9/28/2016 Meeting

Robot Game
The lego pieces that we use for the robots are very different than the pieces that you would typically get in a generic bundle.  You might see some of these pieces in a lego set, but they are quite different.

The blue team (which is mostly the younger kids), are having difficulties with the new pieces.  The first time I was introduced to these pieces, I had difficulty understanding how to use them and build the things I wanted.

Both teams got to do some programming on their robots this week.  For a lot of kids this is their first time doing any programming, and for most, it is the first time programming a Mindstorm.  They did a great job working together to create the programs and make changes to them.

Team Building
We did a couple of team building exercises today.  Before everyone arrived, we did an exercise where the team had to help guide a person through an obstacle course with his/her eyes closed.  They learned that giving precise directions works better than imprecise instructions since the person navigating the obstacles has no idea what to do other than what they are told.

They also found that having one voice for a task like this makes it much easier for the person navigating the obstacle course.

We did another team building exercise that taught the kids a similar lesson.  We had them line up and try to put their foot on the line at the same time.  If all of the kids talked at the same time, they couldn't do it.  If they had one leader, they were much more able to complete the task successfully.

Project
The kids were asked to come up with some ideas for the animal they wanted to do their project on last week.  Tonight they presented their ideas and voted on which animal they wanted to investigate further.

<More to be added later>