Saturday, October 16, 2010

Great Overview of the FLL Body Forward 2010 Challenge

If you're like many new teams, it is overwhelming knowing even where to begin with the challenges of FIRST LEGO League.  It is a LOT to absorb.  Some have likened it to "drinking from a firehose".  I can attest to this.  Which is why it is so good to have plenty of time and lots of help on a team to divide and conquer and READ, READ, READ everything you can about the challenge.

To give your brain a rest and satisfy some of the more immediate needs for visual understanding I highly suggest YouTube.  There is a playlist for Body Forward videos.  You'd be amazed by what you can learn on YouTube.  Of course, there and seemingly hundreds of millions of truly inane time wasters out there, but that's why I liken the Internet to the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden... it has everything, but you have to be careful what you ask for and not everything may be as it seems...  ;-)

Anyway, here are a couple of videos to get you started:

Remember to teach your team about K.I.S.S.! (As an technology systems engineer I can assure you this is VERY true!)  My favorite quote on the subject comes paraphrased from Einstein...

"Everything should be as simple as possible, and no simpler."

If you have any gifted wisecracks on your team trying to over complicate matters, you may challenge them to find out what  lex parsimoniae means.  (Hint: Occam's Razor)
  • FLRobotics Body Forward Overview - The Legooners of Florida created this great "edutainment" stop motion clip to both educate and inform about the game and some of the nuances of scoring.  NICELY DONE!
 
Well that's it for this morning, I have to go be an overshceduled father!  :-D