2010 First LEGO League in Tasmania

The topic for the 2010 First LEGO League Challenge has been announced on the International First LEGO league Web Site (click here) as "Biomedical", specifically "Biomedical Engineering" (download poster here).

This year's challenge became available on 3rd September 2010, as announced here. The Tasmanian First LEGO League state finals tournament date is announced as Saturday 13th November 2010 here at Ogilvie High School here. A poster can be downloaded from the Australian web site here.

Registration for this "Body Forward" challenge is now available by emailing luan@primefll.com.au . The kit costs $275 and each team (maximum of three per school consisting of students aged between 9 and 16 years of age) costs $75 to enter.

Assistance:

The official FLL information site which contains a lot of really useful information is here. A web site offering advice and help for LEGO League Coaches is here. Click here here or here to watch videos that demonstrate the "Body Forward" missions and their point values. A printable A4 view of the "Body Forward" field, useful for mission planning purposes, is here.

A site that contains many items of interest to First LEGO League entrants can be seen here. A (slowly loading and speeded-up) video demonstrating the assembly of the 2010 First LEGO League Challenge Table elements is available here. Early amateur videos (sometimes confusing) regarding this challenge can be seen here, here and here. Teams may also be able to get some ideas from the 25 links to perfect 400 scores in the 2009 FLL events that I have provided at the bottom of this web page.

Background of the "Body Forward" challenge.

Click here to watch part 1 and part 2 of a video where the "Body Forward" game designer (Scott Evans) explains game details to the Head of Google Innovation (Dr. Yoky Matsuoka). This provides an excellent background summary of the challenge.

Click here to hear Dean Kamen's comments on why robotics is important as part of the overall education process, and why First LEGO League Robotics is different from other sports.

Click here, here, here, and  here to listen to YouTube video interviews of real-life Biomedical Engineers discussing their work and the First LEGO League "Body Forward" challenge.

Judging.

Click here for a summary of the Judge's duties.

Tasmanian/Australian difference?:- Note that the National website here lists the duration of the Robot Challenge as 2 1/2 minutes, whereas an email from Robotics Tasmania dated 27th August 2010 gave the duration as 2 minutes.

Comment:- I find disturbing the increase in price of the competition kit from $150 to $275 (not including the entry fee of $75 per team), especially as I am told that none of this cost comes back to assist Robotics Tasmania to run the local event. I  am left wondering how many schools will have second thoughts about entering this year; as it would seem that financially RoboCup is a much better bargain for those Tasmanian Schools who have an interest in robotics. The Tasmanian RoboCup had 73 teams from 25 schools participating this year. I wonder how many will enter First LEGO League in 2010?

www.DrGraeme.net - Tasmanian First LEGO League for 2010 - Note that the information above is my personal opinion only, the official Robotics Tasmania web site is here.