Washington County 4-H Robotics and Engineering Expo

The Washington County 4-H Robotics and Engineering Expo will not be offered in 2020.

The 4-H Robotics and Engineering Expo offers youth teams a chance to meet other youth from Washington County who have a passion for science. While showcasing their project and STEM skills, youth practice and improve public speaking skills as they make presentations to adult and teen judges. Workshops presented by professors from the University of Maine at Machias help participants take a closer look at a subject of their choosing.

For more information, please contact Jen Lobley at 207.255.3345 or jennifer.lobley@maine.edu.

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2019 Washington County 4-H Robotics and Engineering Expo

Registration

The registration for this event has expired.

Schedule

• 9:00 a.m. – Arrival/set up
• 9:20 a.m. – Welcome
• 9:30-10:20 a.m.-  Group A (Presentations/judging) and Group B (Workshops)
• 10:30-11:20 a.m. – Group A (Workshops) and Group B (Presentations/judging)
• 11:20-11:50 a.m. – Lunch (Pizza for coaches, participants, judges, and presenters included.)
• 12:00-1:00 p.m. – What is Physics? with David Sturm, from UMaine Physics Department
  David brings examples and demonstrations from real life to show to demonstrate there’s physics in EVERYTHING we do!
• 1:00 p.m. – Pack up and head home

Workshops

Design a Flood Barrier to Protect Downtown Machias

Through the Looking Glass, The Microscopic Living World

Presenter: Dr. Eric Jones, University of Maine at Machias, Assistant Professor of Plant Biology

Participants will have the opportunity to examine specimens of microscopic life including being able to prepare microscope slides of those specimens.  Specimens of plant and animal life will be provided to allow for participants to examine those organisms that they are most interested in.

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Dust Off Your Jeans

Presenter: Bernie Vinzani, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Professor of Art & Book Arts

If you wear cotton jeans, you are wearing the cellulose molecules of cotton. Before trees were used to make paper, paper was made from rags, old clothes that were pulped into the slurry to make paper. We will be making paper from old blue jeans in this workshop. We will also look at 200 to 400 year old paper that looks as good as the day it was made. We’ll also talk about why!

Presentation Tips

This year you will be asked to present your robotics project to a team of judges. Your project should have a clearly determined problem to solve or task to accomplish. You will have a chance to introduce, explain, and demonstrate your robotic project. At the end, judges will ask you specific questions and give you the opportunity to answer. You will have 3-5 minutes to do your presentation (this does not include judges asking questions at the end). The following outline should be followed:

Introduction:

A good introduction will help you get off to a good start. Be creative. How will you draw your audience in? Sometimes, starting off with a question is a good way to get people’s attention. As part of the introduction, team members will introduce themself and tell how they contributed to the team. You should include the school you represent, your grade level and how many years you have been involved with robotics.

Body of the Presentation:

This is the “show and tell” section of your presentation. The problem or task should be clearly stated. Give some background as to how/why the group chose this project. Explain what the robot/object is expected to do. This is the place to highlight the type of programming (ex. loops, sensors) you used.

Summary:

In this section, you will wrap up your presentation by emphasizing the main points of your project. What is it that you want the judges to remember? This is a good time to refer to your poster display if you haven’t already done so. Each team member should address one of the following questions:

• What life skills do you feel you most improved while working on this project and why? (see 4-H life skills wheel)
• If you were to do this project again, what would you change or do differently and why?
• What challenges did you face as a team and how did you deal with them?
• What are you most proud of in terms of this project and why?

Questions from the Judges:

Judges will have a few minutes at the end of your presentation to ask you questions. Try to expand on your answers and not provide just one-word answers. You want the judges to know how knowledgeable you are about your project.

Tips to keep in mind as you prepare your presentation:

• Sit down with your team and outline your presentation. Determine who will speak when. You only have 3-5 minutes so be sure to practice a few times with a timer.
• PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
• Stand tall, be confident, speak loudly enough to be heard clearly.
• Try to look at the judges as much as possible.
• Note cards are allowed, but reading directly from cards is discouraged.

