Trashmendous Compete Internationally at the Razorback FLL Championships, Arkansas USA

Posted on June 22, 2016 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Trashmendous, the Gordon East Public School First Lego League Team, qualified and competed in the International Razorback FLL Championships, Arkansas,USA for 4 days from 19th to the 22nd of May. 72 teams from all around the world participated. It was a fantastic experience and we are extremely proud to have received 1st place in the Inspiration section of the Core Values and 3rd place in the Robot Alliance Challenge.

But let’s rewind and start at the beginning.

Our journey began when the FLL Trash Trek season started in August 2015. Six weeks later we competed at the Regional Competition and qualified for the National Competition in December. At the Nationals we qualified to compete Internationally at the Razorback FLL Championships, Arkansas USA. Here are some pictures of the team working on their robot as they readied themselves for the International Competition.

With 9 months of hard work behind us, on 18th May, 2016 we embarked on our OS adventure.

Ms Simmonds (Principal of GEPS), eight team members, eight parents, two siblings and myself met at airport and boarded our Qantas plane for the 15 hour long haul to Dallas, five hour lay over at Dallas and then the short domestic flight to Fayetteville in Arkansas.

Some of the team took the ‘layover’ at Dallas Airport quite literally.

Here we met up with the 9th team member, Alex. At the end of last year Alex moved to Singapore and he continued his team involvement through Skype, shared documents and watching videos the team sent him. One of the FLL Core Values is inclusion and the team embraced this wholeheartedly as they kept Alex as a special and valuable part of the team despite the distance. Alex and his mum flew into Arkansas from Singapore via London and their journey made our long trip seem short.

We all stayed together in the very pleasant University of Arkansas student accommodation and had lots of fun.

Day 1

Setting up our pit.

Drury expertise created our structure..and all materials were carried from Aus.

Look how fabulous our Trashmendous Pit looked

The team practised their robot missions. There were a few dramas as variations between these tables and our one in Aus caused significant problems. A few stressful hours, rejigging and programming modifications fixed this…well done Coach Jim and Andrew.

The team met the referees and carried out a practise round of the Robot challenge to see that they complied with all the rules.

Then we were off to the opening ceremony in the beautiful Omega Chi amphitheatre. It was very uplifting and an extremely proud moment when we were called out the front to sing the Australian National Anthem…We had goosebumps as we truly realised we were representing Australia. Each of the participating countries sang their anthems but perhaps the most thrilling of these was the American National Anthem. Of the 72 teams competing, many were from different states in the USA. When they all sang, we were surrounded by different teams all proudly raising their voices in song and it was absolute joy to be part of the event. Each of the countries swung their flags and it was quite a spectacle.

Even the rain did not dampen our enthusiasm.

In the late evening we met in the loft of the boys room to debrief, strategise and plan for the following day.

Day 2

The competition began and in the morning we had three rounds of the Robot Games. Trashinator, our robot,scored progressively higher with each round but was still scoring well below its maximum capacity. Morale was challenged but Trashmendous showed resilience and kept on trying.

Attention to detail was essential

Nail biting moments Watching and waiting Teamwork
Being filmed by the paparazzi

The team confirm the scores with the refs. Starting the composter.
Approaching the car Dropping the engine inTransport mission Fll arkansas-342 Pushing the truck holding the yellow tray in the ‘Transport Mission’.
Careers

The afternoon was busy with the first round judgings for Gracious Professionalism, Trash trek Presentation and Robot design. Here are some pictures of us waiting for the sessions and doing our ‘power poses’ to ready the team for the sessions.

Here is an inside sneek-peek of the Robot Judging

Whilst all this was going on our fantastic backup crew were manning the pits. Apples were slinkied and lots of vegemite was tasted by non-Aussies who did not have our appreciation for the thick black yeast extract. Josie and Nina did a fantastic job in the pits…thanks so much girls.

Some of the ‘I do not like vegemite faces’.

I mustn’t forget the eating because we did ‘lots of that’. The University provided the food and it was very good with lots of choices and LOTS OF VOLUME.

In the evening there was a talent show and carnival rides and games.

We also made our own fun by running down an extremely steep hill.

At 10pm we received an email saying that we had a call back for Gracious Professionalism…and we were so proud and excited.

