Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The kids worked today. Right now, they should be working out programming bugs and working on who's going to be setting up the robot. However, I found a lot of kids just playing with legos. The legos really shouldn't even be out at this point any more. I want the kids to be totally done tomorrow, but I don't see this happening. Already a few kids are realizing that they're running out of time, and so they're thinking about coming in early on Saturday so that they can tune up their robots.
A lot of the kids keep running their programs and then after maybe twenty runs find that it doesn't do the task anymore, so they go and adjust the program. And then they run that program for awhile, and then the same thing keeps happening. I don't know yet if they realize that they're draining the batteries. Come competition, when we change out the batteries for fresh ones, I think they'll be in for a bad surprise. We'll ahve to talk about that tomorrow.

- Kyle Norquist

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

I supervised the kids for awhile. They were good today. A few were off task, but James and I took care of it. After lego was over, we went over to help facilities by doing a couple posters to tell the teams where their tables are.
Well, the competition is this weekend. So far, every group can do at least one mission. I think the most one group can do is four. So we're in a pretty good shape for this weekend. I just don't want the other kids to feel bad if they don't do good. Maybe I'll remind them that there is always next year.

- Kyle Norquist

Monday, November 13, 2006

We dedicated today to presentations. I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed. I know that it's our job as mentors to get these kids through the whole process, but after seeing the quality of the work done after a whole month of research and work, I'm not just a little pessimistic as to our chances. Tomorrow maybe we'll try to talk to the teams at the beginning of the meeting. Have ourselves a serious talk. I really think they don't realize that the competition is less than a week away. Some teams barely have one mission done, and even then, the robot is unreliable because they're using dead reckoning.
Also, we don't even have team shirts. Thien says that we'll just have to have them wear their school uniforms, as it's obviously too late to get the shirts.
I know I'm supposed to be nice and calm, but some of the kids are driving me crazy. Don't they understand the concept of deadlines? The competition is this weekend. Well, I really don't know...I guess us mentors will just try to do our jobs answering questions and whatnot. I just think it's a little difficult when they don't even bother to ask for help.
I just don't want the kids to think that they have plenty of time when they don't, and then go to competition and be completely humiliated and feel bad. Because I know that that is what's going to happen.
Maybe I'm thinking too hard. I'll just try to do my job the best I can.

- Kyle Norquist

Thursday, November 9, 2006

We took a team photo to send to the sponsors first. Then in lego the kids worked on their robots again. They're making progress, but I think that they really need to get on top of things if they want to be finished in time.
Actually, we should already be done building and be touching up the programming now. We are way behind on schedule. The NXT group looks good, and the other groups are getting there, even if slowly. Perhaps last minute rushing(which is inevitable going to happen) could have been avoided if we had started earlier in the year. I know that the icebreakers are important, but I really think we should have been working two weeks before we started. But that's an idea for next year.
I think I'm getting burnt out now. It's the final stretch for lego, so I'll try to do my best and help the kids as much as possible. I am getting a little sick of a couple kids, though. As we don't usually have any adults constantly supervising, discipline becomes an issue. We don't want to be mean or anything, but at the same time, some of these kids need to be kept under control. Oh well. It's almost over anyways.

- Kyle Norquist

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Kids seemed on task today. I talked with the researchers a little and it looks like the presentations will be pretty good. They just needt to cut down on the amount of text they have on their slide shows and focus on talking more. The RCX teams looked like they did a lot today. One group was trying to get their robot to do three missions in one program. They can get pretty far, but I don't think its very safe. What if the get stuck all the way on the other side of the field? We get penalties every time we have to pick up the robot.
The NXT group had a lot of progress today. James had them doing programming, and they have the fabric tester mission programed, but haven't tested it all the way through, because the NXT ran out of batteries.
Overall, a very productive day. Hopefully tomorrow is the same.
Lego robotics is great, but I'm getting tired of it. I think sometimes that I'd rather go home and do my other homework, but then I remember when I was in lego, and the fun I had when I went to lego Land. I want these kids to have the same opportunity and have as much fun as when I did. I'll try to do everything I can to not only get these kids to win, but enjoy it as much as when I was in their position.

- Kyle Norquist

Monday, November 6, 2006

I guess we've lost around over half of the original amount of kids. The kids that are staying are starting to get off track. I think its because they're not used to working constantly. They need something fun to do so that they don't feel like its work. Maybe some incentive on finishing early or something. Maybe I'll bring something for the team that has the most missions completed by the end of the week, or something like that. Or maybe we could make a point system or something, to create some healthy competition between the teams. Or maybe that's an idea for next year. I don't know.
I think that these kids certainly have a lot of potential, but they don't have that drive to finish. We need to give them that. Tomorrow I guess we mentors will have to talk about that.

- Kyle Norquist

Thursday, November 2, 2006

Once again, very little attendance. Next Monday we need to lay out all of the dates that we're going to be meeting and be clear. One team only had one kid there. I don't think the kids realize that the competition is so close.
Well, we mentors tried to do the best with the kids that we had. One team was pretty successful with the nanowire mission. The NXT team (rather, the one girl who came) moved on from the nanotip mission to the buckeyball mission. I had her work on the buckeyball dispenser artifice. The rest of the kids were tweaking their programs for their current missions and moving on to another one. I really hope that next Monday is a lot more productive than today was.
Also, I think that some of the kids aren't getting along. Some personalities are clashing, and I think that its a disciplinary issue on our part. Maybe we've been too relaxed, and the kids are getting too comfortable with us. Some of them are forgetting that we're the mentors, and we're supervising them. I really don't like being mean, but I will if I have to.

- Kyle Norquist

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Well, we didn't get very good attendance today. I guess most of the kids didn't know we were meeting. Perhaps we weren't clear enough yesterday when we told everyone that there was going to be meetings on Wednesdays and Thursdays too. Today I just saw a lot of the RCX kids going for the nanowire mission, and I really wanted to the NXT kids on that too, but when I tried to get the girl to strengthen the the arm that they had made, we couldn't do the nanotip mission anymore for some reason. Also, the robot kept running into the the nanotip base for some reason. We could edit the program again I guess, but I think it was a positioning issue, and the fact that we had changed around the arm. Unfortunately, I won't be able to help her any tomorrow because I'm going to have to go talk to some judges. I also think we're going to get even less attendance tomorrow.
I had to leave twenty minutes early because of some family things, so I didn't get to see if the NXT group made any progress. I feel a little bad because they only have one kid showing up, and so I'm trying to work with her a lot, and I think that she's feeling a lot of pressure. I'm sure it would help if any of her fellow teammates would at least show up, but no one else except their presenter came. I thought that she did really good yesterday, especially because we were so successful with programming the NXT, but today she might have felt like it was all up to her. She might have also felt a little bit alienated because she isn't really working that much with the other kids. But its our jobs as mentors to make them feel good and important while they learn, so I'll really try to make her feel comfortable.
On another note, the competition is coming up really soon, so next week I'm going to try to push the kids to have at least two tasks accomplished, and their robots to be reliable. Some groups were able to do a mission usually, and I just don't think that's good enough. They need to be able to do a mission ten out of ten tries, or else they won't stand a chance against the other lego veteran teams.

- Kyle Norquist