JrFLL Blog 2007-2008

Today we took a step back and thought about why it is so important to utilize alternative forms of energy.  We accomplished this by studying Fossil Fuels.  How amazing it is, that the fuel that heats our homes and runs our cars originally came from dead plants and animals!  Wow!  It was fun to touch and hold real pieces of coal!   Then, we then talked about how hard people work to obtain those resources - like coal miners - and how they even risk their lives so we can have this fuel source.   Thinking about it that way sure helps us understand how important it is to use alternative energy. 

We practiced our public speaking by telling a very long story together.  We also divided into solar and wind teams and created our own inventions that used one of these forms of energy.  For our homework, each JFLL team member will complete a Venn Diagram explaining the likenesses and differences of Alternative Energy and Fossil Fuels.  Check out our pictures to see our fun!

Check out our photos
http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2007/Photos/Photos071106JFLL

Each team member created a paper model of a wind turbine so they could learn the parts.  We had a great time with our show and tell projects we created at home.  The most popular one was one that taught us about Gravity!  We hadn't even thought about that kind of energy yet! 

The King of Techbrick, Mr. Marco, sent us some cool hats that use Solar Energy to power a fan to keep us cool!   We enjoyed our windy day outside by listening to a Solar Powered radio. Alternative Energy is in use everywhere!  Nathan and Joshua's shared cupcakes with their friends to celebrate their birthdays. 

We dearly missed the Mayers kids who are enjoying lots of Solar energy in Florida this week!  Check out our pictures to see our Windy Day! 

Check out our photos
http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2007/Photos/Photos071023JFLL

Our JFLL teams enjoyed another fun afternoon together!  First, each team member told their favorite joke - we even heard a few jokes about ENERGY!   Next we played a thinking game to see if we could name items from different categories faster than a grown up could write them.  The kids won! 

Our first building challenge of the day was to create towers from paper and tape.  Team members could not talk during the building time.  The boys built a very tall tower while the girls built a strong tower.
A very exciting part of our meeting was to finally vote on our team names.  The boy's team chose TechBrick Racers and the girl's team chose TechBrick Dreamers!

Next, we got down to work to figure out if the sun really is a source of energy?  We discovered it is an amazing source of energy as it has the ability to produce all kinds of work.  A couple of our team members built a solar powered car and we raced it outside.  It was fun playing with our shadows because our car wouldn't go when it was under our shadows.

Our last building challenge was to create something from legos that could be powered by solar panels.   Our creations included: a pyramid which was kept cool inside by the energy from the solar panels pumping out the hot air; a couple of houses that were kept cool from the energy from the panels; a police station that used energy from the panels to keep their computers running; and a really cool boat.  Such creativity!

We ended our day with sharing our homework of the pictures we had found or drawn this week of different kinds of alternative energy.  We shared a few more jokes and snacks before we were finished!  At the next meeting we will begin learning about wind as an alternative energy source!  Check our our pictures!

http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2007/Photos/Photos071002JFLL

Energy... Energy... Energy!  What does it mean?  We found words and phrases to define energy such as power and the ability to do work.  Well, we know our JFLL team has lots of energy - so we started learning where all that energy comes from!   We categorized energy into 2 categories: Renewable and Not Renewable.  Next we took an intense look at 2 calculators.  The first one used and electric cord and batteries for it's energy source.  The second calculator was a huge mystery!  We couldn't find batteries or a cord or anything that gave it energy -yet we knew it used energy because it worked!  Hmmmmmm......Finally we found a little black panel on the front of the calculator and observed that when that was covered, the calculator didn't work!  Ahh Haa!  It must get it's energy from light!  Cool - a solar powered calculator! 

The boys teamed up against the girls for a building challenge.  Each team had to build with identical duplo legos and then hide their creation from the other team and take turns describing it so the other team could copy it.  We discovered that describing is a lot tougher than it seems!  Finally, we had fun creating two projects from our JFLL challenge kits!  Check out our pictures to see our fun!

See our pictures:
http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2007/Photos/Photos070918JFLL

Today was our first TechBrick team meeting.  We all had such fun!  We have two teams - the boy’s team and the girl’s team.  We started the day by learning about the different terms of FLL and JFLL as well as what it means to be a part of a team and how big the whole FIRST organization really is!  We then had a very fun activity where we learned a few interesting facts about each team member!  As we put one of these categories into a bar graph we found out that Blue is the most popular favorite color, followed closely by green!

During an intense scavenger hunt, we discovered that there are lots of names to many different lego pieces that some of us have never even seen before!  We also learned how to measure lego parts which is especially cool with the TechBrick ruler. Everyone did a great job of digging through the piles and finding the hidden pieces.

Finally, we completed our own min-challenge.  Each team was given the mission of building a robot monster and then presenting it to the team.  After building they needed to decide upon many things for their robot such as name, age, favorite color, favorite food, and special mission.  The boys’ robot better watch out because the girls’ is coming after you for lunch! 

We are excited to learn about the true JFLL challenge tomorrow and start learning about alternative energy and begin our projects.  Soon our teams will have very cool names!  Stay tuned!

See all our pictures at:

http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/Lego2007/Photos/Photos070904JFLL