Homework for Robot

In last Friday's meeting, kids discussed all missions, and proposed ways to solve these missions. We agreed to finish Shark Tank, Honey Bee, and Animal Feeding first.
Following assignments were given:

Aiden: mechanic to send Shark Tank

Sammy: duplicate the refrigerator as our food delivery part.

William: design the bin and pulling bar to collect food from the refrigerator.

Chungtai: modify the base, so it can go through the bumper smoothly, and go back and forth the ramp.

I hope all kids should think their design before we meet tomorrow. Our meeting time should be used to build and test your designs.

Homework for the project

Goal: determine what to do for the farming project 

Homework:

1, Why animals are important to a farm and farmer?

2, what does chicken/pig/sheep/cow benefit the farmer? Choose one to study 

3, what things can be done to improve the soil and prevent desertation and erosion? 

4, why Bee is an important animal to human beings?

5, what's bio-diversity and why it is so important to farmers and the animals?

6, what is sustainable agriculture? 

Each kid can just pick one specific animal to study, here is one link for many animals, they can find their own for research. 

Working Animals - The Permaculture Research Institute 

Working Animals - The Permaculture Research Institute

Aiden: Manure

Chungtai: Worms

Sammy: chickens

William: sheep/cow

Robot Design Assignment

Dear Team Members,

We started our robot design brainstorm last Friday. Each team member worked independently on this year's robot mission assignments. We discussed the first three missions, and identified challenges each mission has.

This week's assignment is to finish all missions before our next meeting. We will finish the discussion this Friday, and start to work on the robot design. The document can be found at:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwisms0In6D3T1drakY0blgwR0U

The picture of this year's mat is attached at the end of the document.


To Parents:

Please spend time to discuss the assignment with your child. For each mission, I've listed possible design questions. Answers to these questions should be general ones like "Design a robot to finish the job." They need be specified to each mission. If there are any design questions you think should be added , you are welcome to do so.

Volunteer's arrangements

Parent Volunteers’ assignment

Robot Team

Head coach:  Feng Tian

Assistant coaches:  Jun Lu

Tasks:

·       help the kids decide how to tackle robot design and mission

·       Help the kids design their technical notebook and presentation

 

Project Team

Head coach: Robert Tang

Assistant coaches: Bing Tong, Qun Cai

Tasks:

·       Help guide the kids in project research, solution development and how to present their findings.  

·       Coordinate a meeting with an expert in the field of animal allies.

·       Coordinate sharing the research with the community. 

·       Help the research assistant coach and kids with the research binder, customers and presentation materials

Others

Practice Judge: Bing Tong, Robert Tang (robot)

                             Feng Tian, Jun Lu (project)

                             Qun (core values)

Coordinator: Qun

Tasks:

·       Organize team parties.

·       Prepare tournament.

·       Accountant

Tournament Snack and lunch Coordinator: Bing Tong

Video and Photo Historians: Everyone

·       Everyone takes pictures/videos and provide copies to Qun Cai

·       Help kids to create a team slide show for the session.

Aiden FLL homework

Aiden's assignment- Animal Allies means helping animals come through the problems that we’ve caused. We have to A) Stop creating problems B) Help endangered animals and C) Keep the animals that have stable populations healthy. Most problems that all animals have are made by humans, such as Global Warming, Bycatch, Habitat Loss, one of the biggest ones, Illegal Wildlife Poaching and Trade, and other problems. I created a chart that has endangered animals on it which includes the threats they have. Every single one of the reasons is manmade. We have to stop polluting (Air and Water), developing land, poaching, and enforce stricter laws. Project Ideas: How to raise money, Stop poaching, Raise awareness, and Save endangered animals.

Sammy FLL homework

To me, animal allies means helping other animals and taking care of them and preventing them from going extinct. Animals are our allies because we use them for food, entertainment, and research, and now we should help them back. Many animals have been hunted over hundreds of years and are becoming endangered, and many animals are being abused and mistreated, like chickens. We should respect our animal friends, by taking care of them and preventing animal abuse. Animals are our friends, and I love animals, so I know how they feel when they are mistreated. If everyone works together to help their allies, the animals will be fine.

The websites I found didn't change my perspective on animal allies, but their perspectives were the same as mine. Some were about giving shelters to homeless animals. I learned about pollution that kills animals living in the ocean and on land. I learned that animals are necessarily for the food chain, and can be used for food and research. When all animals go extinct, we will run out of food and the food chain will go out of balance. I already know that many animal species are endangered, but the species that aren't still need help. There is much evidence that factory food is being abused and that many animals are being treated inhumanely. I have found many organizations and websites dedicated to why and how we will save the animals. I have learned that animal allies isn't just about saving the animals, but treating them well so that they won't be endangered again. Animals have been used in agriculture for hundreds of years and used in war times. In world war one, dogs were used in warfare and pigeons were used as messengers. Basically, the overall idea of animal allies is saving and helping the animals, because of the history with humans and what they do for us.

Matthew's view of "Animal Allies"


Animal Allies to me means that animals are caring for humans and helping them to thrive and survive while the humans can also help them by building shelters, providing food, and helping different species like lions, turtles, wolves.

All sorts of animals are being helped in shelters and habitats all over the world so humans are helping the animals but what are animals doing to help the humans? Well, animals are comforting humans, giving them food, and entertainment. Animals are helping lives in the world. We use dogs to help find people in an avalanche, or to sniff out drugs, you can use horses and mules as transportation, and you can use oxen, horses, and other animals to generate power. These are all examples of how animals are allies to humans too.

However, often times the humans leave pieces of trash here and there in the animal’s habitats which kill the animals because they think them as food. This can be a huge threat to wildlife.