How to get started on a Food Factor project

[designrahman]

Our team is consisted of 4 third graders. I'm looking for some suggestions about possible topics. I do not have much knowledge about the area of food science!

[Dean Hystad]

The challenge is released September 2nd. Guidelines about the project will be released then. My team tried jumping the gun once and got bet when they couldn't make their idea fit the project guidelines.

[Jsnlong]

Just have them research basic food safety topics.. Learn as much as they can till the season starts then they can pin point it down..

Our group had all the kids who wanted a spot on one of our 3 teams write a one page essay on any topic of their choice as long as it went with food safety. They came up with alot of good ones and will be a good start once we know what the real topic is

[azredhead]

I've got mostly 4th grade team, and we've just met once. This is my first time coaching on my own, instead of helping an established program. When we meet this week, we are going to do "Mythbusters" about food myths, like whether the 5 second rule for dropped food is true. I'll have some websites for them in case they can't find it on their own. There are also some food safety resources on the web geared towards kids, teaching them about food safety in the home. When the challenge is released, we are going to keep it small and on something that they can relate to. What that will be, I don't know; waiting for the challenge. I agree that trying to get them to look into a topic ahead of time sounds like a good approach.

Good luck!

[dna1990]

My team must be Mythbusters fans, they start about every robot run with "test run with second move block at 50, take two" or some such descriptive intro. I keep telling them we cannot afford the high speed camera.

Dean, Dave and others here often encourage experimentation to find 'best x' answer, the Mythbusters shows do tend to facilitate this approach and let kids see the progression. Well, lately they just blow stuff up alot, but still hidden in there is some scientific method.

There is also a recent YouTube video showing experimentation around driving straight. Search for TheFLLCoach. The FLLer in the video deserves good praise for putting the tutorial together.

[timdavid]

Originally Posted by dna1990

My team must be Mythbusters fans, they start about every robot run with "test run with second move block at 50, take two" or some such descriptive intro. I keep telling them we cannot afford the high speed camera.

Relatively inexpensive digital video cameras work pretty well if you want a slow-motion view of what your robot is doing.

Just record the action with the video camera at normal speed, then transfer the recording into the video editing software of your choice (we use iMovie), and then view the recording at a reduced speed.

We used this technique to troubleshoot one of the Smart Moves missions a few years ago. It was a lot of fun, and the kids really enjoyed it.

[TimTedrow]

Find some general sources of food safety information at a local college or department of health. Invite an expert to give a very broad overview of food safety issues to give your team a starting point.

As you team starts to nail down a specific topic, invite experts in that area to give more detailed presentation.

[Dean Hystad]

Originally Posted by dna1990

There is also a recent YouTube video showing experimentation around driving straight. Search for TheFLLCoach. The FLLer in the video deserves good praise for putting the tutorial together.

A nicely done video. Clear, not too long, interesting and useful.

The laser idea is neat, but an important detail was skipped. How do you align the laser to the robot? Exact alignment is critical but there is no discussion of how to do this (figuring that out is a good thought experiment). If alignment is off the laser dot drifts when the robot is going straight. Possibly worse, for the dot to be stationary the robot has to drift to compensate for the alignment error. You probably don't want to intentionally build drift into your robot.

The motor experiments are interesting. I think motors can be paired willy-nilly and work fine together as long as you keep the power setting below 100%. That said, I do have some motors that are "out of spec" and don't work well paired with anything. Their paired motor test should quickly find an out of spec motor, but I wouldn't spend much time beyond that trying to find the perfect pair. As for testing motors individually, I ran tests that showed the variation between NXT ports was greater than the variation between motors (running motor X on port B and then port C had a bigger difference than running motors X and Y on port B). Running the laser experiment with different motor pairings would be interesting and if I'm right will drive a stake in the heart of that bugaboo.

The scientific method demonstrated in the video is its greatest strength. The experiments have a few minor design flaws, but that doesn't prevent them from being a great learning tool. The two wheels on a fixed axle demo is worth the price of admission alone. Other experiments are a great starting point for your own explorations.

[dna1990]

My apoligies to the OP, this thread was clearly thrown off the track by me. Or least we should blame Adam and Jamie.



But oooh, Port variation is an concept I never considered. One of our summer experiments never did 'ring true', but now I can't wait to get them to swap ports between the two bricks they were comparing.

[susanmlynch]

Originally Posted by TimTedrow

Find some general sources of food safety information at a local college or department of health. Invite an expert to give a very broad overview of food safety issues to give your team a starting point.

As you team starts to nail down a specific topic, invite experts in that area to give more detailed presentation.

Our team went on a field trip to the Department of Health and Human Services - Bureau of Consumer Safety just last week. The chief sanitarian provided them with an incredible experience. She had prepared a powerpoint presentation with an overview of all the points of food contamination, and highlighted the ones that were most dangerous to the consumer. She had 2 other inspectors demonstrate sanitization methods used in retail food preparation and the equipment used for inspections. While at their offices, the team met with an investigative reporter from our local news station who is doing a report on restaurant food safety in the city. She has been in contact with the team since that meeting and is eager to share her final reporting with us.

They also arranged for the team to do a mock food inspection of a major hospital's kitchens, both retail and patient kitchens, and the different criteria they both fell under. They did a tour and "followed" food as it traveled the hospital, from receiving, to cold and dry storage, to the kitchens, to more cold and hot storage areas, etc. Several hospital administrators stopped by to greet the team and one even did a hand washing demonstration with the team. It was a great way for them to get hands-on look at the importance of food safety and came away with some really great ideas to research further.

Susan
Roborangers - team #5374
Katy, Texas
http://www.roborangers.com