Ms. Frizzle Does NXT and RCX

She writes on her blog:

"We were in it, today. I split the kids up, a few weeks ago, into an RCX and an NXT team, and pitted them against each other to tackle a challenge: make a robot that can go around the sides of one of our tables as close to the edge as possible, without falling off."

She talks about the real essence of what kids learn in doing this stuff.

I've been urging coaches who have both NXT and RCX to try this. Make sure to check out the Iowa State engineering videos comparing the two. The link is posted on the sidebar.

Read the full piece at: http://msfrizzle.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/the-lego-zone/

The Ridder Kids With Trophy from Riverbank

Sam Freedman on Robotics in the Bronx

January 30, 2008

On Education
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/education/30education.html

In the South Bronx, Robotics and Rebirth

By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times

At robotics team practice at Herman Ridder Junior High School, from left: Carl Jules, Azeem Yousaf, Gary Israel, Harold Smith and Sabrina Fletcher.

Not being the obedient sort at this point in his scholastic career, Abdoulie left behind the dean and the chair to check out the hubbub, he recalled recently. He saw on the tabletop a sort of motorized cart made mostly of Lego pieces.

“I want to play,” he said, shifting from tough guy to eager child with no intermediate step.

“It’s not a toy,” one of the students at the table answered. “It’s a robot.”

The dean begrudgingly gave Abdoulie a five-minute parole to watch the robot scoot to and fro across the tabletop. And in those five minutes, Abdoulie’s life changed.

What he was seeing, he soon learned, was a practice session for the robotics team at Herman Ridder Junior High School in the Bronx. There was practice every afternoon, and more practice or a competition on most Saturdays.

By now, two years later, Abdoulie is a veteran of the team. Last year, he traveled with the Ridder Kids, as their matching T-shirts proclaim them, to a national Lego robotics championship in Atlanta. At the end of this April, the squad plans to go to Japan to participate in an exhibition.

In the process, Abdoulie has solved the mystery of himself: How could a boy smart enough to disassemble and reassemble the family television be messing up so badly in school? The answer: Nobody at school had noticed that talent until the Ridder Kids encouraged Abdoulie to fit together every intricate part of a robot. For the first time, he felt success and approval.

“I used to be hard-headed,” Abdoulie explained at Ridder one recent afternoon. “Now I’m not that way anymore.”

Some version of Abdoulie’s story could be told about nearly all the dozen Ridder Kids, immigrants from Haiti or Pakistan or Gambia, the children of parents toiling on construction sites or in bodegas. An accident of geography delivered them to Herman Ridder, a school with a sad history.

Decades ago, this school, in a turreted castle of a building on Boston Road, admitted only the most gifted of children based on an entrance exam. It was a little bit of Stuyvesant for the Irish, Italians and Jews of the tenements beside Crotona Park.

Generations came and went, and the neighborhood slid into notoriety. When Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan made their respective visits to the abandoned hulks on Charlotte Street, they were within blocks of Herman Ridder. No longer selective, it had become the last resort for families too poor to afford escape.

With the rebirth of the South Bronx, symbolized by the tidy split-levels that now line Charlotte Street, has come at least a bit of rebirth at Herman Ridder. Under its new principal, Claralee Irobunda, Ridder earned an A on its first progress report from the Department of Education. The department’s Quality Performance Review lauded Ms. Irobunda for providing “leadership that continues to take the school forward at a remarkable rate.”

Before taking over at Ridder, Ms. Irobunda led the guidance department at Morris High, a school a dozen blocks down Boston Road that was so troubled its own faculty once advised it be closed. The Education Department finally did the job, turning the building over to five mini-schools.

One of Ms. Irobunda’s colleagues at Morris was Gary Israel, a social studies teacher and would-be engineer who discovered competitive robotics in the late 1990s. It reminded him of the two extracurricular passions — tennis and clarinet — that animated his own school years at George Washington High in Manhattan.

“It’s the hands-on that’s so important,” he said the other day. “When kids are in classrooms all day, they need outlets. They need more than academics. Robotics can be like the old shop class.”

Both before and after retiring from Morris in June 2005, Mr. Israel has introduced almost 60 schools in the Bronx to robotics.

