FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Project
I have been very actively involved with students' after-school activities since 2002. I developed a "Robotics Program" at Pownal Elementary School in October 2002 when I worked there. This program became a great success and earned the Pownal Elementary School students the champion in December 2003 and the fourth place in 2004 in the Maine State robotics competition.
When I first worked at Pownal Elementary School as a computer teacher, I introduced FIRST LEGO League (FLL) to the school. FLL is an international program for children ages 9-14. Every year in September, FLL provides a real-world challenge for the students all over the world. The challenge consists of a Robot Game and a Research. Students are required to work in teams of up to 10 members to the solve the problems. It is a very hands-on and interactive program. It was fun and arouse students' interests in math, science and technology.
When I started the program in 2002, I had over 30 students sign up for it. Pownal Elementary School was a small rural K-8 public school and the total student population was about 140. All students old enough participated in the robotics program.
2002's challenge was City Sights. There were eight missions in total: Food Harvest, Soccer Field, Repair Bridge, Clean Energy, Toxic Clean Up, Modular Housing, Food Delivery and Material Delivery. Students had only three months to solve the problems as Maine State usually hosted a competition in December or early January. Within in the three months, students worked many hours after school every day to build and program their robots. They were troubleshooting and testing the robots again and again in order for the robots to perform the missions as required. Students also did a thorough research and created a technological solution to the challenge in order to present it at the tournament.
As I had three teams, the students always competed with each other to do a better job. They were proud of their roles and fully engaged in the activities such as building, programming and testing. Three month's hard work paid off when the students got the champion in the state tournament in 2002. The championship not only brought the honor to the Pownal Elementary School but also greatly increased the students' enthusiasm in math, science and technology. In September 2003, I organized another two teams. To my great satisfaction, one of the teams won a fourth place out of 57 teams in Maine. In October 2004, Pownal Elementary School students and I were invited to present the Robotics Program at the Maine Technology Conference and was a big hit at the conference.
Robotics has become a traditional program for the Pownal Elementary School ever since. It has still had a great impact in students' learning.
