Christopher Pickard, Justin Buckman and Ryan Taylor seen building a robot using the NXT, the brain of the robot, technic bricks, motors.

Robotics:

What is it? And why do we do it?

Do you like LEGOs? Do you like engineering? Building? Than you might be interested in LEGO (FLL) Robotics. FLL (First LEGO League) is an organization for schools that compete in LEGO tournaments held across the US. FLL competitive teams learn engineering and team-building skills for their future careers. They have to do a science research project as part of their score at FLL tournaments each year. For this research project, teams may talk to professionals who specialize in this kind of work, or they may look data up in places such as Internet Explorer, magazines, or in non-fiction books. Then teams put the data they have obtained into an informative skit to show judges what they learned at the competitions. Other parts of the competition include teamwork, design and, of course, the robot performance table, which is the main competitive part of the competition where teams set their robots to do specific challenges that have to do with the year's theme.

Mason Altizer, Brandon Barnes and Drew Foes seen working on one design that was tested. These tested designs were used to decide which robot we sould use.

Christopher Pickard, Ryan Taylor and Justin Buckman working on their robot design. Shaped like a box with a stable chassis, this box-like robot will be used for tournament.

This Year in Robotics:

The Robot, Missions, Theme and Team

This year, the table is the hardest I've seen yet. We have the carbon monixide balls going to the underground reservoir, heavy objects we have to carry on our arm, and many other challenges. Our theme is global warming, hence the Arctic Exploration Database and the polar bear we have to get there for examination, "sleeping" or standing up. We will have to research the effects and causes of global warming, and our robot, which is already built, has to be small, sturdy and fast, but it's not two out of three. We currently have some problems with our robot, but I don't think it's anything our marvellous builders can't fix! Our team is open to students in seventh and eighth grades. This year's members:

The Team:

Eighth Grade: Samantha Kreiger, Christopher Pickard, Shannon Geary, Brandon Barnes and Jacob Hogan

Seventh Grade: Ryan Taylor, Justin Buckman, Mason Altizer, Drew Foes

Builders:

Eighth Grade: Christoper Pickard, Jacob Hogan and Brandon Barnes

Seventh Grade: Justin Buckman, Ryan Taylor and Mason Altizer

Programers:

Eighth Grade: Samantha Kreiger, Shannon Geary, Brandon Barnes and Christopher Pickard

Seventh Grade: Drew Foes, Justin Buckman, and Mason Altizer