The Emotion Behind Invention: Dean Kamen on TED.Com

FIRST LEGO League: Helpful Resources

Dean Kamen (founder of FIRST) on Ted Talks: http://blog.ted.com/2010/04/06/the_emotion_beh/ The emotion behind invention: Dean Kamen on TED.com Soldiers who’ve lost limbs in service face a daily struggle unimaginable to most of us. At TEDMED, Dean Kamen talks about the profound people and stories that motivated his work to give parts of their lives back with his design for a remarkable prosthetic arm. (Recorded at TEDMED 2009, February 2010 in San Diego, CA. Duration: 19:33)

US FIRST: http://usfirst.org All the important information, team registration, rules, etc.  Forum: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/what-is-fll/twocol.aspx?id=252  Game Rulings: Have someone check this daily the first few weeks – it will clarify many of the rules of the game and you’ll need to know this! http://firstlegoleague.org/media/twocol.aspx?id=268 (This was 2010/11 – not sure if link for 2011/12 will be different)

NC Resources  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ncfllcoaches/ : Great loop for asking questions and networking with people. Often have coach’s coffees in the Triangle area  NC FIRST website: http://www.ncfirstrobotics.org/ (Under construction)

 ViaRobotics (Tom Settle): teaches intro FLL/Mindstorm classes around the Triangle: http://viarobotics.com

TechBricks: http://www.techbrick.com/  A homeschooled team in MD with lots of great resources for FLL. Within 24 hours of the challenge being announced (9/2), they usually have planning worksheets up, etc. for the game

How to build a table:  http://firstlegoleague.org  More expensive but built to be portable: http://www.landroids.org/2008/10/07/landroids-fll-table/

 Lightweight and portable: http://www.theinventioneers.com/foamtabledirectory.html

Some potentially helpful (free) web tools:  Dropbox – works like a folder on each computer it’s installed on but when the file is updated, it automatically updates online and on each other person’s computer http://dropbox.com

 Writeboard – a very easy online collaborative board. So, for example, a written report or the script for the presentation, write it out, each person can edit it and it will keep track of which edits occurred and who made them. http://writeboard.com/

 Noodlebib – an online bibliography creator. We created a free account (Noodlebib MLA Starter) and folders for each team member. They would sign in and put their references in their own folder. At the end, all of the bibliographies could be saved and combined into a Word document. http://www.noodletools.com/noodlebib/index.php

Youtube:  Resources for seeing previous years’ challenges, robots, runs, research projects, etc. – teams often post things during the build season

 Search terms on youtube: “first lego league 400 run” – or “first lego league research presentation”

Team building tools  Learning Styles Online Quiz: http://www.metamath.com/lsweb/dvclearn.htm (NOTE: This is 4-types: visual-nonverbal, visual-verbal, auditory, kinesthetic and provides study skills help. It does not have much information about communication tips.)

 Personality Styles: http://www.personalitypage.com/

Wake Robotics (http://wakerobotics.org) Rev. 7/28/2011  Six Hats by Edward Bono

Microbots: http://water4tomorrow.org BOOK: First LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide - Paperback (Aug. 12, 2008) by James Floyd Kelly and Jonathan Daudelin

Wake Robotics (http://wakerobotics.org) Rev. 7/28/2011