2011 FIRST LEGO LEAGUE

FLL 2011: Can FIRST® LEGO® League teams improve the quality of food by finding ways to prevent food contamination?   In the 2011 Food Factor Challenge, over 200,000 9-14 year olds from over 55 countries will explore the topic of food safety and examine the possible points of contamination our food encounters � from exposure to insects and creatures, to unsterile processing and transportation, to unsanitary preparation and storage � then find ways to prevent or combat these contaminates.  In the Food Factor Challenge, teams will build, test, and program an autonomous robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT to solve a set of Food Safety missions as well as research, develop, and share their innovative food safety solutions.  Throughout their experience, teams will operate under FLL�s signature set of Core Values.
Each FLL Challenge has two parts � the Robot Game and the Project

Robot Game -  Teams build and program an autonomous robot using LEGO MINDSTORMS technology to score points in 2.5-minute matches on a themed playing field.

Project -  Teams explore an actual problem that today's scientists and engineers are trying to solve, develop an innovative solution to that problem (either by creating something that
doesn't exist or building upon something that does), and share their findings.

Dear Parents and Students,
    Welcome to the 2011 FIRST LEGO LEAGUE Challenge FOOD FACTOR. Participation on this team requires a willingness to work together as a team, respect each others ideas, showing gracious professionalism to our team mates and competitors.
    FIRST LEGO LEAGUE competitions are not all about winning, it's about teaching our students the value of teamwork, learning about the problems facing the world around us and searching for solutions to solve some of these problems, and our biggest goal is to have FUN while we learn, but like any other team, we want to excel in our sport.
   For more information please see  http://usfirst.org  and netapps.marshall.edu/lego (2011- 2012 year).  Teams will be judged on - The Robotics competition  (many tasks in 2 1/2 minutes); The Research Project  (5 min. presentation on challenge topic); TEAMWORK (how well we work together as a team); Robot Design, Programming; and Gracious Professionalism.
    The tournament season is September to December. Any and all team members may meet every Saturday at the Morrow library at Marshall from 10:00 - 12:00 and 1:00 - 3:00. Additional practices may be set up with Linda Hamilton.
We will have a dress rehearsal November 26, 2011.  FIRST LEGO League WV tournament is December 3, 2011 in Ripley, WV.
Each team pays registration fees, buys robot materials, and field set up. Team Time is no cost to team members.
To help out FLL teams I am planning to charge $20 per student for up to 3 hours for a FLL orientation to LEGO NXT Robotics programming so that groups can set up times with possible FLL team members.  If the group becomes an FLL team those fees could go to the team.
Parent participation is encouraged, but not required. There is a high correlation between student success and parent support.
Questions? Linda Hamilton (Mentor) hamilton@marshall.edu
 
LEGO  Links of Linda Hamilton hamilton@marshall.edu