Archive
2024-2025
Inspiring students through robotics, teamwork, and real-world learning.
Providence ES (FLL Explore)
|
As of this year, we started off by visiting Providence ES every Tuesday and Thursday and started the First Lego League challenge competition. The students interacted heavily with our volunteers, learning about both the program and ocean animals. This started their journey in their preparation for their upcoming competition and utilize their teamwork for creating unique projects.
|
|
Meeting Date |
Tasks Completed |
1/14/2025 |
We first started off with a basic introduction to the first team of the FLL challenge regarding what FIRST For Youth is about and what programs we will start off by doing. With small introductions, we understood the flow of how things will go. After identifying the atmosphere of the classroom, we made sure that the students could collaborate and communicate with one another by having them create their favorite ocean animal. |
1/16/2025 |
For this session, we started with brief introductions to the second team of the FLL challenge of what this organization is and strives towards, and we identified various challenges the world faces with the students. Helping the students start off with the FLL challenge inspired them to learn various skills by also having the students build their favorite sea creature. |
1/21/2025 |
For this week, we gathered intel from the previous week and made sure for the first team of the FLL challenge that more students participated and were able to ease their way into learning various ocean topics. With the students, we educated them on our theme for this year (Submerged) and had them explore different ocean facts. We later had them build their submarine set by splitting them into two groups. |
1/23/2025 |
During this session, we gathered the second team of the FLL challenge to also dive into the various ocean factors and discover what common interests each student shares. While flipping through the pages of their Explore Story booklet they had received, they recognized the distinct situations of the ocean. After identifying, they combined ideas and different approaches together in two different teams to create a submarine. |
1/28/2025 |
Our team had our third session with the first team of the FLL challenge and taught them the diverse layers of the ocean and what animals/objects are present in the ocean. We asked them questions to start us off, and we were able to pinpoint the students' background knowledge. Afterwards, we had them build numerous LEGO building projects to enhance their understanding. |
1/30/2025 |
On this day, we met with the second team of the FLL challenge and communicated with the students about what creatures and various objects live in which specific locations of the ocean. To dive into the students' brains more, we presented informational videos to assist them in what different LEGO projects they would build. |
2/4/2025 |
On our fourth week session with the first team of the FLL challenge, we had the students refresh their memory on the different ocean layers with a video and introduced a new topic as we had the students block code through the LEGO Spike application. With teaching them this new process, the students split into partners to create a boat that the application had provided. |
2/6/2025 |
With the second team of the FLL challenge, we established the new process of block coding for the students as we first strengthened their memory about the ocean and had them locate different features and get used to the LEGO Spike application that was provided. They navigated to the lesson section and partnered up to design their boats. |
2/13/2025 |
The fifth week, we got with the first team of the FLL challenge and had the students get with their previous partner to modify the boat they previously made to represent themselves with unique and distinctive designs. After modifying their boat, the teams opened up the LEGO Spike application that was previously introduced to run their boat in the ocean. Afterwards, we had the students occupied with various team-related projects by making a new submarine and an animal farm. |
2/18/2025 |
This day, we prioritized coding on the LEGO Spike application with the first team of the FLL challenge as we had students prioritize making improvements on their previous built models. Focusing on improvements and developments helps with real-world situations and in doing this, our team were able to see what approaches they had. We reviewed the different zones/layers of the ocean once again and they discovered how differently creations impact the world. |
2/20/2025 |
The sixth week with the second team at Providence ES, we prioritized critical thinking and problem-solving skills by improving their previous models they built and utilized the LEGO Spike application once again. These students were able to accomplish a variety of approaches with team-building skills. Rebuilding their previous models helped the students learn about real-world issues and how to overcome them. |
2/25/2025 |
Now that our seventh week has come with the first team of the FLL challenge, we had the students think about various ideas to create a habitat as a team. When listing a diverse set of variables required in the ocean, the students were responsible for building off of those variables and adding more attributes to create a safe space for creatures. Analyzing diverse ocean species allowed them to have a better understanding to accomplish the creation for this session. |
2/27/2025 |
We dove into the essentials for a living habitat and what should be altered in a community. For the second team this session, we approached the inputs and outputs of an ocean and how things come and go. The students were capable of understanding what circulates in a living environment, enabling them to work together to create a stable habitat. |
3/4/2025 |
For our eighth week, we had the first team discover what career path piqued their interest. We assisted in implementing real-world challenges and issues that the students would need to face in the job that they desired to have. This helped the students gain a better understanding of what jobs would be beneficial for them. Afterwards, they created a model according to their occupation. |
3/6/2025 |
This session with the second team of the FLL challenge, we asked the students what goals they wished to achieve. Later, we implemented those goals into real-world situations and had it align with what job they wished to have in the future. With their finalized career path, the students created a model to define their future job. To have the students understand realistic situations that occur, it used critical thinking skills to define what jobs they actually wanted. |
3/11/2025 |
The ninth week with the first team of the FLL challenge, the students collaborated as a team to exemplify their knowledge about the ocean and what they learned so far by building an ocean-based model. The students planned step-by-step to carefully understand and be able to exemplify their knowledge best to their ability. The students were capable of demonstrating their understanding and various skills during this activity. |
