Meeting 3 - Field Trip

Last Wednesday was the third meeting of Lego Lightning. We had four new faces this week, so they were introduced to the robot basics while the rest of the team finished the Mission Models from last week. Then we voted on a logo. After that, we piled into our cars and went on a field trip to the local Chick-fil-a. There we learned some of the things restaurants do to keep their food safe while being prepared, like washing your hands before and after touching food, and what they used for disinfecting surfaces (Hydrochloric acid). They also had color-coded knives, scissors, and gloves; yellow for raw food, white for cooked.

We also learned about the "danger zone", or the range of temperatures that bacteria can grow in. If the food is supposed to be cold, like for salads or preparing meats, then it has to stay below 40 degrees Celsius; and if it is hot, then it has to stay over 140 degrees Celsius. Any temperature in between, and bacteria can grow. Don't know what we are going to do next meeting, though!

Also, Happy Birthday to Connor, who turned 11 on meeting day!

Bricks and Basics

Last Wednesday was the second meeting of Lego Lightning. We had a few new team members this time, so we started with a go-around of names and ages, and we wore name tags so everyone could see who we were. We played the problem-solving game again, and arranged ourselves by name, and then age.(I was at the end both times, my name beginning with B and being the oldest, 14) After the snack, we were split into four groups. Two of the groups learned the basics of programming the robot, while the other two began building the mission models, and after a while we switched out.

We did'nt get all the models put together, so the rest was saved for next week. We did get built a table, a kitchen sink, a corn harvester, a vegetable truck, a refrigerated trailer, fish, a cow, a pig, bacteria, and viruses. Unfourtunately, we won't know what we have to do with them until September 7th. Also, some of the team members hadn't designed a logo yet, so the due date for that has been switched to next week.
Next week: More mission models, and a logo!

Meeting 1 - Icebreaker

Yesterday was the first meeting of the team. We all were greeted by the coaches, who told the newcomers about First Lego League, and then we played a couple games to learn each other's names and interests. In the first game, we tossed a ball around with the sender asking a question about the receiver, and the receiver answering.

After that, we played a problem-solving game. One teammate was chosen to be the questioner, and the rest  of the team was given the name of a well-known person/cartoon character. The questioner then had to guess who the person was by using yes/no questions.

Next, we showed a brief overview of basics of the robot game, last year's board, the robot kit and the programming environment. Then we voted on the team name: LEGO LIGHTNING! the runner-up was the CookieBots. The homework is designing a logo to go on the shirts, banners, and maybe buttons. Next meeting on Wednesday!

Got a sneak peek at the mission model kit for this year; it included lego carrots, croissants, bananas, and a loaf of french bread. Building next week!

~Ben Dunphy, senior team member and blogger

Welcome!

Welcome to the ARCH FLL teams' first year....first blog....first post!

We had such an amazing amount of interest through our homeschool group that we now have 2 FLL teams and 1 JFLL team to start our first year!

The children are very excited; the parents are still wondering what the heck they've gotten themselves into!  :  ) 

Anyway, we wanted to welcome you to our blog, and ask you to check back weekly or so to keep updated on what all we're doing.  Most of the blog writing and design will be done by the children, with the occasional comment or link thrown in from a coach or two.  Look around, and visit often! 

ARCH FLL Team -  Lego Lightning!