Officially, he does so now as a paid consultant to the Education Department, but he easily exceeds the 80 days of work specified in his contract. He gets up at 4 a.m., goes to sleep at 11 p.m. and spends many of his 19 waking hours with robotics teams. Each spring, his wife makes him sign a letter, which she posts on the refrigerator, promising to really retire; each fall, he annuls the vow.

At Ridder, Mr. Israel has found a kindred insomniac in Harold Smith, a teacher of technology education. Even after 30 years on the job, Mr. Smith rises at 5:15 a.m. to drive to Ridder from his home 45 miles away in East Brunswick, N.J.

Before classes begin on most mornings, the robotics teammates flock to his room: Travis Williams and Azeem Yousaf, Amado Sanchez, Sabrina Fletcher and all the rest. Having built their robot over the first semester, they now are programming a computer to operate it. In every competition, the robot must perform 13 tasks, all related to a theme of energy resources.

For many of the Ridder Kids, the involvement in robotics has transformed their attitude about school. It has given education purpose and utility, something no standardized test can supply.

“TV doesn’t brighten you,” said Carl Jules, an eighth grader on the team. “The robotics team brightens you.”

Mr. Smith concurred. “I believe they are all geniuses,” he said. “Our job is to tap into their genius.”

At the moment, though, even geniuses face obstacles. The Ridder Kids, who won the citywide robotics prize for elementary and junior high schools last year, finished eighth of 82 teams in this year’s final round. Their trip to Japan, which is part of the international robotics program sponsored by First (an acronym standing for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), will cost $30,000. So far, Mr. Israel has only $400.

“I always feel the money will come through somehow,” Mr. Israel said. “These kids are such great ambassadors. Imagine them going to Japan to show what an ‘inner-city’ school can do. Because we get such a bad rap.”

Samuel G. Freedman is a professor of journalism at Columbia University. His e-mail is sgfreedman@nytimes.com.

NYCFIRST Citywide Award Winners

Champions Award
1st Place 1409 St. Clair School SI Transformers 2
2nd Place 1408 St. Clair School SI Transformers 1
3rd Place 1996 I.S. 75 SI Panthers 2
4th Place 4084 Bronx Latin M. S. Bx Architecti
5th Place 948 Bric-2-Bots Qns Cyberbots Techs


Project Award
1st Place 6292 Cambria Center Qns Warbots
2nd Place 845 M.S. 302X Bx MS302 Tech Squad
3rd Place 1822 M.S. 118X Bx Pacers
4th Place 199 Staten Island Tech Tech Knows
5th Place 1634 ESMT I.S. 190X Bx Team X

Robot Design
1st Place 2132 I.S. 98X Bx Ridder Kids
2nd Place 1995 I. S. 75 SI Panthers1
3rd Place 4850 Manhattan Academy of Technology
PS 126, Chinatown YMCA MATobot
4th Place 198 Staten Island Tech Tech Knights
5th Place 2627 Little Red School House Manhattan LREI Knights

Teamwork
1st Place 1435 Packer Collegiate Institute Bklyn Pack-A-Watt
2nd Place 1965 I.S. 72 SI Rocco Laurie
3rd Place 332 I.S. 24 SI Rogue Leaders
4th Place 5501 I. S. 49 SI Powah Playaz
5th Place 2880 Benjamin Banneker Academy Bklyn RoboWarriors

Spirit
1654 PS 21K Bklyn Crispus Attucks Panthers

Against All Odds
3107 Bedford Academy Bklyn BedBots

Judges Award
196 PS/IS 123 Bx Solargy

Performance Award
1st 1409 St. Clare's SI
2nd 3840 Bric-2-Bots Qns
3rd 1411 St. Clare's SI
4th 948 Brics-2-Bots Qns
5th 1965 IS 72 SI

A better idea what Gracious Professionalism is all about

As for the competition, it was another fine showing. I must commend Randy and everyone on the committees for listening to our past complaints. Finally, rubrics that can not tell a lie and let you know why and how you won an award. Sure, I had a perfect score in 2 categories and received a 4th place plaque, but other teams had perfect scores as well. By showing my kids this and explaining, they had a better idea what Gracious Professionalism is all about.

Thanks again for your time and dedication.

