First-time First LEGO League (FLL) Coach

There was a change of plans for coaching an FLL team over the summer.  Therefore, our school was not going to have a team.  I had been interested in coaching a team, but the teams had previously been led by parents.  I had never participated in FLL in any way.  However, I felt this was a fantastic opportunity to get my feet wet and provide students with the opportunity to do the same.

In years past, FLL participation had only been available to the middle level students at our K-8 school.  As the K-5 engineering teacher, I opened it up to students in 4th through 8th grades.  I did not send the signups home for all students but advertised on the school announcements for students to "apply" to be on the team.  The application process involved submitting information, in any format, about why the students wanted to be on the team, how they would be able to make the time commitment, and what made them a good team member.  I received six applications and was impressed with them all.  One of the applications that really made me reflect on why I was crazy enough to start a FLL team in October, before the mid-December competition, involved a student telling me he wanted to learn to be a better group member.  That was very powerful for me and very motivational as a coach.  

If you have not participated in FLL before, you may not realize that many teams begin in the spring around May or so.  They work through the summer and have ample time for the various aspects of the competition.  I did not realize this and it is a good thing since I probably would have thought the challenge before the team impossible or too daunting.  However, I am very proud of what the team produced in a matter of eight weeks with a novice coach.

It took some time to register as a team and order the field setup kit for the robotics game.  This gave us time to work on the project and begin preparing a poster for the team's implementation of the Core Values.  Once the field setup kit arrived, the team built the various components for the missions in the robotics game.  Once we analyzed the different missions, the team built robot models that they thought could handle the majority of the missions.  They voted on the best design based on performance on turns and stability.  The chosen design was then modified to include an arm needed for some of the missions.  They did get a little carried away making modifications to the design for the arm addition.  Also, the original arm was more complex than we had time for given that the team was building the robot two weeks before the December competition.  I did encourage them to look for a more simplistic arm design so that they could start programming.  I truly believe in the FLL values that the coach is simply a mentor and facilitator.  I helped by providing to-do lists, and assisting with the group dynamics.  They had approximately two weeks to program and had difficulty with the first mission they had decided on.  In retrospect, I probably should have had them move on to another mission as recommended in the coaching manual.  The team practiced their presentations and running the robot prior in the days prior to the competition with the team parents.  This also gave me the opportunity to organize lunches, snacks, and the responsibilities for the materials arriving at the competition.

The competition was a fantastic experience!  It reminded me of times in the past when my own children had competed in Future Cities and National History Day events.  Although the organizers made the robotics competitions very fun with the help of an announcer, I felt the most valuable part was the presentations and interactions with the judges.  The judges were fantastic in asking good questions and interacting with the students.  For many of the team members, this was one of the most challenging aspects of the competition.  The event was so fantastic that I found myself planning for next year.  Normally, after an involved time commitment such as this, I might have been second guessing whether there would be a next year.  Nevertheless, I am planning to start a team in spring of 2015, and I recommend to all who have the funding to participate.

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/thechallenge

3D Printing City X Project

Now in my third year of teaching engineering to kindergarten through fifth grade students, I find that I use more projects with my third through fifth grade students.  It is difficult to complete projects in a timely manner because I see the students once a week for an hour-long class.  Larger projects usually take place over a minimum of two months.  The most recent project was completed by fifth grade students.  They completed our version of the City X Project.

This project was fantastic for educators just starting to integrate 3D printing into their classroom.  All the support resources are ready to go.  The project entailed the students receiving a problem from a citizen in City X.  Students brainstormed original solutions and chose one idea to develop and refine. The provided student workbook demonstrated sketching a model in 3D.  Students followed sketching with building a clay model.  I measured out the clay on a scale to limit the amount of clay needed, make it equal for all the students, and minimize the size of the 3D prints to assist with quick printing.  After their clay model was complete, students made various measurements needed to create their build in a simple CAD program (tinkercad.com).  The end goal was to have the clay and printed model be as similar in shape and size as possible.

This was the first time I used the 3D printer or a CAD program in the classroom.  My fifth grade students, all 90 of them, worked independently.  This was one of the reasons I wanted to limit clay and 3D model size.  Printing all the projects was definitely the most difficult aspect of the project.  I created a free Tinkercad account under my email.  All the students used the same account.  This allowed me to easily access and download their completed files for printing.  I used a naming system that made it easy to search all the builds and locate them for modification and download, studentfirstname_teachername_cityx.  I plan on adding the grade level into the name since I will be using it next with fourth grade students followed by third grade students.