Day 3

We had an early morning meeting over breakfast to discuss and refine our strategies for the second round Gracious Professionalism judging.

The team did a great job in their call back session. The judges also visited the pits to carry out further interviews.

Trashinator had another three rounds and scored a glorious 462 points on the last run at the hands of Andrew and Alex. How we all cheered…it was a very thrilling, albeit nail biting, couple of minutes. My face began to hurt from smiling so much.

The judging was now complete and the team had some fun in the pits.

In the evening there was another carnival and the Robot Alliance Games. The latter was a knockout competition where teams worked in pairs to score as many points as possible in 90 seconds with two robots on the game field.

Trashmendous’s alliance partner was ‘Brick Smart,’ a lovely group of boys from The Woodlands, Texas USA. The competition was lots of fun and extremely exciting. We came third out of the 36 alliance pairs and we were thrilled.

Outside the team embraced the carnival antics.

Day 4

The closing ceremony was in the morning and the weather was perfect as we returned to the Omega Chi Theatre.

Our inflatable kangaroo was there too.All participants received a participation medal.

Then the announcer called our name for a major prize. Here is the extract from his script.

‘Gracious Professionalism – These awards recognize teams whose members show each other and other teams respect at all times. They recognize that both friendly competition and mutual gain are possible, on and off the playing field.

This team knows how to keep the balance in all aspects of FLL, even while travelling around the world. This team’s bright shirts and colorful personalities were only amplified by their “trashy” hats. Their

demonstration of core values and skills outside of FLL were absolutely tremendous! The winner of the First‐place Inspiration award is Trashmendous from Sydney, Australia’.

Congratulations team…well done!!!

And so it was over.

Thank you Richard Cassady and the crew in Arkansas, you organised the event beautifully. We were very lucky to attend an FLL event with you at the helm.

Thank you Jen Simmonds (Principal of Gordon East Public School) for supporting the team every inch of the way. You are also a great travel buddy.

Thank you parents. When it comes to remarkable children, the apple does not fall far from the tree.

Thank you Coach Jim for stepping in and helping Trashmendous with their Robot and Robotic Games. Your input was very appreciated and invaluable.

Clayton and Kate you did a fabulous job organising the pits, thanks for taking the children to the Great Food fight and your constant positive energy and support.

(Thanks again to Nina and Josie who fitted in and helped so much).

Wendy thank you for all your work as treasurer and wonderful experience and input into the fund raising. We loved having meetings at your home and your good humour is infectious and heart warming.

Emma (on left) thanks for your invaluable voice and theatre coaching. You were an absolute champion the way you walked the shops looking for sponsors and helped with the fund raising. Thanks for organising the original T-shirts and transfers.

June thank you for organising the team shirts..they were fabulous.

Madeline you rock when it comes to efficiently finding cheap flights for the team and you look good with lots of badges.

Chloe thank you for helping with the International Design on the t-shirts. I am so sorry I do not have a picture of you.

Metcalfe family, thank you for allowing us to take over your house for months with a huge Robot table and regular meetings.

Trashmendous, I hope you enjoyed your Trash Trek FLL journey. It was a privilege to be your coach and watch you grow. You are all amazing children and the future is bright when I know people such as you will be at the helm.

All my very best wishes

Mrs Garlick

Please sponsor Trashmendous going to First Lego League Razorback Open Championship in Arkansas, USA.

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Trashmendous to compete in FLL Razorback Open Championship in USA

CAN YOU HELP?

Trashmendous sponsorship letter

Any donations no matter how big or small will be greatly appreciated

Kind regards

Mrs Garlick

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Our First Lego League Team ‘Trashmendous’ in the North Shore Times

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Our First Lego League Team ‘Trashmendous’ were in the North Shore Times. Below is a copy of the article.

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

National First Lego League and Beyond

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

On Saturday 5^th of December, Gordon East Public School’s mighty team, ‘Trashmendous ’competed at the National First Lego League Competition at Macquarie University. There were 46 teams from around Australia competing in the Trash Trek and the atmosphere was pumped and positively buzzing. The standard of work from all the teams was extremely high and it was very stimulating seeing and speaking to the other teams about their robots, models and work.

