Two EBLS VEX IQ teams get started

Now we had two VEX IQ kits charged and ready to go. Oliver had helped me disassemble the first kit last Friday and we took the second kit home over the weekend to charge and update it's firmware.

The Lego group all seemed happy with their choice and filed off to get to work on their team tasks. They were in for a two hour stint. I hadn't committed anyone in VEX to more than an hour and I thought we'd have enough time to get ready before the December 6th challenge so we stuck to just one hour.

A number of VEX youth said they had conflicts Mondays and Wednesdays at 3:30 - 4:30 PM, so that became our Tuesday Thursday team meeting at the same time on those days. Unfortunately that included the children of both VEX coaches so I went with the Monday Wednesday group. I will try to catch as much of Tuesday/Thursday as I can to spend time with Esther.

The Tuesday/Thursday team made great progress today and they were planning on meeting tomorrow. Forgetting that the following Monday was a holiday for Edith Bowen Laboratory School, I thought we would catch up with them next week. It wasn't until after the meeting that I realized my oversight.

FLL or VEX IQ Challenge

Today was the first day getting the EBLS students together and sorted into Lego and VEX IQ. Fortunately Esther seemed OK with going either way, because it seemed that the First Lego League (FLL) coaching was covered by a USU student and a parent. Eric's son was also fine with doing VEX so we both went that direction.

Your child has been chosen to participate

And so it begins. Here is the email sent out to a number of families. The emphasis of specific parts is mine.

Dear EBLS Parents,
Your child has been chosen to participate on a school sponsored  Robotics Team.  This is an exciting opportunity to learn about STEM related fields.
As a result of being on this team, your child will be asked to commit to working with team members during after school hours and participating in a robotics competition on weekends.  It is important that you understand the need for your child to attend as much as possible and to let the coach know if there is a need for your child to be gone.
Our first meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday, November 19th at 3:30 in Mrs. Kyriopoulos's classroom (room 219). Please discuss with your child and determine a preference for Vex or Lego's. Your child will need to state this preference at our meeting tomorrow. Your child was given  a document for your signature that is required to be returned to Mrs. Kyriopoulos before participating on the Robotics Team.
Once again, your child is to  congratulated for being selected to participate on a Robotics Team. Please direct questions to Mrs. Joan Kyriopoulos at (removed, see your email)

Coaches Meeting

Today's meeting was a little bit of  spill over from last week, but the focus was on committing volunteer robotics coaches for Lego and VEX teams and getting the organization of those teams started.

Mr. Johnson, Director of the school, expressed his support and excitement about the opportunity available to students through these systems. The school was going to have one FLL and two VEX IQ teams and the lines were drawn a little more formally on who was going to be coaching what team. The pickings were slim though. There were maybe 5-6 parents there and only a couple that could commit to 3:30 pm on weekdays. It's a tough to meet during normal business hours with a full-time job.

We also had a tentative schedule to meet after school on Mondays and Wednesday at 3:30 pm, with a request for morning times and some concern raised about conflicts those days. The final decision would be made as we met with the students on Wednesday.

VEX IQ Firmware Updates

I finished building the VEX IQ robot base in record time. At least I expect it was a record for taking so long. I ended up rebuilding a few parts because I incorrectly guessed at the length of the axles used. (edit: Again, it would have been much faster if I had realized the poster cross referenced the part numbers.) Once it was together and all charged up, it was time for a test drive. The VEX IQ computer ("brain") had a built-in Driver Control program so I could try it from the remote right away.

Trouble! One set of wheels went the right way when I pressed the stick forward but the other set went the opposite way. Perfect if you are trying to spin in circles. I thought I would have to rebuild again but as I looked at the steps I couldn't figure out what I could have done wrong.

Reading some I decided to try a firmware update in case it wasn't me but a bug in the software. Voila! After the updates both sides went the same direction when I pressed forward on the two control sticks.

Vexed building VEX IQ

I spent a half an hour this morning attempting to build the robot base to see how involved it is. I may be underestimating the skills of the grade school kids involved, but I think VEX can still learn a lot from LEGO on how to give good building instructions. In thirty minutes I only accomplished three steps using a total of under a dozen parts. Most of the time was spent wondering which of several similar looking parts they were talking about. (edit: Much later I found out from a forum that the big poster I had ignored had all the parts on it. That helped a ton, but my Lego comment still stands.)

I don't want to sound negative against VEX IQ. I think the remote control robot, like a radio controlled vehicle, is an aspect that most people can latch onto. I think that with better labeling of parts than the bags and instructions initially give and careful handling (there are a few bags of tiny parts) it can be accomplished, but it may take more careful supervision of a smaller groups of 3rd graders to do VEX IQ than with LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3. This unfortunately seems at odds with the age limits of FLL vs VEX.

