NJ FIRST LEGO League Champions Award Winners
The New Jersey FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournament is pleased to announce the 2006 winners of the Champions Award, Team 1221, Built on the Rock.
Built On The Rock is a FIRST LEGO League team made up of six friends from Independence, Vernon, and Green Townships in New Jersey. All the students are home educated, and members of the Sussex County Christian Home Schoolers group. The seeds of FLL were planted five years ago, when 10 year old Jonathan Daudelin purchased his first Robotics Invention System. [Today, Jonathan's the only non-adult contributor on The LEGO Mindstorms NXT Blog and is currently writing a book with the other contributors.] Eventually, Jonathan, his older brother David, and his friend Chase Billing, heard about FLL. Vickey Daudelin, in 2005-2006, coached the team and made their dreams a reality.
When it comes to doing the work, the group has always been team-led. Meetings begin with prayer, followed by a team brainstorming session. In the session, the week's progress is reviewed and the schedule for the rest of the meeting is discussed. The team greatly benefited from last year's experience, and have gone about robot design much more methodically. Their driving goal was to accomplish all the missions within the time limit, and in a reliable way. Subject to those constraints, the team strove to create a simple solution to each mission. They believe that this is also the best way for engineers to design products. The simplest design that provides full-functionality will generally cost less, be easier to use, last longer, and be easier to maintain.
The team's first base was built like a rock - giving it an excellent mechanical design and stability, and a modular platform with an integrated motor for attachments. After choosing and improving on a design from the least experience students on their team, they then worked on one mission at a time, until discovering solutions for each one.,
Other Award Winners Click here |
