Attention all Science and I.C.T. Teachers in schools that are considering / have LEGO Robots
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE 2008 was conducted with great success in a number of Australian locations including at Melbourne Grammar -Grimwade House. The 2009 theme has been revealed as "TRANSPORT", details of this challenge will be released world wide in September 2009. Tools and information about the Melbourne round will appear on this site as soon as they are available
Use use the 2008 Climate Connections Challenge details on this page to acquaint yourself with the "style" of the FLL challenge. Colin Baskin still has some of the 2008 Challenge Mats available, they could prove invaluable preparation for the 2009 TRANSPORT Challenge. All the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE Challenges rely primarily on the same skills: getting to ( locating) a place/object on the mat and pushing, lifting/ moving the object to another location, activating a lever or similar. The worksheets an tools from the 2008 challenge provided on this page will assist your students in refining these skills
Dr Colin Baskin is the Australian Coordinator for First LEGO LEAGUE. Colin oversees FLL in all Australian states and is your first “port of call”
Australia - Register Your 2009 Teams
I'ts essential that you register your teams intention to compete,your registration will include the challenge mat and building elements.
2008 THEME - CLIMATE CONNECTIONS
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE 2008
Climate Connections was the 2008 theme for 
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE ( see below for competition details). First LEGO LEAGUE is a school students competition that combines research project based around this years’ topical theme: Climate Connections, and a robotics challenge designed for this theme carried out on a purpose designed mat using LEGO robots.
FIRST LEGO LEAGUE aims at providing teachers and students with a short focused topical unit of work that can easily be integrated into the normal school program and incorporates work that would often be covered during the normal school year in other formats. First LEGO League provides a creative way of delivering relevant scientific content and motivating students The research component allows students to exercise their creativity in the way they present their information.
The 2008 Mat, missions and Details
Download the mission details and other information from these sites
Dr Colin Baskin is the Australian Coordinator for First LEGO LEAGUE. Colin oversees FLL in all Australian states and is your first “port of call”
2008 RESOURCES and LINKS
The Robotics Missions -2008
Please note that these worksheets are not endorsed or sanctioned by LEGO, FIrst or First LEGO League
The following link shows all 17 2008 robotics missions, make sure that you print out a copy for reference. Note that there are videos ( Quicktime) that explain the challenge exactly
These pages also have some great links to blogs and other information
The 2008 Research Assignment
2008 Competition Rules and Scoring
The following link leads you to a US page of .pdf programming tutorials
USEFUL 2009 TOOL
Please note that First LEGO League is not a Techxellent Training Solutions initiative
VICTORIAN COMPETITION DATES 2009
General Registration and to order your FIRST LEGO LEAGUE mat and resources via the prime FLL web site
Teacher and Mentor training dates for 2009 will be available July 2009
Consider an Incursion based on First LEGO League
First LEGO League focused IncursionAbout First LEGO League
First LEGO LEAGUE is a school students competition that combines a research project based around a topical theme, this year it's Climate Connections, and a robotics challenge designed for this theme and carried out on a purpose designed mat. Whilst the general theme is released early in the year the actual specifics of the project and the robotics challenges are not released until September 5th 2008. The reasoning behind this is to make the time spent on the project by participating students roughly equal, so that some competitors don’t work on the project for an over-long period of time, thus the unit of work has a beginning and a projected delivery date.
First LEGO LEAGUE aims at providing teachers and students with a short focused topical unit of work that can easily be integrated into the normal school program and incorporates work that would often be covered during the school year in other formats. The 2008 FLL theme has been revealed as Climate Connections . Thus, First LEGO LEAGUE provides a creative way of delivering content and motivating students.
The competition comprises two inter-related elements:
The theme related research project presentation
and
The practical robotics tasks in association with knowledgeable mentors
The robotics task is executed at the competition, though students have class time to prepare and practice beforehand at their own school. The challenge takes place on a specially designed competition mat ( Designed with the 2009 theme as it’s inspiration and available at minimal cost from Dr Colin Baskin) The mat will have various LEGO elements and structures on it and the robots will have to execute specific tasks to earn points ( These LEGO elements and the building guide are part of the FLL pack that contains the mat, teachers information and your competition registration for your team
The research component allows students to exercise their creativity in the way they present their information. Previous years have even seen game shows and dances!. Why not consider a game, claymation, song or animation to get the message across?
