The kids in my after school program at MacFarLane Park IB Elementary have been hard at work building their Battlebots! We’ve had weekly competitions and the kids have come a long way. They started the project with plans for the Five Minute Bot and took it from there to make formidable competitors. They’ve designed offensive weapons, defensive strategies, and integrated a number of MINDSTORMS sensors into their bots to help them find and defeat opponents.

The competition field is our FLL table with last season’s vinyl mat but no mission models to get in the way. The last robot in one piece or not overpowered by another bot is the winner.

Here are the competitors!

We’ve confirmed all of our dates and locations for this summer’s fun! We are now accepting enrollment for camps in the following locations:

TNT Academy of Quality Martial Arts, Riverview, June 13-17
Messiah Lutheran Church, Carrollwood, June 20-24
Messiah Lutheran Church, Carrollwood, July 11-15
Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Downtown, July 18-22
TNT Academy of Quality Martial Arts, Riverview, July 25-29
Messiah Lutheran Church, Carrollwood, (Competition Boot Camp), Aug 1-5
TNT Academy of Quality Martial Arts, Riverview, (Competition Boot Camp), Aug 8-12

I am very excited about the program this year. Kids will be working in groups of four. Each group will have access to a robot kit and laptop and they’ll have a generous list of fun and exciting activities and challenges they can work on. In addition, I’ll have a whole bunch of extra and specialty parts for the more advanced students. Not only will they have access to really unique items, I will also have custom and third party elements that they’ll be able to incorporate into their robots and gadgets. We will have a number of special sensors from Mindsensors and Hitechnic including accelerometers, compass sensors, and more!

The competition boot camps will be focused around the upcoming FLL theme, Food Factor.

Your children will be engaged and challenged with activities suitable for his or her age and prior experience. I look forward to meeting them at camp!

Things are starting to move quickly! I have confirmed our first camp location for the week of July 18th – 22nd at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in downtown Tampa!

We will have morning and afternoon sessions available. If you wish for your child to stay for the full day, we will have supervised activities over the lunch break. Kids who register for the full day also get a free camp T-shirt!

I’m very close to confirming our North Tampa (Carrollwood area) and Brandon area locations. As promised, you will be among the first to know. If you sign up for these camps before we confirm the location, you get a discount on the camp fee. See the registration form for details. If the area or date changes for these unconfirmed camps, your deposit is 100% refundable.

Registration Forms and more details are available on our camp page.

This is the kind of thing I envisioned as one activity for the kids at camp! Granted, this is a slightly larger scale than I imagined, but with each group of kids working on one section so we can chain them together, lets dare to dream!

It’s best watched full screen. I promise you will be amazed!

VEX Robotics World Championship

Starts: 7:30 AM, Thu, Apr 14th 2011
Ends: 6:30 PM, Sat, Apr 16th 2011

Dedicated to inspiring today’s youth to excel in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education through robotics, the non-profit Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation, in conjunction with VEX Robotics, will host the 2011 VEX Robotics World Championship on April 14-16, 2011. Coinciding with National Robotics Week, the three-day tournament unites top middle school, high school and college robotics teams from around the world to celebrate their accomplishments and further inspire students to pursue careers in robotics and other STEM related fields.

Thursday and Friday are qualifying rounds and Saturday holds the final rounds. Looks like fun to me!

Event Location:
ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex
700 Victory Way
Kissimmee, FL 34747

This event is intended for all ages.

For more information on this event, visit Vex Robotics or check out the schedule of events.

Oh, and Happy Robotics Week!

We’re in the process of scheduling day camps featuring LEGO® MINDSTORMS®! Camps will be open to children ages 8 to 14. We are currently scouting locations in North Tampa, South Tampa, and the Brandon area. If you know if a facility that can host up to twenty children in a classroom environment, please let me know! I’m planning a variety of activities to appeal to beginners and experienced FLL team members. I think it will be an exciting and rewarding time for everyone!

In the meantime, you can find out more by checking out the camp home page and signing up to our email list (you’ll see the link on the right once you get there). You will be the first to know when we announce dates and locations around Tampa Bay.