I have done an informational session before, where I just talked about FLL
for maybe 10 minutes, then gave a brief explanation of how the brick works
and programming, and then just let the kids explore with the Legos and the
brick.  If they have no experience at all, a lot of the kids will just be
amazed at the types of Lego pieces and will want to play with them/build
things.  Some have never seen the Technic-type Lego pieces before.   I only
had one laptop and one brick, and my team members with me.  So some of the
kids just played with and built things with the Lego parts, and then people
kind of rotated through playing with the programming, with my team members
just explaining what does what, and let each kid write a short program just
to make the robot move.  If they have never done it before, they are just
amazed that they can make the robot just move forward.

If you have multiple kits and laptops, and can have several stations set up
each with a person who knows what they are doing, the kids can just
experiment with the programming, with a robot that is already built.  They
can just play with it, learn how to go in a straight line, make a turn,
follow a black line, etc.

I have also used the following exercise several times before.  I started
off with this as a demonstration at the beginning of the session.  If you
do it in a large group, you can either pair everyone up, or start with just
two volunteers to demonstrate, and then have them partner up and try it.
 Have the first volunteer put on a blindfold and then ask the second
volunteer to instruct the first to do a simple task (like go pick up that
cup on the table).  It is eye opening that they can't just tell the person
to go get the cup.  They have to break it down into steps, be very
specific, and then adjust when they over/under shoot for the target.  This
is just such a great demonstration of what programming is like.  It helps
them understand that they have to tell the robot to do each step to
accomplish a task, and that it's not all that easy at first.

Good luck!

Sonya Shaver in Harrisonburg

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