As a way of preparation and research we thought we would take a few field trips. First we went to Huntsville EMA and learned what happens when we have a disaster or city wide emergency.
They had a room with a big map of the city. There were cubicles for every department in the city. We discussed April 27th and what they did. We told them of our solution to helping people during a disaster (which we haven't said what it is) and they were intrigued with it. They said when we finish it they would like to see what we came up with. We have such a long way to go...
Next we visited the National Weather Service here in Huntsville. We talked with David Nadler who was terrific with the group. You could tell he really liked his job. We told him of the fun we had making a tornado simulator. He gave us a tour and talked about the radar images. Then we got to see their tornado simulator that they use for educational purposes. It was so cool.
All in all, we had a lot of fun and learned a great deal. Thank you Huntsville EMA and Eric Nadler from the Huntsville office of the National Weather Service for the tours you gave our group.
I have to laugh at the enthusiasm for the project and then solemnly remember when I hear my son say, "The Tornado of Destruction!!!".
Here we are testing out our Tornado Simulator after we had tweaked it a bit to get a better vortex. It is an upside down Tornado. I am not sure how to make it form right side up. Any suggestions? We used dry ice and two fans attached to batteries.
Alabama has Tornadoes all year long but the season peaks in March/April and October/November.
My son and I were in the activity center of this church having social skills lessons during this tornado. The picture made the news. It was taken by Ryan Crim. It was before the April 27th Tornadoes and was taken in January of 2010. We were not meeting as a robotics group then thankfully. Come to think of it...most of the children that are in our robotics group were at the same social skills lesson. I am glad that none of the kids saw how close it was. What would happen if that spire was hit???
We do have to be careful when discussing Tornadoes. Most of the kids in my group went through the April 27th Tornadoes, which were much much much worse.
It was hard to keep track of where they were popping up on the radar screen on TV because there were so many on that day. Then in the evening all the power went out. It was almost a week before it was restored. I remember how hard it was to find out information afterwards.
Luckily at home I had prepared beforehand and had an emergency kit. I had a Coleman oven, stove and fuel for pizzas. My son is a selective eater, something that is common in the autism community. There were few things he would eat and pizza is one of them. I think that was my biggest worry. What were we going to get him to eat.
There was a few things we hadn't thought of preparing beforehand like having enough gas in our car. We did not go anywhere as a result. We also did not have a generator or a grill even though I had made up for it by the Coleman stove. A friend of ours was able to locate a generator for us a few days after. I used all the food in the upright freezer to keep the fridge cold. Most people took theirs out and had a large cookout.
One major problem we did have was we needed to keep yogurt cold. That was because it was the only way my son at the time would take any medicine. We learned a lot during that time. Every one here has a story.
Thankfully we all survived, but what we went through that day always comes to mind when the Tornado sirens go off. Others in Alabama were not as fortunate as we were. They will be forever in our hearts, minds and prayers. We dedicate this post to them.
We had our first disaster...well sort of. We found a website where we could practice skills at helping people during a Natural Disaster. The goal is to save as many people as you can while keeping the town protected.
During our next team meeting we kind of got off subject by having to put out some fires. Although firenados are interesting that is not what our project is about.
We are going to have to have a Social Skill Lesson next time about appropriate behavior and Core Values. We had gone over that, but a couple kids were probably not there during that meeting. All goes with the territory of having kids on the spectrum. Let's see what creative ways I can do this. Got any suggestions?
We had a new member start who will be a big asset to our team. His Mom drives him all the way from Birmingham so he can attend. He has been looking for a team with kids who he fits in with. I am glad we are here.
We talked about what we were going to link our QR codes to. We all drew graphs and ideas about what we want our informational website to be about. Next meeting I am going over the suggestions and combine them all. Here was an example I showed on our Facebook page of what could be possible. We are not going to use this. It seems when you show the kids an example of what you are talking about they instantly relate.
Next post I will tell you about the field trip we took.
The new EV3 robotics Kit has come out. I hope we will not be at a disadvantage if we don't have one. In this kit you can use 4 motors instead of three. That means you have one more motor for attachments. The NXTstep blog talks all about it.
I did order the new caster ball attachment. My son loves the functionality of the caster ball. The other part shown here is a smaller turntable that I ordered. There is a larger version of it in the Lego NXT resource kit.
You can order the Ev3 Education Core Set for $339.95. The expansion kit is 99.95. With a whole new system you will have to buy a software license $99.95 and a new battery charger $59.95 with a plug to charge it $24.95. I don't know if you can charge it with your existing chargers. The total comes out to $624.75. That does not include shipping.
Okay is it worth it...let's see. Here is what ToyBrickStation says:
Also we will need Registration Fees for next year's season.
Registration Fees:
$225.00
Field Set Up Kit:
$75.00
Local Registration:
around $60.00
T-Shirts:
$150 - $200
Last year I had to order a minimum so I ended up paying for 4 extra shirts.
Grant money does not cover all the expenses like shirts and trades at the qualifier. It does not pay for the meeting cost or the presentation materials. I am the kind of person if I am going to do something worth while I am going to do it right.
I am always nervous before that first meeting. I want all the kids to be actively engaged and having fun. I try to prepare the week before the meeting. My son likes to help when he can.
Our first meeting we got to know each other, explained what the FLL was all about, and filled out registration forms. Then all we had time for was learning about this years challenge. We played a game called "Triage" to learn about how to help people during disasters. The board is divided into hexagons. As we play and take turns we go through the natural course of a day in a disaster. As the day ramps up the disaster gets bigger. Our job is to save as many people as we can by getting them to the safe zone.
During our second meeting we did some brainstorming about our teams name. We came up with
QR Coders which stands for Quick Response Coders. We had an idea that we could use a QR Code kind of like the familiar 911 to help us with our solution. We want to help people during, before and after a Tornado disaster. We chose Tornadoes to focus on because they are prevalent here in Alabama. We had just gone through the April 27th tornadoes a couple of years ago and wanted to help others know what to do in similar situations. We decided our project would be to create a website that was informational yet fun.
After brainstorming we got to work learning to program. We were able to get a NXT to do a move block test. The kids figured out they could turn the NXTs and spin around.
Our third meeting I had a surprise I had been working on to show the kids. We (son and I) built a tornado simulator using dry ice. We used the epilogue laser cutter down at MindGear Labs to cut out the parts. We then glued the parts together and powered our creation by small fans and a battery pack. We put dry ice in a container and pored hot water over it. Then we set the tornado simulator on top and turned it on. Here was the result.
After this the kids worked on programming and building missions.
We were building those missions the next couple of meetings. There are 10 of them and they seemed to take forever. Of course I could have built them at home but what would be the fun in that. The challenge comes out soon so we wanted to be prepared.
We are gearing up for a new season. This year we are...
Team 2364
Publixhas graciously offered to host our team this year again.
Rocket City RoboSkills will be starting again soon. We are a parent led First Lego League Robotics Group. We have a few openings (limit of 10 kids for a team) for middle school aged kids with Aspergers. Publix at Piedmont Square has graciously offered to let us meet there again this year on Fridays from 4-6 pm.
We are currently signing up for new participants. Please contact Coach Lowder if you are interested.
