A Model forSustainable Expansion

of the FLL and FTC Programsfrom Tournament to Classroom

Jim Carroll, Chuck Raiti, Steve Robert

and Brian Trzaskos,Northern New York Robotics Institute (NNYRI) Collaborators

23rd Annual Administrators' Leadership Conference

April 8th, 2010

Lake Placid, NY

Presentation Overview

• Background info. on NNYRI’s programs and what makes them sustainable

• Overview of summer teacher workshops for the use of FLL/FTC technology to develop standards-based classroom experiences

• Overview of a sample lesson plan: Antarctic Night

Background Information• Clarkson University is a private doctoral-level

research institution located in Potsdam, NY:– 2,700 undergraduates and 400 graduate students

• The Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering's endowed Student Projects for Engineering Experience and Design (SPEED) program provides multidisciplinary, hands-on learning opportunities for more than 250 undergraduates annually

Background Information• Many of the SPEED project opportunities stem

from national engineering design competitions at the collegiate level; some like the FIRST Robotics team center around service learning-based outreach:– Clarkson students mentoring regional K-12 students– the FIRST Robotics SPEED team (FRC Team 229)

involves ~30 Clarkson and ~40 local area high school students each year with an annual budget of ~$30K

FIRST SPEED Team Origins• Founded in 1998 to support a local FRC team• Two local high schools emerged as partners:

– Massena and Salmon River Central School Districts

• Successful partnerships require at least one “champion” in each participating institution:– e.g., technology teachers Steve Robert (Massena)

and Chuck Raiti (Salmon River)

FIRST SPEED Team Evolution• Team 229 took at few years to understand the

FRC program and its unique team dynamic:– undergraduate mentors who often come from

successful FRC teams and, as a result, have strong (often conflicting) thoughts about how to best run a team/design robots and best provide outreach

• The team adopted a leadership structure and set of operational policies in 2002 that included mechanisms for continuous improvement:– based on a service learning course, MT214/MP414,

open to all Clarkson students and offered each semester

FIRST SPEED Team Evolution• Today, the Clarkson FIRST SPEED team

supports all of the FIRST programs, e.g., JFLL through FRC, including hosting a Championship FLL and FTC Tournament on the Clarkson campus each December, as well as in-class use of the FLL/FTC technology, impacting over 15 local school districts:– this expanded outreach is done with the strong

support of Clarkson’s Office of Educational Partnerships (OEP) through various grants

Facilitating Expanded Outreach• The Northern New York Robotics Institute

(NNYRI) was formed in 2007, consisting of:– Clarkson; Saint Lawrence University; SUNY

Potsdam, Canton, and Jefferson Community College; and the St Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services (SLL-BOCES)

– The NNYRI has successfully received STEM grants from a variety of sources, e.g., NYSED

– As a result of these activities, over 60 local area teachers have received week-long summer professional development (PD) courses on how to coach FLL/FTC teams as well as transition the technology into the classroom

NYSED Grants Summary• STEM Partnership Program (2007-2010)

– summer PD for teachers to be FLL/FTC coaches– develop lesson plans for in-class use– http://stlawcostempartnership.org/

• Engineers of the Future (2007)– summer PD for teachers to be FTC coaches

• Institutes for Teachers of Mathematics and Science Grades Five through Eight (2008)– summer PD for teachers for in-class use of

FLL/FTC technology with third party sensors• Learning Technology Grant (2010-12)

– supports in-class use of FLL technology

Sustaining the Outreach Effort• In 2007, SLL-BOCES and NNYRI leveraged the

state aid reimbursement formula to allow school districts to participate in FIRST’s programs as well as the Clarkson hosted tournaments– schools eligible for partial reimbursement of the

program costs through a Cooperative Services Agreement (CoSer)

– ~15 of 18 school districts in the SLL-BOCES district participate in the Robotics CoSer, averaging about 70% state reimbursement of program costs

– schools in other BOCES districts can also participate via cross-contracting

Robotics CoSer Details• Three Robotics CoSer programs are available: 

– Jr. Lego League (grades K-3): $675/First Team; $475/Each Additional Team

– First Lego League (grades 4-8): $2,900/First Team; $1,350/Each Additional Team

– First Tech Challenge (grades 9-12): $3,400/First Team; $1,850/Each Additional Team

–see www.usfirst.org for program details• An additional $649/district planning fee is

required to participate in the BOCES Exploratory Enrichment CoSer 401, under which these Robotics programs reside

Remote Mentoring & Drop-In Clinics• In order make outreach feasible over a large

geographic area, an IP-based remote mentoring system was created where Clarkson mentors are able to support teachers and students at participating schools without leaving the Clarkson campus

• To solve problems requiring face to face contact with Clarkson’s FLL and FTC trained faculty and student mentors, schools are given the opportunity to come to Clarkson once every other week during the fall to help address problems they may be having

Living-Learning Community• For the 2009-2010 school year, Clarkson’s

Residence Life staff and the FIRST team faculty advisor developed a themed housing option to support the robotics related outreach:– consists of Freshman and Sophomore students

willing to dedicate 3 hours per week to robotics-related outreach activities, including in-class

– upper-class students serve as mentors to the LLC– students enjoy access to special programming and

other resources designed to enhance their interest in robotics and build the community dynamic

FLL/JFLL Tournament Photos

FTC Tournament Photos