Successful Fundraiser!

 We had a VERY successful fundraiser today! Thanks to everyone who helped us! And if you filled out a survey for us, thank you again...we really appreciate it! If you didn't have the time to do a survey page today or you're willing to help our team with a 4-question survey, email us.

We sold donuts, muffins, bagels, hot chocolate, and KanineKookies.

We raises almost $200! Most of that will go into purchasing prizes for our Healty 4 Life challenge. So be sure to particapate!

A Tree 4 Health

The team had fun touring the Odessa storybook tree display and seeing our tree all lit up and looking pretty. We hope kids, adults, families, even whole classrooms of kids check out our website and take our Healthy4Life Challenge after seeing our Berenstein's Bears and Too Much Junk Food tree!



Team Logo

We have an official team logo--awesome artwork Logan!

Fundraiser this weekend!

 We're having a fundraiser! We've been baking lots of dog cookies that we're hoping will all sell at our local grocery store tomorrow. We hope we raise enough money to pay for Lego accessories to add to our robot and purchase a awesome grand prize for our Healthy4Life Challenge.

--Logan

Why our team decorated a Christmas tree

Our robotics team decorated a storybook tree for Christmas in a special historic house in a little town called odessa. many familys and schools take tours in lots of the little old houses there when they are all decorated for Christmas. Families and schools come in in November and decorate trees based on different storybooks. Since we are researching nutrition as part of our team challenge, we chose Berenstein Bears and Too Much Junk Food. We put pictures of the bears, soda cans, and a water bottle, plastic junk food and fruit and vegetables all over the tree. And we put small running shoes (for exercise) and a small pillow (for good sleep) on too. We put a sign by the tree that said information about our team challenge. We hope that some people see our tree, go on our Website, take our challenge and use it to influence other people. Maybe we can really make a difference in someones life! --Rachel

The island without a tranquilizer gun

on a sunny day we were doing a team exercise and we had to think of 10 things to put on a deserted island but we didn't yet know what we would have to use them for. I suggested to put a tranquiliser gun on the island, but the girls said no. (Specifically, Logan said, "Josh, can you think of something NORMAL?") when we found out we had to figure out how to get buried treasure from under the ground and from alligators with the ten things we chose without hurting the alligators, we all knew I WAS RIGHT.........................period. but team work is supposed to be fun, so if they chose that then it was alright. In the end we used the puppy to be a decoy to get the alligators away. but next time they may listen when I suggest a tranquilizer gun. --Josh

Y Healthy4Life?

Like Jordyn said, our team doesn't just build robots. We also have to work together as a team well and research something based on FLL's challenge each year. This year, we could research anything health or body related. We learned about smoking, dental stuff, nano technology, and nutrition. We voted on a topic and decided to research the problems associated with obesity. We've found out lots of great ways to avoid obesity, with better sleep patterns, better exercise, and better nutrition. And we wanted to encourage people to avoid obesity. So we are issuing a challenge! The challenge has 4 easy steps that will help you have a healthy life. We're so excited to be working on a website that will explain the challenge better. As soon as we have a home page, we'll let you know! But now you know Y Healthy4Life!
~Kayla

What is FLL?

 I wrote this for my speech class last year. It explains what FLL is about and why it's so much fun. 

--Jordyn

  What is fll?

I know a lot of kids think science is just dull boring stuff that you read out of a text book. But FLL makes science fun and amazing. FLL stands for First LEGO League, and it’s a world-wide competition where kids ranging from nine to fourteen go to compete in one of the qualifiers against other teams in their state. Out of the 30-40 teams at each qualifier, only six move on. If you move on you compete against all of the teams that moved on from the qualifiers, usually about 40? In Fll, there are three main parts. Teams have to get either 1^st or 2^nd in one of these parts to move on. The parts are:

Research

Teamwork

Programming

RESEARCH

Out of the 17 years that FLL has been going on, there has been a different research topic each year. For example, this year’s topic is transportation. And teams have to find a problem with something relating to transportation in their community, then come up with some solutions that could save time and improve efficiency. FLL said that you had to decide what you think your community should include. It really could be anything from outer space to the roads you drive on. Then after you decide what to research, you research it! And after research you have to come up with a 5 minute presentation to show the judges what solutions your team thought would work. Every year that I have been involved with FLL my team has written a little skit, rather than just standing up and talking to the judges. We have also added a little humor to make our presentation more memorable. After your five minutes is up the judges take three minutes to ask you questions about the solutions you came up with.

TEAMWORK

Another main part is teamwork. For teamwork, you go into a room with your team. Then the judges give your team an assignment to complete in five minutes. They watch to see if you respect each other and if all the team members give their input to how the team should do the task. For example, one year the judges asked the teams to write out a recipe for the perfect FLL team like: 2 cups of love, a dash of kindness… and so on. After your time is up they ask you questions about how you work together.

PROGRAMING

The last main part is programming and technical. During the months leading up to the competition all the FLL teams work on building and programming a robot. A lot of the teams use the directions that FLL provides, but this year my team decided to use our own creativity to build the robot using gears. You are allowed to do this, and come up with your own design, as long as all the pieces that you use are LEGO pieces. Then after you finish your robot you have to program it. Each year FLL comes up with a different design for the table that your robot will run on. Then you have to program your robot to do different missions that FLL has made up, such as knocking over walls, gathering loops that are sitting on top of walls, and going over a bridge.

Ending

 So FLL is not only a lot of fun but it is a great learning experience. I think most people, like me, only start FLL because there mom makes them. They don’t want to because they think that science is just dull boring stuff that you read out of a text book. But let me tell you I’ve done FLL for 3 years and I no longer think of science as really boring. I think of it as really fun and amazing. So put it all together, and FLL is a really great event.

I coach the most awesome robotics team...

I am blessed to be in my second year of coaching an enthusiastic group of kids in the worldwide program of FLL (FIRST Lego League) Robotics. These kids love robotics, love science, love research, love working together, and they love having fun. Put it all together, and I love every meeting!

The team keeps a hard-copy journal, but I'd like for them to get some info out to others about all the exciting things they're doing together as a team this year. So I'm hoping they log on often and share their experiences with you.

--Coach Michelle