Category Archives: scouting

Community outreach to Troop 219 on Oct 8th

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Our team visited Boy Scout Troop 219 at Christ Church in Plano TX on October 8th 2012.  Troop 219 is Model Scout Matthew’s boy scout troop.  The Beaver patrol asked us to help them with their robotics theme this month.  After introductions, SPL Alan sent the troop off to explore the 3 stations our team setup for them:

1.  An introduction to Lego NXT Mindstorms station.  Model Scout Katie went through the basic parts of a robotics system using a standard Lego educational kit.

2.  Our robotics solution to the FIRST LEGO League  (FLL) 2011 Food Factor Challenge.    Model Scouts Anthony and Walter ran this station.  We brought our foam-based travel FLL table so the robot had a bit of trouble navigating the different surface but most of the missions worked.

3. A station with a variety of Lego NXT Mindstorms based robots  that the team members have built.   Matthew, Veronica and Dr. Michaud ran this station.  Matthew also showed the NXT-G programming interface.

Selected photo of our community outreach event are below.

Dr Michaud introduces the Model Scout Robotics Team to Troop 219.

Robotics Station 1:

Robotics Station 2: First Lego League Robot Game Model Scout Robotics solution to 2011 Food Factor

First Lego League Demo at Troop 219

Robotics Station 3:   Line Following, Robotic Gadgets and Intro to NXT-G Programming

Matthew ready to present at the line following and gadget station

Robotics Station 3 Veronica, Matthew and Coach Patrick demo line following and robotics gadgets.

 

International Observe the Moon Night September 22 Field Trip report

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What does Robotics have to do with the Moon?   Glad you asked.   Google Lunar X Prize is offering $30 million USD in prizes for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the Moon that can complete tasks as stated in the prize documents.   Google and several other companies also sponsor a competition for kids called MoonBots.  Model Scout Robotics has a team entered in this competition.  We are learning some astronomy as part of our work in this competition.

Model Scout Katie and her coach went on an astronomy field trip Saturday night September 22nd 2012 to participate in International Observe the Moon Night 2012.    The moon gazing party at the Rockwall Texas public library was led by Max Corneau, a local NASA JPL Space Ambassador.     Mr. Corneau had four telescopes set up to observe the moon.    The telescope provided a brighter and a more 3D effect than looking at pictures of the moon surface online.

Model Scout Matthew was on a boy scout trip at Camp James Ray on Lake Texoma near Pottsboro, TX. His patrol had an impromptu Moon Watch event at camp using binoculars instead of telescopes.   They used the materials published by International Observe the Moon Night to study the moon (pages 1 to 10).   Per Neil Armstrong’s family request, Matthew winked at the moon in honor of Neil Armstrong.  Here’s Matthew winking at the Moon in scout uniform to honor Distinguished Eagle Scout Neil Armstrong on flickr.  Here’s the worldwide IOMN 2012 Wink for Neil Armstrong photo group.

Below are some other photos from our participation in IOMN 2012.

Moon Day booth success!

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The whole Model Scout Robotics family (scouts, parents and and coaches) had fun at Moon Day at Frontiers of Flight Museum on July 21st.   I’ll post photos and video when I get them from parents.

Moon Day is a local event that celebrates the anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon on July 20, 1969.   Model Scout Robotics ran the Circle 10 Boy Scout booth and our team’s booth — we were busy!    The scouts took several breaks from our booth to visit other booths and take part in the youth activities.   Each team member got a Lunar Sample Bag from the museum staff with lots of space related goodies.   (The team van now sports a NASA sticker. )

At our booth, the scouts shared their adventures and successes as a North Texas student robotics team.   Showed other kids and adults some of our team NXT Lego Mindstorm creations.    The younger kids loved watching us rerun our First Lego League 2011 robot, ScoutBot, doing the challenges.   The older kids liked running our tele-operated robots(claw, forklift) .  We were simulating control on Earth of 2 robots on the Moon.  Our coach controlled his NXT robot on the museum floor via bluebooth using Android phone app.

Our team mom was busy too – publicizing the new BSA STEM Nova awards that encourage youth to explore STEM subjects in the boy scout program and  the First Lego League robotics program open to youth teams age 10 to 14 in North Texas.

Matthew got interviewed for a story on local youth robotics.

The team parents’ ran the booth part of the time so scouts could tour the other booths at Moon Day and attend a couple of classes on Moon research and making artificial moon dust.  Matthew and Anthony got to touch a real moon rock.

