Circuit Squirrels
FLL Team #60911
FLL Team #60911
See how the Circuit Squirrels have grown over the seasons!
We built a great robot with forklift design and a number
of attachments. The robot did well. We competed in Newport News, qualified for the State, and even made
it to the World Festival in Houston! That was awesome!
For the Innovation Project, our team tackled the challenge of oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay.
Oysters are super important for the health of our bay, but they are in danger because of pollution and habitat loss.
We researched, brainstormed, and developed an innovative solution to bring back our oysters: S.C.O.R.B.s!
We want to help by:
Our 2-wheel drive robot "Ozzy De Oysta" used
a forklift to complete following missions:
We built special attachments to:
It had a flexible bumper to move the Angler Fish and used a peg to pull the Unknown Creature. Additionally, we had two push buttons to lower and raise the forklift if needed.
S.C.O.R.B.s (swiss cheese oyster reef blocks) are artificial oyster reef blocks that we designed to help the regrowth of oysters in our area.
We spoke to two marine biologists (from CNU and VIMS) who helped give us tips and inspire us to make these. Since oysters grow in tall stacks we
wanted something that’ll match the height oysters in any size. Taking inspiration from Lego we designed adjustable growth blocks that can match
any size and shape with because of two pegs on the top of the blocks that will connect to other blocks just like Lego. We wanted to replicate some
of the characteristics of real oyster reefs so we put holes into our blocks because in real reefs animals live and hide from predators in those holes.
(Swiss cheese because of its holes.)
If we put this into the water it should help the ecosystem just as a real reef should.
In our rookie season, we had a wonderful time with the “MASTERPIECE” challenge. It was a great learning experience for the team
members as well as the coaches!
We built a creative robot, which
performed well and was able to get about half of all available points.
For our Innovation Project, we promoted Montessori education through
use of a Virtual Reality environment to help people experience
Montessori classrooms. We also proposed hands-on museum exhibits about Montessori learning and
explored LEGO-based Montessori materials. With input from educators and experts, the team identified ways
to bring Montessori’s hands-on, child-driven methods to more families and communities around the world.
We learned a ton about teamwork and had a blast competing in our first qualifier. We even made it to the
State Championship!
We had a 2-wheel drive robot, which used two color sensors to follow the black lines and to detect the yellow color to find the camera.
It had a claw and a special paddle bumper as well as a tail to flip the dragon.
We wanted to find fun ways to help more people learn about Montessori schools,
so we came up with cool ideas like a Virtual Reality app that lets you explore a classroom,
a hands-on museum full of Montessori materials, and even special LEGO sets that work like real Montessori tools!
Montessori education is awesome because kids get to choose their own work, use fun materials to learn, and there are no tests or
homework. So it's way less stressful! Everyone learns to be kind, there's no bullying, and you even get to go outside and play.
We talked to Montessori teachers and experts in India and Virginia, and even a VR specialist!
They told us the VR app would be helpful, but people want different things like videos and presentations in India, and interactive materials in the U.S.
Everyone thought a museum exhibit would be amazing for local communities, and they all loved the idea of LEGO Montessori sets!
We then took one more step! We filmed a 360-degree video of a real Montessori classroom that you can look around in with a VR headset.