Our team has been working very hard since the challenge was released in August and this showed. Ms Simmonds, the parents and I were so proud as the whole day the students worked as a respectful, helpful, interactive and cohesive unit. Their excellent team work won them the ‘National Teamwork Award’. We were thrilled beyond belief to find out that we were one of a select number of teams that will be progressing to International First Lego League. We will find out the details of this over the next few weeks. Well done team…what a phenomenal achievement. This is even more impressive given the competition is for children 9 to 16 years of age and our little cohort of champs are 11 and 12 years old

The Trash Trek involves 3 components:

Core Values and Gracious Professionalism

Research project and Presentation

Robot games.

Core Values and Gracious Professionalism

This is what FIRSTS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS………….The FLL Core Values are the cornerstones of the FLL program. They are among the fundamental elements that distinguish FLL from other programs of its kind. By embracing the Core Values, participants learn that friendly competition and mutual gain are not separate goals, and that helping one another is the foundation of teamwork. We are a team. We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors. We know our coaches and mentors don’t have all the answers; we learn together. We honour the spirit of friendly competition. What we discover is more important than what we win. We share our experiences with others. We display Gracious Professionalism® and Coopertition® in everything we do.

GP1 – Gracious Professionalism® – You are “Gracious Professionals.”
●● You compete hard against PROBLEMS, while treating PEOPLE with respect and kindness – people from your own team,
as well as other teams, and other countries.
●● Coaches and parents lead by example.
●● You build onto other people’s ideas instead of resisting or defeating them.

Robot Games

The robot games have many missions which vary in difficulty and number of points awarded. There are clearly defined rules and penalties. It is not possible to achieve all challenges so the students plan strategies for the missions they will accomplish. Arms and attachments must be designed to carry out the challenges and programs written. This is open ended problem solving at its best.

Under pinning this the Robot Games are developed and produced so students can:
• have fun with science and technology, gaining confidence, knowledge, and skill at the same time.
• practice taking risks and innovating in a team setting.

Here are some pictures of our team in action

Here is the Bot in action

The children were also judged on their robot design, programming, strategies and their design journey.

Here is a look at some of the competition –

Presentation and Research Project

This is what the students were asked to do:

Identify a Problem To begin your TRASH TREK project, choose a piece of rubbish and identify a problem with the way it is currently handled. Look for problems with the way we make, transport, store, or turn trash into something new.

Research and find out about the current solutions. Why aren’t the current solutions working? Why does this problem still exist?

Design an Innovative Solution to your problem. A solution that adds value to society by improving something that already exists in a new way or inventing something totally new.

Once you design your solution, share it!

Present Your Solution at a Tournament Finally, prepare a presentation to share your work with the judges at a tournament. Your presentation can include posters, slideshows, models, multimedia clips, props, costumes, and more. Be creative, but also make sure you cover all the essential information.

Trashmendous carried out a rubbish audit at school and found lots of uneaten food thrown into the bin. Their FLL mission was to reduce this.

Ford is a major sponsor and they brought a Ford Mustang along and the team were pretty comfortable in the convertible.

Here is the team having some down time in the pits sitting on a bean bag filled with recycled bottles.

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Trashmendous- Our journey through the First Lego League competition

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Jennifer Garlick

Hello everyone we are two of the Trashmendous members, Ella and Imogen, reporting from Gordon East Robotics Room. Recently we attended the First Lego League regional competition! There were many awesome and tough teams, 35 to be exact (if you include us it was 36). But, only four of those teams made it to Nationals. And guess what? We were one of those teams! Along with making it to Nationals, we also received the award for Gracious Professionalism. We received an exemplary score in all areas of Gracious Professionalism. Below we will be explaining the different aspects of the competition and how we completed them. Hope you enjoy!

One third of the score that we needed to achieve belonged to the Project. For our project, we looked at Food Waste and its terrible impact on us humans. We worked out ways to help people not waste perfectly fine fruits, veggies and foods! For our project, we needed to come up with an Innovative Solution for our problem at hand. We had four. Our first Innovative Solution was the Food Swap. This was where students could bring food that they definitely wouldn’t eat up to our table and trade it in for another piece of food that they will eat. People who didn’t have enough food could also come up to our table and pick something to eat. When we came up with the idea, we thought it would definitely work! We even had a motto! “Hey dude eat your food! If you don’t like what’s made make a trade!” But, I guess we were proved wrong. Not many people came up to our table to trade in or pick up food. We thought this happened because it was a Canteen Day and some kids might not have been comfortable with trading food.

