Robots!

[howarthe]

FIRST and LEGO have created a league in which children ages 9-14 can compete in a robot game. They are given a challenge and several missions worth various points and then they work on programing a robot to complete as many missions as possible in the time allotted. Some robotics teams are comprised of scouts: Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts. Has anyone here formed up a robotics team? How did you finance it? It costs about $900 to start a team. It only costs about $500/year to maintain a team. Did you just ask parents to pay? Did you conduct fund raisers? Did you get corporate donations? Was it all worth the trouble?

[Basementdweller]

You will need at least $2k to do it.

 

You need two sets of legos, one primary and the second to troubleshot with.

 

you need two laptops, don't use your personal one because they will drop it or lean on it and break the screen.

 

You need to mark absolutely everything because other teams will help themselves.

 

It was fun, son did it, but it was the biggest hassle.. One person needs to own the kits and no one takes them home other than the owner....

 

I would not attempt it in a cub scout Pack. the modules are fragile and one twist will destroy some of the motors and sensors.....

[raisinemright]

My son is on a FIRST FRC team and I'm one of the coaches (like I don't have enough to do) Be careful, once you get sucked into the FIRST vortex, it's hard to get out.

 

FIRST is a Grade A organization. I've got no experience with FIRST Lego League but our team is part of a consortium of FIRST teams under the same banner. Check out www.techbrick.com for lots of good info.

 

FLL is pretty reasonable in cost compared to FRC. I think our budget pushed $40K last year. We won Rookie of the Year and went to the World Championships. Lots of scouts are involved with FIRST.

 

Work on corporate sponsorships. Local technical type companies are often ready to help with cash, gear and sometimes people.

 

We charge a fee to join. It's $100 which defrays some monor costs with FRC but goes a long way with FLL.

 

Hook up with other teams, they are glad to help.

 

Now, for a story. Today, we were at robot and there was a new boy. I was near the tool bench and he asked for a razor knife. I couldn't find it so I was going to hand him my pocketknife. First, I asked if he had used pocketknives before and he said "Yes, I'm a Boy Scout." Music to my ears. I asked his rank and he said First Class. I told him I was a SM and our troop number and gave him my knife.

 

Of course, he said "thank you."

[howarthe]

I just got a grant to coach a team!

[Basementdweller]

Grant money????

 

Go have fun...

[raisinemright]

Great News Howarthe.

 

Get another parent or two to help out and remember to step back. One of FIRST's abiding principles is just like Scouts

 

Learn, Try, Fail, Try Again.