RESOURCES & HINTS 2008-9 CHALLENGES
for Time Poor Teachers
Though the official First LEGO League web sites offer excellent information and resources some teachers who are new to robotics and/or First LEGO League may feel more reassured if they have access to more structured material. Please use your discretion as to how much/little you actually provide your students with.
These associated worksheets and teachers notes are provided as information and guidance for teachers and mentors to give you a starting point and the confidence that these tasks are achievable; they also provide some clues if the students come to a stale-mate. They are not intended as “how-to” instructions for students, please use this information sparingly and with consideration for the First LEGO League rules and ethics, it should be the students work. Your students will probably come up with many better and different solutions. Please read the teachers notes in conjunction with the field set-up and rules as they work together synergistically.
2008 Lesson Plan and Ideas
The following document annotates the First LEGO League missions and rules with suggestions and teaching ideas and a lesson progression
Please note that these worksheets are not endorsed or sanctioned by LEGO, FIrst or First LEGO League
2009 TOOL -Programming NXT for FLL - ACCURACY ON THE MAT
The robotics missions on the First LEGO League mat all rely heavily on the ability to get the robot accurately to a place on the mat where it can carry out the designated action. The following .pdf worksheet provides a clear programming guide to using degrees to accomplish accurate positioning
Programming accurately is only part of the story, logical , creative thinking is also required to physically position the robot in the same position inside "Base" so that your accurate measurements have the chance to work consistently
Some students use LEGO elements to measure placement of their robot, others use the colour coded markings conveniently provided on the mat to accurately "register" where the robot's starting position is for each task
To assist with this process you can download a sheet that the students can use to record where they are taking measurements from and where they are placing the robot inside base
Keep and eye on this site for further updates and information on First LEGO LEAGUE
Here's another tool that you can either download and use or ask your students to make their own,it's a "Mat Map" where students can mark in their robot's paths, measurements and turns. Please note that it's not to scale so students will need to make the measurements on the mat itself.
Have a look at some of the building ideas that the boys at eTRain came up with
Help! My NXT Brick Is Out Of Memory
As First LEGO League competition requires students to have several NXT programs loaded onto their NXT brick at any one time I have had some questions regarding the NXT bricks memory and the download message "NXT Brick is out of Memory" Follow the link below to download the "Writing Efficient NXTG Code" from LEGO Engineering, this should assist you with this issue as for FLL students will have several programs stored on their NXT bricks. (If you are using the RCX or RoboLab with a NXT brick, memory will not be a problem)
LEGO Engineering has produced a handy document that gives you hints on how to manage the NXT memory, click here for this link
RoboLab - RCX Users Tools
Using Robolab with the RCX bricks is an option for students competing in First LEGO League. However, as all the challenges are initially positional, i.e. getting the robot to the correct spot on the mat to execute the required action; RCX users will require 2 rotation sensors attached to both driving motors.
By attaching a rotation sensor to each motor you will be able to more accurately direct the robot to a given position on the mat. Download the following information to assist you with programming the RCX using the rotation sensor
Moore Educational
currently has a 2 for one offer on RoboLab sensors, this includes the 9891 rotation sensor. Mention this offer with your order and instead of paying $40.00 per sensor you will receive 2 for $40.00 ( price excludes GST & delivery)
The angle sensor is a digital sensor. Using the RCX brick and ROBOLAB software it can measure direction of rotation, number of rotations, angular velocity, and angles. The angle sensor has 16 positions per revolution and can rotate 360° at maximum 500 rpm. The accuracy of this sensor is somewhat less than the NXT rotation sensor that has 360° positions per rotation. The Melbourne competitions will make allowances for schools using this older equipment
Open the program above in RoboLab Inventor 4, If the black background screen appears click on WINDOW --> Show Block Diagram, to see the program