Decatur City Schools Robotics
E-News January 2016
New Decatur City Schools Robotics Facebook Page
2016 Robotics Expo!
The Alien Challenge (Robotics Expo)
An alien will land at Ingall’s Harbor in Decatur, Alabama on March 14, 2016! In order to find out whether or not it is friendly, the City of Decatur has asked the robotics teams to build and program robots to greet and feed the alien to let it know that Decatur is a friendly city.
Here are the general rules for the Alien Challenge:
Each school can enter a maximum of 2 teams (consisting of 2-3 students each).
Teams can compete in one or both of the challenges.
The alien will be made from standard LEGO bricks.
The alien will be placed 4 meters from the START line. The START line will be standard black electrical tape.
There will be no surface challenges- we will be on the floor at Ingall’s.
Each team will have TWO attempts to complete the challenge. Each attempt will be a maximum of 3 minutes.
After the students have pushed the button on the robot to start the challenge, they cannot touch it again!
Teams will receive ribbons for completing each part of the challenge!
PART I- Greet the Alien
The robot must start at the START line.
The robot must travel to the alien and STOP within 20 centimeters (this will be marked with black electrical tape) of the alien.
Display a smiley face on the EV-3 screen to prove you are friendly!
Return to the START line.
PART II- Feed the Alien
For this challenge your team will need to figure out a way to carry food (wrapped Little Debbie Oatmeal Cake) from the START line to the alien.
Begin at the START line.
Deliver the food to the alien and drop it off within 20 centimeters (marked with black electrical tape)
Have the robot say HELLO.
Move back to the START position.
Have the robot spin around!
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ROBOTICS CLUBS
Austinville Elementary School
Banks-Caddell Elementary School
Benjamin Davis Elementary School
Andrea Richardson, Teacher
In STEM this semester, the Ben Davis second graders are using the WeDo Robotic kits. These kits enable the students to work as young scientists, engineers, and mathematicians as they troubleshoot and think logically to create programs to produce specific behaviors.
Chestnut Grove Elementary School
Eastwood Elementary School
Eastwood's Junior Robotics Club
Francis Nungester Elementary School
Julian Harris Elementary School
Leon Sheffield Elementary Magnet School
Somerville Road Elementary School
Walter Jackson Elementary School
West Decatur Elementary School
Woodmeade Elementary School
EV3 Robotics Resources
EV3 Tutorial: http://www.stemcentric.com/ev3-tutorial/
Robotics Lessons: http://www.ku-prism.org/resources/polar/robotlessons.html
NASA Robotics Lesson Plans: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/robotics/lessonplans/#.U7oZ_XkZdg0
MIDDLE SCHOOL ROBOTICS TEAMS
Brookhaven Middle School
Brookhaven Competitive Robotics Team
Cedar Ridge Middle School
Oak Park Middle School
Oak Park Competitive Robotics Team
Oak Park Middle School and Cedar Ridge Middle School are participating in FLL this year!! Local Competition is November 14th!
The best way to summarize FIRST LEGO League is to say that it is a robotics program for 9 to 16 year olds (9 to 14 in US/CAN/MEX), which is designed to get children excited about science and technology -- and teach them valuable employment and life skills. Teams, composed of up to ten students with at least one adult coach, can also be associated with a pre-existing club or organization, homeschooled, or just be a group of friends who wish to do something awesome.
In FLL, the students do the work! And the work is programming an autonomous robot (using the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® robot set) to score points on a thematic playing surface, creating an innovative solution to a problem as part of their project, all while being guided by the FLL Core Values. These three elements - the Robot Game, Project, and FLL Core Values - make up what we call the FLL yearly Challenge.
HIGH SCHOOL ROBOTICS
DARC Robotics
Susan Haddock, Sponsor Kent Sanders, Assistant Coach
Joey Haddock, Steven Lamb, Doug Shoemaker,Marc Stewart, Anita Blunier, and Dana Stewart, Mentors
DARC participates in the BEST Robotics Competition
You get BEST, a middle and high school robotics competition whose mission is to engage and excite students about engineering, science, and technology as well as inspire them to pursue careers in these fields.
Through participation in our project-based STEM program, students learn to analyze
and solve problems utilizing the Engineering Design Process, which helps them develop technological literacy skills. It is these skills that industry seeks in its workforce.
Each fall, over 850 middle and high schools and over 18,000 students participate in the competition.
This year's theme is "Pay Dirt".