on task will find this an unpleasant experience for themselves and others on their team who have to do the monitoring.

Required Sessions

For the most part, students can flex the days they come to robotics around their other after-school activities. All students who are taking part must attend the orientation session on Tuesday Sept 11th 2007 at lunch in the MS’s Bermuda Triangle, pizza will be served. There we will be talking about how the program works and get everyone launched.

Visitors

Parents are always welcome to visit and are encouraged to do so. Kids who are not enrolled in robotics may not hang around the lab as it’s a distraction to the teams.

Fees

The cost to be part of the Fall robotics season is $195 charged to your Catlin Gabel account once teams are finalized mid-October. Students may drop up until that time at no charge. Students can come to the robotics lab as often as they like after school during the week as long as they are working on their projects.

About the Fees

This is a volunteer run organization that tries to be self supporting. Catlin Gabel School has been generous enough to supply us with a lab, computers, and advance us money for the robots.  Upgrading to the next generation NXT product has cost an enormous amount of money and this advance needs to be paid back over time. Additionally, FIRST and the local contest organizers charge a total of $200 to register a single team for the FLL competition (we have 5-6 teams typically).

Financial Aid

We want this to be something every student can take part in so financial aid is available. Contact Beth Towle for more information.

Registration

Registration is done online and is now open.