Preparation for FIRST LEGO League Thailand 2016 Robotics Competition

Every year, FIRST® LEGO League releases a Challenge, which is based on a real-world scientific topic. It challenges kids in over 80 countries to think like scientists and engineers. Each Challenge has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project, and the Core Values. Teams of up to ten children, with at least two adult coaches, participate in the Challenge.

Past Challenges have been based on topics such as nanotechnology, climate, quality of life for the handicapped population, and transportation. Students apply science, engineering, and math concepts, plus a big dose of imagination, to develop solutions to real-world challenges. They also design, build, and program LEGO MINDSTORMS®-based robots to perform autonomous “missions” on a playing field. Team members learn valuable life and employment skills which will benefit them no matter which career path they choose. Along the way, they develop critical thinking, team-building, and presentation skills.

ISB has participated in the following FLL Competitions:

• 2012 Senior Solutions Challenge
• 2014 World Class Challenge

Get ready.  Get set.  Roar!  Or you could bark, quack, or squeak, because the 2016 ANIMAL ALLIES season is all about our furry, feathered, and finned friends. When you meet an animal at the zoo, on a farm, or in your home, have you ever thought about whether that interaction helps you, the animal, or both? Who is helping or being helped in each one? For ANIMAL ALLIES, think of people and animals as allies in the quest to make life better for everyone. Sometimes people help animals and sometimes animals help people. Team’s Project mission this season is to make our interactions with animals better – hopefully better for all of us.

Teams will design a solution to the problem. Any solution is a good start. The ultimate goal is to design an innovative solution that adds value to society by improving something that already exists, using something that exists in a new way, or inventing something totally new.

This year, the competition in Bangkok will take place on April 8th and 9th (Saturday and Sunday), 2017 at Dhurakij Pundit University located at 110/1-4 Prachachuen Road, Laksi, Bangkok 10210. This is the official website of GAMMACO, the FIRST LEGO League Partner in Thailand. For more information in English about this competition, click here.

February marks the start of our preparation for the 2 day FLL Thailand 2016 Competition. After our Winter Break, coaches (Mr. Miguel Zambrano and Mr. McGovern) and students reconvene for an amazing time of learning and discovery during the after-school Robotics Club meetings on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 - 3:30 PM. We have exactly 38 days to prepare for this challenge. Our team of 10 students chosen to represent ISB are: Elmo, Leo, Matthew, Noah, Pun, Bora,, Divyansh, Kaito, Tong Nueng, and Rory. We wish them all the best!

 

VEX and FLL teams working together

The season of robotics competitions is about to start this week with the high school VEX teams competing in Taiwan. The middle schoolers are preparing for February 2017.

 

ISB middle school students preparing for FLL Thailand 2016 Robotics Competition

This is our after-school Robotics club students preparing for the competition next year in February 2017.

Getting Ready For FIRST LEGO League Thailand 2016 Robotics Competition

This is our third day of the FLL Robotics Club. Students are finishing the Robot Game Challenges for Animal Allies. We want students to understand the principle of form follows function before they start building the robots. This principle is associated with modernist architecture and industrial design in the 20th century. The principle is that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose.

 

Preparing for the First Lego League Competition in Thailand

We have recently received the 2014 FLL World Class Challenge playing field. The Middle School Robotics Club is putting the pieces together to set the stage for our preparation for the official tournament, hosted by the FIRST LEGO League Partner in Thailand called GAMMACO.

Each Challenge has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project, and the FLL Core Values. Teams of up to ten children, with one adult coach, participate in the Challenge by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field (Robot Game), developing a solution to a problem they have identified (Project), all guided by the FLL Core Values.

So, what's going to happen this year. You have probably learned so many things in your life that it is hard to count them. You started learning as soon as you were born. You learned to walk, tie your shoes, and how to read this Challenge. You might have learned to dance, paint, or play an instrument. You might even have learned how to kick a soccer ball at the perfect angle to score a goal. To have fun in many core subjects — like history, science, art, and math — you need to develop specific skills. In fact, skills are your tools to learn at any age. They might include: critical thinking, teamwork, creativity, problem solving, communication, information literacy (knowing how to find and use the information you need), and understanding technology.

There is so much to learn, but people do not all learn the same way. Just like there is more than one way to build your robot, there is more than one way to learn most things. We call these different ways of learning “learning styles.” Most people learn through some combination of watching, listening, reading, writing, moving, and even playing. Do you have a favorite way to learn new knowledge or skills?

No matter what learning style you use most, there are many surprising tricks that might help a person learn. For example:

• Some video games help you understand how the three-dimensional world fits together. This skill is called “spatial reasoning.” It could help you engineer and innovate.
• Singing the rules of a new game might help you remember them more easily than reading them.
• Building with LEGO bricks could help you learn math and engineering concepts. (You probably 
• knew that already – you're in FLL!)

Some learning tools or techniques might make learning more exciting, while others help you remember the information for a longer time.

This season's project mission is to find a better or more innovative way to help someone learn.