Sincerely,

Steve Raile
Staten Island Tech

WOW!

That's all I can say right now (look for a list of teams that won awards soon) about Saturday's FIRST LEGO League tournament at Riverbank State park in Manhattan. About a 1000 teachers, administrators, kids and parents as active participants and high school and college students joined by people from the business/corporate world as volunteers and contributers, plus around another 1000 there to support them and cheer them on. We were on the edge of capacity and victims of our own success. We are already talking about next year.

We had cooperation in getting the word out from the DOE publicity department at Tweed. Due to their efforts, look for a profile of a team in the NY Times this week.

Everybody is in a good frame of mind at FLL events and here I schmooze with the principal of Bronx Latin HS, which won 4th place overall.

Hōs successus alit; possunt, quia posse videntur.
('Success nourishes them; they can because they think they can.')

Photo by Gary Israel

"Lego Mania Hits NYC" from NY 1

From NY 1
January 26, 2008

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=77884&search_result=1&stid=4

(Thanks to NY 1 for doing an amazing job in covering the tournament by doing reports from throughout the day. Look for follow-up updates on NY 1 and watch the video.)

Eighty teams of grade-school students fought it out in Riverbank State Park Saturday in the city's first Lego League Citywide Championship.

Hundreds of students displayed their Lego skills by building robots and other science projects.

The theme was using energy more efficiently in the real world. As a result, kids added solar panels and other energy-saving technologies to their Lego robots.

Organizers say the project helps the students prepare for their future.

"The world of work has changed," said Randy Schaeffer, regional director of the program. "Work is done globally. Technology is the key to our being able to compete in the global marketplace. These kids are going to work in a world that's entirely different than the one today."

To get ready for this competition, the students, along with a coach, spent the last four months months working on their projects.

"We went around in Woodside and asked the pizza store manager how much he pays monthly and he says he pays like around $400 and we asked the 99-cent store and an average building and then we told them how to save energy," said participant Imran Sajiv. "You can use a dimmer or turn off lights in the house and people saved $200 to $300 a month."

Parents say they are happy their children are involved in this activity.

"It's awesome; it's beautiful," said one parent. "I'm learning along with my son about solar paneling and the world of energy. I'm glad I'm here today."

Winning teams will move on to the international championships in Atlanta this April.

THANK YOU!

Norm-

A big thank you to all for what you and everyone else did for the kids this weekend! Our team had a great time at Riverbank. The kids were really impressed by everything, but especially by the tone of collegiality and good will that existed amongst the teams. As a parent, I wish there was just a fraction of that spirit in youth sports. I realize all the work that goes into setting such a tone and into making everything run as smoothly as it did. What a feat!

Our team would like to go to The Javits Center on April 4. Could we attend as a group? If you could, please let me know how that gets arranged.

Again, THANK YOU!

Kate Coen

Team Parent

Team 2235

Microbots, Staten Island

Congratulations

Greetings Everyone,

I also would like to congratulate the incredible team of organizers, committee members, sponsors, volunteers, coaches and teams on an amazing event!

It was an overwhelming experience for me this year as a second year coach, but I am glad to see that all of our hard work and dedication paid off!

I look forward to collaborating with everyone on the FLL Planning Committee and NYCNJ FIRST to continue our mission to promote and share the spirit of what it's all about!

The kids and their parents had a wonderful time!

I wish all of the FRC teams this season good luck!

See you all at the Javitz Center in the Spring!

Very Truly Yours,
Keith A. Wynne

Elementary Science Specialist
Grades 2-5
P.S. 58 The Carroll School
330 Smith Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11231
(718)-330-9322

"Educating students from around the globe since 1996."

Congratulations and Thanks to All!

Hi everyone --

What a wonderful year it has been! Yesterday's Championship was amazing. The fun, the energy, the learning. Absolutely incredible. All made possible through your efforts.

Our successful transition to qualifying tournaments marks another milestone in the continuing growth of NYC FLL. Our FLL planning committee reached new highs as an organization.

Through your contribution of time, energy, and creativity you have positively impacted the lives of hundreds and hundreds of kids around the City. That fact was so very evident in the faces of the kids throughout the day.

Thank you so very much for all that you do.

Randy