July 20, 2024

Ocean Farming, Presentation Skill Practice, Robot Building

After an all-girl session last week, most of the boys returned from their vacations and attended today’s session, although two members are still exploring the world thousands of miles away.


The Challenges of 3D Ocean Farming

Daniel’s research focused on seaweed farming. He discovered that the high costs of seaweed-based products could present business opportunities and potentially help mitigate global warming. Larry examined the working conditions of employees in 3D ocean farming and found that robots could efficiently handle many underwater tasks.

Brandon presented his idea of a solar-powered floating charging station through an excellent drawing. His concept of a kelp-harvesting robot sparked a discussion about how the robot would float and submerge, leading to an interesting conversation about submarine propellers. Olivia, through her research, discovered that blocking sunlight for organisms near the seafloor is a significant issue. Her idea is to invent a method to reflect or provide sunlight to the ocean floor using solar power.

Reina discovered that coping with the different temperature needs and harvest seasons of various ocean species may lead to crop loss. She will continue researching this topic. The team also reviewed Leon’s two-page research, which suggested utilizing a 3D printer to create metal cages and designing techniques for 3D farming in shallow water.

Coach Will introduced the team to Ocean Vapor Towers, a new topic. These towers are established in the ocean and collect moisture from the air more efficiently, producing fresh water with less energy than most common water production systems.

Presentation Practice

Today's presentation practice, led by Ms. Lu (Olivia's mom), focused on three key areas: staying focused, answering questions, and maintaining proper posture. Being a young team with eight energetic and passionate children, staying focused during presentations can be challenging. The team learned several useful techniques to overcome distractions and handle tough questions. They went through two rounds of short presentations to practice these techniques, showing clear improvement in the second round.

Robot Building and Attachment Testing

The hands-on session was as fun as ever. While Reina and Olivia continued building the robot for the new season, the rest of the team tested attachments and programming. The exciting new FLL season is just a week away, right around the corner!

Videos: "Wanying Ship Wreck Mission" and "Larry Daniel Green Attachment"