The museum put all of the robot groups in the same floor area, so it was easy to talk shop with the other teams.   We visited with the other FIRST LEGO League team at the event, Iron Reign of Dallas.  They were at the Dallas Personal Robotics Groups booth.  They brought the Moonbots 2011 landscape and their robot.

Our booth was between to the Dallas Mars Society and Dallas Personal Robotics Group.  It was cool that the Dallas Area Rocketry club was across the aisle from us too.

Dallas Mars Society brought their Mars Curiosity rover model and their Mars landscape.   They gave us tips on making a moonscape inexpensively.    We liked their rover’s camera system — wireless, full color display and the small camera can run on 9volt battery.    It is a Lorex LW1001.   Our coach is buying our team one of these cameras.   It might come in handy for Moonbots Phase II.

It was quite a day.    We provided community service to Circle 10 and the community, got a team field trip, practiced our speaking and presentation skills to get ready for upcoming FLL season and got some great tips that will help us in Moonbots Phase II, if we make the finals.

 

Model Scout Robotics will be at Moon Day

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Model Scout Robotics will celebrate Moon Day on Saturday July 21st  2012 at the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field Airport.  You can find us at the Circle 10 Council Boy Scout booth at the event.   Here’s the event flyer if you want to come: Moon Day 2012 at Frontiers of Flight Museum

We will be showing some of our robotic creations, telling other kids how to get started in robotics and showing our entry in the Moonbots 2012 competition.   The Circle 10 booth is also showing BSA’s new STEM NOVA awards for Cub, Boy Scouts and Venturer scouts. Robotics is one of the award’s concentration areas.

Of course, the team will check out the other cool booths.   Moonbots has put us in Astronomy and Space Exploration mode.

 

Model Scouts visits Pack 79

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Team Model Scouts setup and ran two stations on robotics at Pack 79’s meeting on May 5th.  We ran a station on First Lego League Robot Game. We also ran a station on robotic gadgets, robotic line following, sensors and attachments. Everything ran well except our HiTec compass sensor.  It was not working reliably.   We suspect the iron rebar in the concrete floor interfered with the sensor.

Robotics Presentation to Pack 1492 in Sasche, TX

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Team Model Scouts took a road trip to Sasche, TX to meet Pack 1492 on May 17th, 2012.    Naturally, we brought our robots.   We setup and ran three stations at the pack meeting: 1. First Lego League Robot Game, 2. robotic gadgets,  and 3. robot navigation —  a. line following using a color sensor, b. navigating to a beacon with compass and IR sensors sensors.

35 scouts from Pack 1492 attended the event.

Model Scouts receive Award at Boy Scout event

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Model Scout Robotics attended the  Boy Scout of America Circle 10 Council awards dinner at Plano Centre on April 19th, 2012.    On stage, each team member was awarded a Certificate of Achievement for their success as a Scout team in FLL arobotics competitions. The audience chuckled that our winning robot was named “ScoutBot”.   We were the youngest award recipients at the dinner.    Two of the Scouters there thought Katie might be the youngest girl to receive a Circle 10 recognition award (she’s 14) in the Council’s history (1913) since Boy Scouts is historically just for boys.  They also noted that maybe 1 Cub Scout in the council (our council is the large with about 50,000 youth members) would earn a council level award each year.   Our team has 3 Cub Scouts, so Circle 10 made Team Model Scouts night a very happy one!  The van was full of chatter on the way home.   I wish I had taken a picture of the Welcome Robotics team banner at the registration table but it did not occur to me until the next day. I’ll remember next time!

 

 

 

Model Scouts entertains and educates at Friends of Scouting dinner

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Model Scout Robotics entertained the guests at the Circle 10 Annual Friends of Scouting dinner on March 6th 2012 at the Dallas Hyatt Regency Hotel. We showed our autonomous robot, Scoutbot, running the Food Factor Challenge Robot Game course. We educated scouts, Scouters, and scout supporters on First Lego League, the new Boy Scout Robotics merit badge and getting started youth robotics. At the dinner, we heard an amazing female Venturer scout sing the National Anthem and we heard Condalezza Rice speak. Former First Lady Laura Bush attended the dinner but we were fairly far away to see her.

Matthew explains NXT-G code as robot moves

Eagle Scout asks Matthew a question at Friends of Scouting dinner