Mini Bots Camp

Hosting a full week-long event can be difficult to coordinate and find volunteers for. Below are some shortened timelines that can be used for smaller events at libraries, schools, or on a weekend. Any LEGO challenge from the Junior Bots curriculum can be used for Mini Bots, but we prefer to do LEGO Sumo. More information about the challenge is listed below.

To streamline our Mini Bots camps, we coordinate with public libraries and programs, such as Girl Scouts, to provide a location and timeframe. This reduces the planning and publicity overhead; however, the same publicity tips and tricks for Junior Bots work for Mini Bots.

The following engineering process is used as the base for Mini Bots.

This is the engineering process that drives the Mini Bots series.

Sumo Challenge

A picture from Mini Bots camp at the Iowa City Public Library

In Junior Bots, the Sumo challenge is a combination of everything that students learned throughout the week. They combine sensors, programming, and gear ratios to build the strongest robot possible. This is a great activity because it does not require an in-depth understanding of the EV3 bots to be successful, but can easily be modified for more advanced students.

The objective of LEGO Sumo is to either push your opponent out of the ring or disabled them by tipping the robot over. Students are encouraged to build flippers, claws, or other attachments to help their robot win. Additionally, some may choose to add wheels or additional motors.

For 1-hour camps our team pre-programs the robots to drive straight ahead. This cuts down on the time needed for the activity and allows students to focus on building. In the 3-hour camp, teams are provided a program that goes straight ahead but can practice block coding skills to add eyes, sounds, or other effects. However, for the full day camp teams are expected to program the robot themselves and use the color sensor.

1-Hour Camp

Objectives: Plan, Create, Test

For the 1-hour camp, our team focuses on having students design and test attachments for a specific challenge. Often we will build the base robot prior to the event and have a program already deployed to the EV3.

Timepoint	Activity	Process Segment
0:00	Intro to the camp and explanation of FIRST/FRC
5:00	Students are given their robot task and a base robot. They have to design an attachment that will complete the challenge.	Plan
15:00	Students build attachments in teams using an EV3 kit.	Create
35:00	Students are given time to practice running the challenge and making last minute tweaks. When all teams are ready, the competition begins.	Test
50:00	Students are given paper feedback forms to fill out about their experience and the robots are cleaned up. Often we do not have time to fully break down the robots and bring them back to our lab to finish inventorying.

3-Hour Camp

Objectives: Plan, Create, Test, and Improve

In the 3-hour camp, students are given the opportunity to build the base robot themselves and design an attachement for the challenge. Typically, students are in groups of 2-3 and take turns building the robot or designing attachments.

Timepoint	Activity	Process Segment
0:00	Intro to the camp and explanation of FIRST/FRC
10:00	Students build the base robot using an EV3 kit.	Create
50:00	Students are given a task for their robot. They have to design an attachment that will complete the challenge.	Plan
1:05:00	Students build attachments in teams using an EV3 kit.	Create
1:20:00	Students learn how to program the robot using block code.	Create
1:30:00	Students are given time to practice running the challenge and making last minute tweaks. When all teams are ready, the competition begins.	Test
1:50:00	Students are given time to redesign and rebuild their attachments.	Improve
2:15:00	Students compete in a second round of competition with the nearly updated robots.	Test
2:40:00	Students are given paper feedback forms to fill out about their experience and the robots are cleaned up. Often we do not have time to fully break down the robots and bring them back to our lab to finish inventoring.

1-Day Camp

Objectives: Research, Plan, Create, Test, Improve

Timepoint	Activity	Process Segment
0:00	Intro to the camp and explanation of FIRST/FRC
10:00	Students build the base robot using an EV3 kit.	Create
50:00	Leaders demonstrate how to use block coding and show different types of blocks	Research
1:00:00	Students are tasked with navigating their robot through a maze taped on the ground	CreateTest
2:00:00	Lunch Break
2:30:00	Recess - This is a great time to get outside and do an activity or fill in other non-LEGO STEM related activities.
3:00	Leaders demonstrate how to use color sensors	Create
3:10:00	Students are tasked with a line-follower challenge using the color sensor	PlanCreate
3:55:00	Students are given a task for their robot. They have to design an attachment that will complete the challenge.	Plan
4:10:00	Students build attachments in teams using an EV3 kit.	Create
4:25:00	Students learn how to program the robot using block code.	Create
4:35:00	Students are given time to practice running the challenge and making last minute tweaks. When all teams are ready, the competition begins.	Test
4:55:00	Students are given time to redesign and rebuild their attachments.	Improve
5:20:00	Students compete in a second round of competition with the nearly updated robots.	Test
5:40:00	Students are given paper feedback forms to fill out about their experience and the robots are cleaned up. Often we do not have time to fully break down the robots and bring them back to our lab to finish inventoring.