Need help with utilizing Mindstorm pieces in Jr FLL Kit

[titanteam]

Any ideas suggestions for resources in getting instructions on building pulleys, gears, etc with the Mindstorm portion of the JrFLL kit. So far unable to get kids from other FLL and higher teams to volunteer their help. I'm in Broward County, FL

[RoboDesigners]

Re: Need help with utilizing Mindstorm pieces in Jr FLL Kit

Although our site is mainly geared towards FLL teams (no pun intended!), we have some resources on our site that may be of interest. Here is a link to our Resources page. Scrolling down almost to the bottom of the page we have some "Technic Building" resources. The constructopedias may be of some interest to you.

[titanteam]

Re: Need help with utilizing Mindstorm pieces in Jr FLL Kit

Thanks so much.

[dvz]

Re: Need help with utilizing Mindstorm pieces in Jr FLL Kit

Sorry, Senior/Pooh brain today. You're asking for advice on using the parts, rather than assembling parts -- is that correct?

Any ideas suggestions for resources in getting instructions on building pulleys, gears, etc with the Mindstorm portion of the JrFLL kit. So far unable to get kids from other FLL and higher teams to volunteer their help. I'm in Broward County, FL

[titanteam]

Re: Need help with utilizing Mindstorm pieces in Jr FLL Kit

Need advice on Assembling parts. I'm still reviewing links referred by RoboDesigners but all help is appreciated since I am a novice at this and would like to develop some skill to better facilitate this young team in bringing their ideas to fruition.

[sdenagy]

Re: Need help with utilizing Mindstorm pieces in Jr FLL Kit

Any ideas suggestions for resources in getting instructions on building pulleys, gears, etc with the Mindstorm portion of the JrFLL kit. So far unable to get kids from other FLL and higher teams to volunteer their help. I'm in Broward County, FL

My suggestion is to troll YouTube and see some of the more clear videos of successful runs, and scrutinize the robots. By seeing how people actually solved other years' problems you can see how diverse the robots can become.

Otherwise, don't get too wrapped up in the minutiae of the parts. When introducing them to the missions, I ask the kids to do the mission with their hands, to see what has to be done. Then, imagine a way of doing it mechanically, and repeat with some Lego construct. Finally, integrate the solutions into a working whole, and then work out how to make it work. You don't have to use everything, and sometimes "over-engineering" is overkill!

Personally, this year I have an older group that are all newbies but one. Therefore, I will have a couple of sessions of programming didactics and play to get them up to speed. They all dig the Legos and can build like crazy, but they need to know what can be done in software in order to build a workable solution. I consider the programming environment to be part of their palette in that sense.

Cheers!