Coaches Corner: Food Factor Rules Weirdness

It is always fun to run through the rules as a coach to ensure you understand the exact nature of the robot game, where the points are distributed and to ensure any questions from the kids can be answered. We are on a one week break before our next meeting and the team has been emailed the complete project to read prior to our next meeting.

From a coaches perspective here are some of the questions I'll be looking for clarifications to on the FLL Website, or just general odd things with the challenges:

1. Pollution reversal - It seems as though dumping heavy metals and pesticides into the ground and water is counter to the concept of Food Factor. I would have guessed that getting them to base would have been the challenge, or even NOT knocking them off their base into the water or ground and if you did a penalty would have been assessed would have made logical sense.

2.  Distant Travel - This is just an odd challenge.  Go touch a wall.... OK....  I believe the heavy reference to rule 23 in this challenge was really meant the reference rule 22.  I think rule 22 - Touching, is much more relavant than rule 23 - Scoring.

3.  Cooking Time - Our team thinks this would have been a good one for a randomization from the judges.  The judge could have placed the timer at any setting and then the team would have to move it to the red section.  We were happy with this challenge being easier than originally anticipated.

4.  Storage Temperature - The pictures in the challenge, we believe, are different than the original build instructions so it is difficult to know which position will be the "low temperature position".  I'm sure there will be a clarification coming soon on that one.

5.  Hand Wash Bacteria - The scoring on this is somewhat unclear.  Is it 3 points for every bacteria that meet the criteria outlined?

6.  There are NO challenges that deal with the pig / cow / chickens??? - This is just odd

7.  The 400 points are no longer - There seems to be a lot of room for points and types of scoring.  I can foresee a lot of time scoring in counting the bacteria.  This will be interesting.  I'm also surprised that the 400 point "perfect score" is gone and we are well beyond 400 points in potential scores.  This could bring more exicitement.

Looking forward to the next few weeks.
Have fun building!

Team Member Posting - Cholera and Chickens... COOL!

A one-celled organism called cholera could kill your chickens in one day. Louis Pasteur went on his yearly vacation. When he returned to work, his assistants didn’t read the labels on the bottles of cholera bacteria. They handed him older bacteria and Pasteur gave it to the chickens he was experimenting. Pasteur expected them to die, but the chickens got mildly sick and were perfectly well the next day. Pasteur had discovered the vaccine for cholera. The chickens had immunity because their bodies had already developed antibodies from the weak bacteria. Farmers and other people were free of losing their livelihood due to cholera because of Louis Pasteur.

Heavy Metals - Team Research Intro

Post from team member Emma and an awesome introduction to heavy metal issues!

Imagine toxins building up and contaminating your body, with no way
to get rid of it. That is what heavy metals in our environment do. They are
hazardous to animals, people, and plants on our planet. Even though low
levels are needed, prolonged levels can be fatal.


Heavy metals are any metallic chemical that has a high density and
is poisonous. Lead, coal, arsenic and mercury are a few examples of the
naturally occurring heavy metals. Though there are some in the earths
crust, others can be found in coal mining, medical and industrial waste,
fertilizers, and herbicides. They enter us through food, water, and air. Over
time, it builds up in our bodies and can eventually cause damage to the
brain and central nervous system.


The heavy metals on our challenge table are represented by a blue
ball. We think that the robot will have to be programmed to avoid pushing
the ball into the water. In reality, if increased levels of heavy metals get into
our water, it can poison fish, and all sea life.

Sources:

http://www.Lenntech.com, Heavy Metals

http://www.pollutioninpeople.org, A Project of the Toxic-free Legacy Coalition

Week 3 - Team Work Progress

This weeks focus was on teamwork, watching what a real competition looks like, via the DVD that comes with the coaches kit and modifying the robot a bit. The picture is one of the team work events that we were working on where the team stood on a tarp that was folded, and without stepping on the grass had to turn the tarp inside out within 5 minutes. It took them 2.5 minutes. Impressive!

The thumb in the picture is from the coach....

The build is complete!

The build for the Techno Tornadoes is COMPLETE for Food Factor 2011! This was no small effort and we found many interesting pieces that will be challenging this year. The team analyzed the table pieces and for each challenge, except one, they believe they have a good idea of the intent of the challenge.

The import export stations are probably the most confusing for the team. They spent a good amount of time after we completed the build trying to figure out the intent of the challenge, how they might address it and what some of the issues might be with our initial robot design.

This years challenge is presenting some real twists! (very interesting twist with the placement of the heavy metal and pesticides!) Also the seemingly very tight configuration of the board and challenge components will be tough!

We are looking forward to September 2nd! Our table is built, our draft 1 robot is built, our experts are getting lined up, 1/2 of our sponsors are committed on time and the team has enough energy to already be talking about WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!

We are ONLINE and progress is being made for the 2011 Challenge

Yesterday was day 1 of the 2011 FLL season! We received the 2011 challenge mat last week and it was a surprise when we opened it and started to build the elements for this years "food factor" challenge. At 2200 pieces it took us 2 hours to put the majority of the pieces together! Here is a picture of the first 15 minutes of our meeting.

This does give us a really good idea of the challenge and what elements we will need to build for attachments. It also gives us a good idea of the project and helps to refine who we might line up for expert interviews.

Last month we built our competition bot base, and when we meet again next week we will complete the board build and confirm that our competition bot will make it around the table where we think the challenges will be.

We were also happy to receive a sponsorship from Jimtown Pizza - THANKS!

Looking forward to next week!