First LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide [Paperback]

James Floyd Kelly (Author), Jonathan Daudelin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 2008

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an international program for kids ages 9 to 14 that combines a hands-on, interactive robotics program and research presentation with a sports-like atmosphere. Authors James Floyd Kelly and Jonathan Daudelin-both participants in numerous FIRST LEGO League competitions-have teamed up to bring coaches, teachers, parents, and students an all-in-one guide to FLL.

Written for both rookie and experienced teams, FIRST LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide includes in-depth coverage of topics like team formation and organization, robot building and programming, and the basics of getting involved with FLL. Before the authors delve into the specifics of robot and team building, they reveal the fascinating history of the FIRST organization and the sometimes puzzling structure of the FLL competition. Using a combination of real-life stories and candid commentary from actual FLL teams, as well as recollections of their own experiences, they offer an abundance of helpful guidance and dependable building and programming examples.

FIRST LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide explores the complex workings and structure of the FLL competition, including its four key components: Robot Game, Technical Interview, Project, and Teamwork. You'll learn how to:

• Organize, recruit, and manage a team
• Find equipment, mentors, and funding
• Design, build, and program winning robots
• Tackle each of the four FLL components-from Robot Game to Teamwork
• Use strategies and techniques from FLL masters to increase your scores

No matter what your role in the FLL competition, FIRST LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide will make you a better competitor, builder, designer, and team member. The only ingredient you need to add is your competitive spirit!

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

The book was written for both veteran and rookie teams - we talked with dozens of teams about their experiences with FLL and gathered tips, advice, worksheets, and more. The book has over a dozen downloadable files for use by teams (website address provided in the book) that can be modified as desired.

The book has 16 chapters in all plus one appendices. Chapters include:
(1) What is FLL? (2) How FLL Works (3) Guidelines and Rules (4) Finding Equipment, Mentors, and Funding (5) Starting or Building a Team (6) Managing Your Team (7) The Team Experience (8) Coaching a Team (9) NXT vs RCX (10) Basic Building (11) Building Techniques for the Robot Game (12) Sensors (13) Getting Organized for Programming (14) NXT-G Programming Concepts (15) The Project and (16) Tournaments and Beyond. Appendix includes a list of useful Resources for FLL teams and coaches.

We also provide weblinks for a discussion forum section created just for the book as well as the downloadable files mentioned in the chapters and any errata that might exist. We will continue to update the forum with news and information as well as occasional downloads for team use.

We tried our best to cover every aspect of FLL and hope we did a good job. The book is over 200 pages of advice that can be put to immediate use and, hopefully, give teams a jump start if they need it.

-James Floyd Kelly, August 2008

About the Author

Jonathan Daudelin has been competing in FLL since age 13. In 2007, his team won the First Place Robot Performance and First Place Innovative Robot awards at the World Festival after their robot achieved perfect scores in all three rounds. He is a contributor to The NXT Step blog and a co-author of "The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book" (No Starch) and "The NXT Robotics Competition Workbook" (self-published).

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (August 19, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593271859
• ISBN-13: 978-1593271855
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Team members and coaches, you NEED this book!, August 26, 2008

By 

Tommy Williamson (Lompoc, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide (Paperback)

Oh how I WISH I had this book three years ago when I started my team. It covers just about everything you need to know about starting and keeping a First LEGO League team. From basic teamwork strategies to building and programming tips and tricks, this book has it all. It is the perfect compliment to the official coach's guide provided by FLL. It's informative and easy to read without being either dumbed-down or over your head.

I highly recommend this book and I'm going to keep my copy table-side every season. Thanks James and Jonathan for putting together such a great resource!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Reference for Both New and Old Teams!, September 21, 2008

By 

Joseph Meno (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide (Paperback)

FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is a program for middle-school age children to explore robotics and a global theme that has grown to be a worldwide phenomenon involving thousands of children and adults. While that sounds very impressive, it's also very intimidating. With so many people already involved, how can a new person start a team? Is there a right way? How can a team grow and succeed?

FIRST LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide, by James Floyd Kelly and Jonathan Daudelin, is an excellent introduction to FLL for those wanting to start a team. Going through a step-by-step formula, the book explains everything about FLL from information about the program itself to starting a team and competing.

Every step is almost exhaustively documented - I say almost because the writing style is far from exhausting. The books voice is a very relaxed one, much like a tour guide that really enjoys talking about his tour route. Such points as fundraising and team management are covered in the book, which are very important yet not really mentioned anywhere else.

Building the team is a large component of the book, but so is building with the MINDSTORMS system, and a majority of the book is devoted to building and programming robots. Again, the text is engaging and step-by-step, showing how and more importantly, why a process or build method is advantageous. One inadvertent side effect of reading this is realizing what a successful team has to know - while my respect for FLL competitors is high, the Unofficial Guide gave me a much higher appreciation of the work needed to make a quality team.

And I guess that's the best way to describe this book - it's a quality book that I strongly recommend. For a group wanting to form a new team, this will be an invaluable resource to guide the kids (and adults) to competition. For those who have been in FLL, this book is also good because it has some nice tips and advice - the sidebar about test driving a robot on page 170 is a great piece of advice to both new and experienced teams!

And it has me wishing I could start a team...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FLL, from start to end, a must have for coaches and teams, August 26, 2008

By 

Martijn Boogaarts "robotica" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First LEGO League: The Unofficial Guide (Paperback)

This book is a must have for all the First LEGO League teams, and their coaches.
Although I'm an expert on LEGO MINDSTORMS, I still consider this book good value for money, it contains a lot of expert tips and tricks in getting your team organized and well set for the tournament. The easy writing style is even for non native English readers good to read. The layout is comfortable, and the side notes are a real added value.

The first chapters handle some background that is good to know, to make the team enthusiastic about the FLL games.
Chapter 4 contains a downloadable fundraising letter that shows that FLL goes beyond playing with LEGO robots, it also explains how to do business in real live.
Then the chapters about managing the team, is a must read for new coaches, but also experienced managers could learn form it.
The technical chapters, near the end of the book, handle a lot of tips and tricks on how to improve your LEGO robot and its program. I consider that many teams still can learn from these chapters. During several FLL finals, I was present as a "technical first aid doctor" for the teams that ran into "unforeseen" problems. I'm sure with this book at hand those problems would not have occurred.

This book really handles FLL form start to end, and encourages you to participate in the Fist LEGO League.