The students' responses when comparing their clay and printed models was amazing.  The emphasis on measurement and converting between cm and mm was a strong component in developing the CAD version from the clay model.  I had some technical difficulties with Tinkercad over the school's wifi.  I don't know if it was due to the use of a single account, school wifi, or issues at Tinkercad.  I tend to think it was the wifi because at times it would work fine and other times during the same day I had many issues.  Tinkercad was the best CAD program I could find for my novice designers.  Tinkercad was intuitive and easy to learn.

I will be starting this project with the fourth grade students after winter break.  Third and fourth grade students will work in pairs for the project.  Next year, they will experience the project individually.

I'm back with much more to share!

After a much needed break, I am back working on my blog.  I started the blog two years ago when I began a new position as an elementary engineering teacher and also began my Ed.D. program for educational technology at Boise State University.  In the past two years I have made many changes in my professional learning network and conscious efforts to step outside the comfort zone I had settled into as an educator.  Moving from a third grade general classroom to the elementary teaching position was in part responsible for the expansion of my professional experience, but my Ed.D. program contributed evenly more significantly to my pursuit of additional opportunities for my students and myself.

During the remainder of winter break, I will try to share highlights from my instructional and professional experiences during the last two years, exciting projects that I have integrated, and simply a review of lessons from my elementary engineering lab.  Please feel free to share with me any STEM projects you have integrated into your classroom.  I love hearing about what others are doing.

Week 7 - Catch Up, Wrap Up, and Catch My Breath

     This week in school is a partial week.  Students are in classes only Monday - Wednesday.  I was hoping to wrap up loose ends, administer a quick concept assessment with clickers, and run the robots in 5th grade.  However, now some of my classes will be off due to no school on Thursday and Friday. I will proceed as planned for the classes I have and decide what to do with the other classes during the course of this week.  I hate it when they have to miss.

Week 6 - Tricky, Tricky, Tricky

     This week 4th and 5th grade classes will be wrapping up a programming challenge and Academy of Engineering build.  I hope an hour will be enough time to tie up loose ends.  Wish my Monday classes luck.  They are my guinea pigs for the process.
     In Kindergarten I am going back to teaching the alphabet builds in alphabetic order.  I was trying to have it correspond with the letter they were working on in their classes, but they builds are harder as the alphabet progresses.

Week 5 - Tears to my Eyes

     Now I have to admit it is not always that difficult to bring tears to my eyes.  However, I experienced a special moment recently that I feel would have managed to bring tears to most anyone's eyes.  For the 3rd graders, I alternate each week with presenting them a concept and a scripted build, and then the following week providing them a challenge that is unscripted but has constraints and criteria that tie in with the previous week's concept.  Last week the 3rd graders worked on builds with inclined planes.  This week, their challenge was to build a marble track that used at least two inclined planes for the marble to travel.  I was still very unsure of what the end results of the challenge would be, but the students always seem to enter the lab with excitement and enthusiasm to learn what the challenge is.  They struggled and stumbled for the course of about 40 minutes working on some elaborate and some simple constructions.  Some students had to be reminded of the qualities of an inclined plane, while others had to be reined in to build within the time constraints.  The students are always proud and anxious to show me the final results.  What seems to have had an even greater impact on them was when we had a "walk about."  I played a song and the students walked around to take a look at the other projects.  They are usually working with at least a partner on these challenges.  So, the group members took turns staying to demonstrate their builds while the other group members visited the projects around the room.  During the building period, I had already heard numerous "Yes!" and "We did it!"  Then as I watched the students during the "walk about," I could see the pride on the faces of the builders and the viewers being awed by the contraptions before their eyes.  There are many times I feel under appreciated in my profession, but this was one of the times when I was thankful to be where I was.  Their expressive faces and gasps of awe were more than I could have ever hoped to have achieve.  This was not an outcome that was measurable on any standardized test, but some of these students will remember their marble tracks and the success they had for many years to come.

Week 5 - Building Confidence in 2nd Grade

     I had my first 2nd Grade class of the week yesterday.  For the past couple of weeks they have been able to choose if they wanted to build by themselves or with others.  This week, students had to build a simple project by themselves.  There were a handful of students who were a little nervous about this project.  After a little reassurance, they built a project entirely on their own.  Those who rarely chose to build alone received a great confidence boost in their abilities.  Then they all had time for "free build" where they can build anything with the materials.  After everyone had completed their projects, we did a walk about.  They love showcasing their projects to other students and having the opportunity to view other student's work.  I also take pictures of each of the required completed projects, so that when students have to take apart their handiwork, they are more willing knowing it has been saved for posterity in pictures.