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

Stage 2 Gifted and Talented Excursion to Mac ICT C.R.E.A.T.E Maker Day

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Last Week 24 gifted and talented students from GEPS attended a Maker C.R.E.A.T.E Bootcamp at Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre. We all had a wonderful day and learnt and experienced so much.

In the morning the children worked in pairs and used recycled materials and Little Bits electronics parts to make an automatic bin lid opener.

Here is a video of three devices in action and their proud creators.

Have a peep at the photos of the children in action…look at the high level of engagement and team work!!

In the afternoon the students worked individually to design and make their own electronic device using recycled materials, battery and a buzzer or a light. Here are some of the wonderful creations.

A dog with a light up nose.

Money boxes with paper clips on the inside that light up when a coin completes the circuit.

Fire engines with flashing lights

and many more creations

It was a fabulous…thanks John Burfoot who did a tremendous job presenting and running the day and the wonderful team at Mac ICT.

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

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

Robot Games

Here are some pictures of our team in action

Here is a video of their Bot in action

The team were interviewed and questioned about their robot design and programming.

Throughout the day there were:

Lots of smiles

More serious moments

Less serious moments – Dancing

Cheering

And most of all WE HAD FUN

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Talented students design and build at home

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Alex and Lily, a talented brother and sister team, designed and made this amazing house at home.

Here are some pictures of their fabulous work….well done team!!!

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Meeting Asimo

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Years 5 and 6 completed a research project on their favourite robot and ASIMO was the most popular.

Two of our students were lucky enough to meet this humanoid robot in real life when they visited Japan several weeks ago.

Mrs Garlick

Gordon East Public School at the National First Lego League Competition Saturday 2014

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Last Saturday our team of 6 girls from years 5 and 6 participated in the

National First Lego League Competition

We competed against 37 other teams from all over Australia.

This took our Gifted and Talented extension to a whole new level.

Here is a photographic recall of the day.

The Opening Ceremony set the tone for the day showing all there would be lots of fun but also serious competition.

One third of the marks were awarded for the ROBOTIC COMPONENT. This was made up by the ‘Robotic Games’ and an interview with the judges where the girls discussed their robot design and programming.

The robotic games were extremely challenging but lots of fun. The girls had 3 rounds of 2 and a half minutes where the autonomous robot had to score as many points as possible. They found this stressful yet very thrilling as loud music blarred, large crowds watched and people cheered.

The girls worked hard at the practice tables throughout the day.

The team were very pleased with their performance in the robot judging as they had improved since the Regional Competition. Well done ladies!!! Improvement is what it is all about!!

Wow the competition at National Level was mindblowing especially as the competitors were up to 16 years of age and had entered FLL many times before. We all felt very inspired by the great work of the other teams…..(although secretly often a little overwhelmed). We certainly collected some ideas for next year!!! One of the teams met after school 3 times a week and worked until 9pm at night!!! Another team was home schooled and worked constantly on the FLL challenge. We were very privileged to be amongst such a high achieving cohort……Gordon East Gifted and Talented extension was certainly being extended. I was fortunate enough to speak with some of the coaches from the teams who qualified for internationals and they shared some valuable insights. I plan to liaise with them further.

Here are some photos of our competitors.

The second third of the marks came from the Research Project where the teams had to choose a FLL question and innovatively create ways of teaching this to others.

Our girls’ FLL question was, ‘How to teach others about what is in fast food’. The girls were concerned about the level of obesity in Australia and the fact that people were not listening to how bad for you fast foods are. This is where the team name ‘Robotic Foodies’ came from. Georgia did a fabulous job designing the team T-shirts that you see in the photos. The girls created a blog and a web site about Fast Food. They carried out taste testings, made and edited videos, created a poster, interviewed a Dietician and wrote and choreographed a song and dance about Fast Food that they performed. On the few days leading up to the Nationals over 1000 people from all over the world visited the website. Well done girls!!!

The final third of the marks involved judging the students’ Core Values including Gracious Professionalism.

Here is the marking rubric out lining how this works.

Here are our girls having some fun.

The day was lots of fun yet stressful and action packed with highs and lows. The girls showed resilience, tenacity, team work and gave their complete best in all areas of the competition. Well done champs…we’re all proud of you.

They walked away from the day with ‘National Medals’ and a wealth of invaluable learning experiences. (So did their teacher/coach ).

Ms Simmonds (Principal of GEPS) was there for the whole day providing invaluable support…thanks Jen.

GEPS certainly is a great school !!!

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

First Lego League Regional Competition 2014

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Yesterday our two Gordon East Public School teams competed in the First Lego League Regional Competition at Macquarie University. We were ‘rookies’ competing for the first time against many experienced teams with children aged from 9 to 16 years of age. Our students performed at a very high level with courage, resilience, persistence and as team members exhibiting a high level of ‘gracious professionalism’.

Here are the highlights of the day:

The girls won the ‘2014 Macquarie Regional FLL Tournament Creative Presentation Award’ and have progressed onto the next level – the National FLL Competition. Brilliant work and a huge congratulations ladies!!!

Both the Boy and Girl teams had personal bests successfully completing their greatest number of Robotics missions to date.

The students’ research presentations were exceptional involving impressive use of technology with computer games designed using Scratch Software, videos, blog, posters, web site and interactive hands on basketball game. These were all created by the team members who spoke eloquently and carried themselves with poise and confidence.

Watching the teams work together in a mutually supportive way to achieve their goals. People who can effectively and happily work in teams have much easier, successful and happy lives.
Seeing the Boys’ resilience and pulling together when the AV could not be set up for their first presentation. When the going gets tough the tough get going…and our boys were the epitome of this. They made the best of a difficult situation, acted with great dignity and never gave up. Well done champs.

