FLL In a Week: It Requires a Hive Mind

I'm a Maker, I'm a starter. I love starting new projects, especially those that involve making something, and those that involve engaging with those who might make that something. I create a scavenger hunt for community of a very specific sort, and reach out via the Internet through a mechanism I've developed. It's called The Community Lemonade Game and it works.

We had a Wild Idea: Create Multi-National Teams playing the FIRST LEGO® League and FIRST LEGO® League Jr. games (students of different nations co-existing on the same teams). Form teams on Monday and compete on Friday. Some who know the FIRST LEGO League program might have said "Impossible". We said "How can we?"

WE DID IT!

The Trophy inscription read:

Leading Edge Multi-National Games Winter 2019 - "Hive Mind" Long Beach, CA

About that Hive Mind

I knew there would be challenges in bringing the kids together. Some came driven to work on the program goals, some came to play and needed to be nudged towards the goals Some came in knowing the game, some came in knowing only that there was LEGO and/or there were Robots.

The original thought was that to make it meaningful, we could set a goal to find a solution to every robot mission using the Robot Educator Medium Motor Driving Base design for the EV3, including a light sensor pointing down (click here for instructions). Small teams of two or three would start by solving at least one easy robot mission each, then work on others, but hoping to get them all solved, and sharing the results with each other.

The kids would be the bees and the space, the Expo Arts Center in Long Beach, would be the hive.

Our Hive Mind

Aside from our little bees, learning about and working together to meet their FLL and FLL Jr. goals, the hive was buzzing with organizer bees who largely worked with information found online to accomplish the scoring, planning of the FLL Competition and the FLL Jr. Expo. Everyone learned, everyone benefited in some way.

The FIRST program has changed a bit this year. It is focusing more on diversity and inclusiveness as it seeks to become part of the school curriculum. It's how it's done in China. The FIRST organizers have prepared standards mapping documents for FLL and FLL Jr. It would take some brave teacher to integrate it into a day's curriculum, but perhaps there is some teacher reading this who might care to do it.

As we work to find more countries to include in this multi-national vision, it is becoming evident that many schools have a teacher dedicated to robotics. I discovered this when the Principal of a school in Trinidad connected me to her robotics teacher. Times have changed.

Many thanks to those who helped to bring this week-long, highly labor intensive program to life, and ensured its' success. Special thanks to the coalition: The Long Beach - Qingdao Sister City Association, the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, the Long Beach LEGO User Group, Uncoded. Thanks also to the students, parents and teachers in the Excel Charter School and the Oakwood Academy in Bixby Knolls, Sato Academy of Math and Science and Poly High School and to the Boy Scout and Girl Scout affiliated youth, parents and leaders. Thanks to the Robotics Society of Southern California members who participated. Special thanks to Paiwei, our visiting group of families, Build it Workspace (and instructor Will Dang) and to the Makersville friends and family who participated with parents and grandparents. Thanks to the US China Peoples' Friendship Association volunteers. Thanks to all of the families who attended the Space Carnival on Monday and the expo and competition on Friday and helped in between. Thanks to Shared Science for the loan of the FLL tables. Very, very special thanks to Mary Barton, who brought many new bees into the hive.

There is always more. I would like to thank the Points of Light program and the Disney company which will provide us the opportunity to show our gratitude to some of our key volunteers with tickets to Disneyland!

To complete the game, I picked an orange and a lemon off a Friend's tree as I dropped off the tables. We've already made metaphorical Lemonade. Now we have the main ingredients for the physical lemonade.

Trish Tsoiasue is a community builder and servant leader based in Long Beach, California . She builds socially responsible, grassroots communities, believes in the power of play, has many hobbies and interests, and lots and lots of ideas. She is trained in LEGO® Serious Play and the Creative Problem Solving Institute's methods of intentional creativity. The communities she has created and in which she takes most pride are the Long Beach LEGO® User Group, Makersville and the Leading Edge Multi-National Games, which she has led since 2018. She is the inventor of the Community Lemonade Game, a mechanism for path finding and problem solving that she plays. She's convinced that one day you will play it too. Perhaps one day she will define the Community Lemonade Game so that more people can play it. You can find her experiential videos on her Squigglemom YouTube channel (please subscribe!), and when she's not blogging on the Patch, she's blogging on Squigglemom.net.