Practice Update from Team Lockie/Sarah (until there's a better name)

I hope your kids told you about practice on Friday.   It was very fun, and Lockie and I are very excited to be working with your kids this season. 

Our team decided to focus on wildfires as the source of our natural disaster.  The homework for tomorrow is that each child should look on the internet to research the who, what, where, when, why and how of wildfires.   They don't have to do all of them -- just spend 20 minutes or so looking into a few of these questions -- where do wildfires typically start; how do wildfires typically start; what time of year do wildfires typically occur; how are they typically contained; etc.  I would like for each child to write down the facts they learn and bring to practice, please.  Some of the team members may be culling through all the input while other team members are building robots, so it's important that we have all the information in written form to take into consideration.

On that note, please remember to get a file folder with pockets for your child to bring to and from practice. Each child received  a printed copy of the full challenge (distributed a week ago Friday) to put in the folder, plus they will gather additional information from homework and during practice that will go in their folders.  (if you never saw the challenge, let me know and I can send you a link to print out another copy.)

Also for tomorrow, Sebastian and Dominique volunteered to look at robot designs for a robot that needs to climb over obstacles (monster truck wheels, or tank treads, or whatever.)  We suggested they look on youtube.com for "NXT robot big wheels" or "NXT robots with tank treads" or whatever they think of.  These sorts of searches will likely produce hundreds of youtube videos which they can glance at.  The goal is for them to have some ideas in mind when they start building a robot with Jenny during part of Monday's practice. 

Ainsley volutneered to do a similar search looking for robot designs with arms that might pick up the people and pets on the game table.  She might look on youtube.com for "NXT robot forklift arm."  She's going to be working with Jenny on Monday about what sort of arm might need to be mounted on the robot to pick up the people and pets and carry them to the other end of the table.

Last, some (but not all) of the kids took home bags of lego pieces to build robot missions.  If they finish, they can bring tomorrow (or they can bring Friday).

Tomorrow we are spending time with Ms. Allbach (the wonderful new media specialist) to learn research techniques and to narrow down our research project; we will also start to design our robot.  This coming Friday we're going to start on some programming!!!

Thanks again, and please let me know if any questions.

Sarah