Watching the boys’ sensational presentation when the AV did work.
Seeing the students perform so well under pressure. The two and a half minutes the robot had to carry out the challenge with loud music and people cheering was quite stressful. All students had shaking hands but smiles on their faces and exemplified a high level of composure at all times. The children handled the robots not doing as they intended with good grace and sportsmanship.

Seeing the students (especially the girls) embrace the event by dancing and going around to the other teams and engaging with them.

Knowing the teams did their absolute best in all situations.
Seeing the smiles on the faces of happy learners/

Here is a look at some of the competition.

Well done to all involved and we wish the girls all the best when they compete at Nationals next month.

Best regards always

Mrs Garlick

Stage 2 Build Planes and Control them with Tilt Sensors

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Today the children in Stage 2 started their unit ‘Adventure Stories’ by building a plane and controlling the speed with a tilt sensor. They programmed the plane to fly at maximum speed when the sensor was tilted upwards and a random speed when the sensor was tilted down. The children added appropriate sounds to accompany the type of motion. Next week each pair will pretend they are the pilot and a reporter and carry out an interview. This will be presented to the class using the plane as a prop. Above are some photos.

Thanks for calling by

Mrs Garlick

Gifted and Talented Incursion for Stages 2 and 3

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Jennifer Garlick

Dear Bloggers,

Last week John Burfoot came to GEPS to teach Gifted and Talented Robotics lessons. Please read his Biography below to see how lucky we were to have him.

John Burfoot

Biography

John Burfoot is a part-time primary school teacher with the Catholic Education Office in Sydney. He is currently teaching at St Therese Primary School in Padstow as their science specialist. John has designed and facilitated a diverse range of science programs including Electricity in Aviation, Sailing and Soaring, Earth Science, Robots in Society, and Food & Cooking. He has also gained recognition for his mentoring of student teams for external science & technology programs such as the CSIRO Science Challenge, RoboCup Junior Australia, NSW TechnoPush Challenge, 60s Science Challenge, and FIRST LEGO^®League Australia.

John also has his own education business known as Sci-riffic^®, which specialises in the area of science and robotics. He currently runs training programs and workshops for teachers and students from Catholic, public and independent schools. John was recently selected to design and implement a Unit of Work for teachers on Simple Machines using LEGO^® Robotics in the context of Theme Park Amusements. He is an authority on the LEGO^® Mindstorms^® NXT and WeDo^® Robots, and has presented and spoken at numerous educational conferences, including the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, ICT Educators of NSW, St George & Sutherland Community College, Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre, and the NSW Priority Schools Program’s Equity Conference at Darling Harbour.

John holds a Bachelor of Education (Primary), a Certificate IV in Training & Assessment and is a qualified electronics technician.

Stage 2 Gifted and Talented Incursion

Twenty students in Stage 2 used the networked computers in the Computer Lab to send and receive messages from computers to robots. It was lots of fun watching the children write programs and then send them to other children’s robots. In class we regularly download from the children’s computers to their own robots but this was the first time people were making other people’s robots carry out their programs. Very exciting and powerful!!! Mr Burfoot showed the children how to record their own voices and then play them back in a program and the children programmed their bots to carry out their maths homework for them. (Clever!!!).

Perhaps the highlight of the class was the children designing and making their own interactive game and controlling it with the We Do Tilt sensor. Using Scratch 1.4 (2 is not compatible with the robotic sensors) the children designed their own sprites (characters) and imported others and transformed their size and orientation. The children created a plane and their own hand drawn (computer hand drawn that is) clouds were programmed, using the x and y coordinates, to move down the screen. A flying obstacle (eg witch) was then added. Logical thinking and problem solving skills were employed as the children built a program to move the witch diagonally across the screen and when the plane hit her a sound was created and the words ‘game over’ came up. Logic and sequential thinking were needed to program the arrow keys to control the plane. If that was not enough!!!….. The program became even more sophisticated as the control of the plane was handed over to the WeDo Tilt sensor as each of the 6 tilt orientations had different movements assigned to them.

If you think that this is amazing……..WE DO TOO…………It was AMAZING.

The children continued this activity in their regular class time and presented their phenomenal results to the class.

Great news we will be doing this work in class with all the Lego Robotics students…either in the last few weeks of term and DEFINITELY NEXT YEAR.

Stage 3 – Gifted and Talented Incursion

Stage 3 students calculated the maximum speed their robot could travel using Data logging. Their car was programmed to travel as fast as possible over a 2.1metre distance that was marked with white tape every 30 cm. The light sensors on the robot detected the white tape so when the data was uploaded the students were able to read the time from their graph. Using the speed = distance/time formula the speed in cm/sec was calculated. Students predicted what they thought the maximum speed was and they all under estimated just how fast the bots can go!!!!! Ah we have speedy bots here at GEPS!!!

Students were taught how to use Blue Tooth to create a remote control that could operate from a distance of 50m. This involved paring the bots and writing programs for the Master and Slave. The master is the robot that tells the Slave what to do. Here is one the programs.

The highlight came when the students used the Blue Tooth controller they created to race their Slave Robots around a racing track.

Below is a video of two of the cars going around the track. The top link is for windows and the second for Macs.

blue tooth remote control car for blog

blue tooth remote control car for MAc

Back in regular Lego Robotics class the students presented this to the class and continued the activity and we had inter class speed rallies. It was so much fun.

A big thanks to John for the highly professional, very informative and great fun day.

Watch this space. Lego Robotics at GEPS just gets better and better.