So we moved onto our next Innovative Solution. Operation Apple. Operation Apple was where kids would bring in apples from home and we would slinky them for them. We decided to do Operation Apple when we saw lots of perfectly fine apples thrown away in our bins. We purchased Apple Slinkies for each of the classes at our school and we hope that students will use them and make good use of them.

Operation Apple was a great success. Each child seemed to enjoy their apples once they were slinkied. Our next Innovative Solution was Mission Survey. Mission Survey was where we sent out a Survey to the whole school. The survey was titled: “Why Do You Throw Out Food At School?” We used the Survey creation tool called Google Forms. Once everyone had answered, we collected the results and graphed them. We then analysed the Graphs.

Our last Innovative Solution was Project Portions. Project Portions was where we educated the students and their parents on reducing portion sizes. We spoke to the canteen volunteers about how they can reduce portion sizes. We thought this worked really well. All of these Innovative Solutions made our problem easier to conquer. But still, perfectly fine pieces of food are being thrown out around the world. You can help to stop this by taking our solutions and applying them in your own life to help the world.

Another third of our score was dedicated to The Robot Games. The Robot Games was where your NXT robot was programmed to complete a bunch of challenges across the Game Board. We chose to complete these challenges: Compost, Demolition, Transport, Scrap Cars and Careers. Compost was where your robot had to press a button and wait 20 seconds for a piece of puck to come out. Demolition is where your robot has to knock over a building. We chose to ram it over instead of pulling down the lever. Transport was where your robot had to push a lego truck across a line of Lego. Once the truck reached the middle of the line, the truck picked up a yellow container. The truck then had to dump that container off at the end of the track. Scrap Cars was where your robot had to either fold up the car or place an engine found at base into it to repair it. We chose to place the engine into it. The last challenge that we completed was Careers. Careers was where your robot had to push two people into the area where the Sorter lies. For the regional competition, we only tried to go for Demolition, Scrap Cars and Compost. We only just recently achieved Careers and Transport and will be using them for the competition.

Another third of the score was core values, This was to identify a team who showed exemplary teamwork, A clear explanation on our efficiency and effectiveness as working in Trashmendous team. To identify the impact we give to our other peers for both elders and kids through our inspiration, Which showed Team spirit, Integration and Discovery. Best of all they were looking for Gracious professionalism , identifying Inclusion, Respect and Coopertition. All the judges across the board we looking for two aspects and they were to HAVE FUN and WORK AS A TEAM! 😀

All in all, the competition day was extremely fun but very competitive at the same time. We would just like to congratulate all of the other teams that competed. You deserved our place in Nationals as much as we did. Congratulations to all of the teams who won awards and made it to Nationals as well. Imogen and Ella, reporting from the Gordon East Lego Robotics Room, signing out. Thank you.

First Lego League Regional Competition Macquarie University October 31st 2015

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Yesterday the Gordon East Public School Team ‘Trashmendous’ competed in the First Lego League Trash Trek 2015-2016 Regional Competition at Macquarie University.

36 teams of children aged 9 to 16 years old participated and we were one of the 4 teams that will progress onto the National FLL Challenge in December 2015. Congratulations Trashmendous…you sure are Tremendous.

The Trash Trek involves 3 components:

Core Values and Gracious Professionalism

Research project and Presentation

Robot games.

Core Values and Gracious Professionalism

We were very honoured to receive the ‘Gracious Professionalism award’. This is quintessentially what the whole competition is about…students working together in teams, respecting, helping, inspiring, encouraging and learning together whilst having fun in the process. I believe ‘Gracious Professionalism’ under pins the students’ future happiness and success in life and we can not ask for any more than that.

Presentation and Research Project

This is what the students were asked to do:

Research and find out about the current solutions. Why aren’t the current solutions working? Why does this problem still exist?

Design an Innovative Solution to your problem. A solution that adds value to society by improving something that already exists in a new way or inventing something totally new.

Once you design your solution, share it!

Trashmendous carried out a rubbish audit at school and found lots of uneaten food thrown into the bin. Their FLL mission was to reduce this.

Here is the team at the presentation