3/18/2025 |
We met up with the first team of the FLL challenge once again, marking this as our tenth week/session with them. We reviewed the past sessions to refresh their minds. We had the students later do research on their occupations and make progress in their journey of finding what they wish to be. We watched videos with the students that were based on the environmental factors of the ocean. This cleared their vision on whether or not the ocean piqued their interest in the career path they wished to take. |
3/20/2025 |
Meeting with the second team of the FLL challenge was eventful as we reviewed what we had learned so far, preparing them for the upcoming competition. While reviewing, we once again had the students look over occupations that they desired to have. While doing so, we also looked over ocean facts that may pique their interest in the line of occupation they wished to have. |
3/25/2025 |
The first team accomplished reviewing past materials as we dived into brainstorming various topics on what models the students could create. The task of them needing to exemplify their knowledge throughout this journey was given, and they were able to get on track with it. |
3/27/2025 |
The mentors this day assisted in reviewing ocean facts with the second team, aiding them to remember our previous sessions. The students were more than capable of showing their knowledge from our sessions. We moved onto potential models the students could create to educate others regarding what we have learned so far. |
4/3/2025 |
Coming down to our last few sessions, we had another session with the first team and continued on our journey of helping the students exemplify their talents through models and started working on creating a physical poster. Through this activity, it was evident that the students were capable of collaborating and communicating with others. The poster reflected all the ocean facts they had gathered throughout this year. |
4/8/2025 |
As sad as this may sound, this wraps up our journey with the first team. They had finished creating their posters and models as a collaborative team. Doing so, they were more than prepared to present the masterpiece they had created. Their creations were beyond our expectations; each one of the students had shown their comprehension of the course with just one project. |
4/10/2025 |
This comes down to our last session with the second team of the FLL challenge. This team reflected their knowledge to the fullest through their inventions, such as the posters they had made and the models they had handcrafted. This session helped our mentors realize how much we had educated the students. |
Waples Mill ES (FLL Explore)
|
A new school we decided to introduce our program to would be Waples Mill ES, as our team visited every Monday to institute various topics to our fellow students. We started the First Lego League challenge to enlighten the students and submerge their knowledge in various ocean facts. With this program, students were able to distinguish various strategic approaches and identify their interests and goals.
|
|
Meeting Date |
Tasks Completed |
2/3/2025 |
Our first session with Waples Mill Elementary went smoothly as we introduced ourselves and what programs and ideas we will implement. We were able to teach the students about FIRST For Youth, and they discovered real-world challenges, as it is the concept of our program this year. The students split into four groups while each group was led by a member of our team and worked together to build submarines. |
2/10/2025 |
To start off our second session, we asked the students questions regarding the diverse factors of ocean layers. Then, we started on our first activity as we split them into groups, and with their teamwork, the students were able to create various living objects and animals in the ocean using LEGOs. For our next activity, we taught the students what other objects could be found in the ocean by having them build LEGOs. For the third activity, we had the students share their thoughts on what they had just done to reflect and understand the ocean more precisely. To end it off, they were introduced to the new application we had already shown in Providence ES, the LEGO Spike application. |
3/3/2025 |
Our third session with the students at Waples Mill Elementary has finally come after a while. We prioritized getting the students to start up the LEGO Spike application and had them catch up with Providence ES. They gained knowledge on how the application runs and were able to learn about the Sunlight Zone and build an animal farm. Allowing the students to use their imagination helped us see their creative thinking skills, assisting us in getting a better understanding of how the students work. Learning the functions of the app helped them understand what different programs and the application's functionalities are. |
3/10/2025 |
Coming back with our fourth session at Waples Mill Elementary, our volunteers helped the students create fundamental ideas in block coding. The students motorized their models and later did a team-based activity to work on their collaborative skills. This session allowed the students to explore the online world in coding and have a glimpse into what occupations people have. |
4/7/2025 |
For this session, the students were taught how to program and code their submarines while creating creatures and a safe habitat. This expanded their awareness of what is required in an ocean habitat. The volunteers assisted the students in coding, allowing the students to discover various approaches. Thankfully, the students were cooperative and made this a great activity. |
4/21/2025 |
This session was extremely technical, as the volunteers had set up laptops and opened the Spike application for the students. We dived into a deeper understanding of submarines as they explored further from their previous adventure. The volunteers educated the students regarding the technicalities of a submarine. With this, the students had gathered more knowledge regarding the subject of the ocean. |
5/5/2025 |
On this day, we assigned the students to collaborate with one another in creating a poster and a model that they would showcase later on. The students had put their thinking caps on and brainstormed on what topic to present. Each of the students communicated with one another to establish a team name and got along very well. Their conversations had constructive criticism and productive input. Their interactions proved that they were extremely ecstatic to present their knowledge. |
5/12/2025 |
This day wrapped up our journey with the students at Waples Mill Elementary. They all had completed their posters and models that exemplified their knowledge through this course. Their competence and coordination was a great experience to witness. The students proved worthy to carry a diverse set of skills to reach their final destination. Their projects had exceeded all of our expectations. |