I could see a completed LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 or (especially) VEX IQ bot being introduced to the after school club kids to interact with in a controlled way, but I wouldn't recommend allowing much contact with the competition team's robots until after the season is over.

USU VEX club observations

Ethan and I went to USU to observe the VEX club that meets on campus.  They have three teams of about four boys each working with the VEX EDR classroom robotics platform (the ones that look like they are made from an Erector Set). The USU student who was there gave me some background and explained how they are running things.

The three teams are a mix of experienced members and new members, but they are careful to watch for balance. If they have kinds that are too advanced they can work quickly and the less experienced members sit out not really catching on to what is happening. Even with the younger team I watched, three boys sat around disengaged while the technical expert tried to resolve an issue with their computer and programming software interfacing with the system. One of the other two groups looked fully involved and another had one person, sometimes two, disengaged while they waited for the other two to work with the robot. This lets me see in action the practical upper limits of team sizes. If you had ten people on a team, 8 may be disengaged most of the time without a lot of creativity and supervision. Four seemed ideal with six probably being the upper limit.

Getting Organized

So Anna responded to the Edith Bowen Robotics email and let them know I was interested in helping. They let her know that there was a meeting to get organized after school today at 3:45 PM.

Thanks for your interest in being a coach for our Robotics Program.  You have either personally contacted me or one of your children has indicated you might be interested in helping out.  Therefore, I have included all of you on this email.  We are holding a meeting on Monday, November 17, at 3:30 PM in Joan’s room, # 219, to get started with training and then working with the kids and teams.  Please know you can be a coach/leader even if you cannot attend this meeting.  We will notify everyone of the dates and times when the teams will meet after school.  Tentatively, we have set aside Monday and Wednesday from 3:30-4:30 PM for the after school robotics meetings.

I left work early to attend the meeting (fortunately I had some spare change to throw in a parking meter) and got there just as it was starting.

The first presentation was about the First Lego League (FLL) and the USU STEM center's Lego Mindstorms kit by Job Cyril. He is associated with the Utah First Lego League (UTFLL). He was very enthusiastic about FLL as he described how it worked out and the team sizes. I was familiar with most of the material having read up on FLL a number of times over the years. Unfortunately we were getting in the game a little late and there was only one team slot for Lego / FLL. I gave a little of my background that you can find in my first post during the meeting and we spoke after the meeting. He asked if I would be willing to help as a volunteer at the USU FLL Competition on January 10th and I gladly accepted.

The second presentation was about the VEX IQ Robotics System and Challenge, Highrise by Gary Stewardson. He highlighted the advances in VEX for the elementary age students with the IQ system and talked about how the challenge is a cooperative experience. He said that a great feature of the VEX challenges or competitions is the iterative nature, with several events organized before the state finals, giving teams a chance to see what works and adapt. He also felt that many youth really enjoyed the robot driving part of the competitions in addition to the autonomous part and that this gave more variety than the purely autonomous Lego competition experience. He said we would need to get organized fast because the next challenge opportunity was in Logan on December 6th. He invited those interested in seeing VEX in action to observe their club meeting across the street tomorrow afternoon.

This left us having to choose which of two great systems we would support. Well, most of us. I was being steered towards the VEX IQ system. Both looked great so I was happy to help with either, as long as I got to work with Esther. Another parent, Eric Eliason, had also potentially been tapped for VEX IQ because he had done it with the other systems two years earlier. Both of us were waiting to see what our kids picked. There was a USU student who was familiar with and enthusiastic about FLL who was tapped to help with that.

Robotics at Edith Bowen

A few years ago my kids had received a cool Lego Mindstorms NXT for Christmas from Grandpa. We had fun with it, and to my surprise it wasn't my older two that showed the most interest but my third child, Esther.

A following Thanksgiving we were at my Aunt's home and we visited about the cool Lego robots. She had organized a team in something called FLL for her daughter and they had built a robot to compete. I was very interested, but when I returned back to Logan Utah in Cache Valley and started searching for local events I was disappointed to find that everything was down in the Salt Lake area. Cache Valley, it seemed, had been taken over by this Erector Set inspired robot called VEX. So, I remained vexed as I looked occasionally over the years.

Today the Edith Bowen Laboratory School (EBLS) sent out an email to parents saying that the USU STEM Center, under the direction of Dr. David Feldon, has agreed to provide a kit for a LEGO Robotics Team at Edith Bowen. The First Lego League competition will be held on January 10th in the STE²M Center. My first two children are in high school and middle school, but Esther is still at Edith Bowen and had the opportunity to be on the team. Fantastic!

Oh, and Edith Bowen was going to have a a VEX team...