Display

How you display your project is very important as it provides a visual to accompany your oral presentation. You must include a tri-fold that is attractive and interesting. Here are some general tips to help you prepare your display:

• Make sure that all lines and edges are straight. A good scientist is never sloppy.
• Make sure that your letters are displayed in a straight line. Trick: use a ruler and draw a very light, straight line in pencil to use as a guide for title letters. Make sure that the bottom of each letter lines up properly against the rest. Stencils help to make sure your letters are uniform in size.
• Use large fonts for the project title and smaller fonts for each of the headings. You should be able to read a title from 3 feet away. For the headings, you may want to use a different color from the rest of your text. However, you should not use too many colors otherwise the judges will be distracted. Most of the ordinary text should be black in color. Make sure your colors are dark enough to read.
• If you are adding pictures to your display, mount them first on colored construction paper just a 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch larger than the pictures, to create a “frame”. Write and type up short captions or title for pictures on the computer so they are neat and easy to read.

What you choose to put on your display is up to you. The only thing you must include on your display is a copy of your program. This can be hand-drawn or printed from a computer. Displays that do not include this will lose points from their overall score.

Scoring Rubrics for Engineering

School_____________________Team Name _______________________ Rookie Team?_______

Engineering Skills
Category Scores	Excellent 10          9          8	Good 7          6          5	Fair 4          3	Weak 2          1
Research Problem:	Clearly described practical need or problem to be solved, proposed solution and constraints.	Described problem to be solved as well as the explanation of the proposed solution.	Described problem to be solved, no explanation of constraints.	No evidence of researching the problem.
Design and Methodology:	Novel solution is identified and documentation shows 2-3 other alternatives that were explored, including evidence or redesign. A final   prototype/model is displayed.	Solution is identified. Documentation of one alternative and evidence of reason for redesign. A prototype/model is displayed.	Solution is identified. A prototype/model is displayed. No documentation of exploration of more than one idea.	Solution is not clearly identified, but prototype or model may be displayed or solution may be drawn.
Execution: Construction and Testing	Prototype demonstrates intended design and demonstrates engineering skills and completeness.	Prototype does what is expected at least 2 out of 3 times. Some engineering skills demonstrated.	Prototype works at least 1 out of 3 times. May have incomplete aspects of the project.	Incomplete prototype. Little evidence of engineering process.

 

Presentation Skills
Category Scores	Excellent   10          9          8	Good   7          6          5	Fair       4          3	Weak           2          1
Clarity of Project	Project has clear purpose. Team had a goal in building the project and it was achieved.	Project has a purpose. Team met most of its goals in building the project.	Project goal not clear. Team was not able to clearly state goal(s) of project.	Project did not have a clear focus. Difficult to understand purpose of the project.
Display of project	Clearly displayed with supporting pictures/diagrams or other material. Display is pleasing and easy to understand. Neat and attention to detail. No spelling errors.	Clearly displayed with supporting pictures/diagrams.   Display is good.	Project is displayed with little supporting material.   Display is adequate, lacks in quality of material- may not appear “finished”.	No display to accompany project.
Communication of Project	Entire team can clearly communicate purpose and operation with judges. Strong voice level, composure, smiles are evident. Willing to expand on answers/information. Eye contact.	One or two team members can communicate purpose and operation with judges. For the most part, good voice, fairly relaxed, some eye contact.	Team has difficulty communicating the purpose or design. Difficult to get more than short answer responses. Clearly uncomfortable.	One team member dominates communication of purpose and operation, and/or coach prompts youth.
Team Work	All team members participate in presentation, clearly have identified roles, all members are engaged and enthusiastic with each other, judges and general public. Willing to help, support and praise one another.	All members participated in presentation, but roles may not appear to be clearly identified, members are engaged with judges and general public, no strong sense of team.	Some team members participated in presentation, some team members not engaged. One or two members tend to dominate presentation.	Only one member presents for judges, other team members are present but there is a lack of unity amongst the team, display disrespect toward each other, coach, judges or general public.

 TOTAL SCORE___________                                   

 

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Scoring Rubrics for Robotics

School_____________________Team Name _______________________ Rookie Team?_______

Creativity
Did the team, project, and/or robot demonstrate a truly unique solution to their problem or robot design? Was the project imaginative and did it demonstrate “out of the box” thinking? Was there a special, unique or creative aspect that made this project stand out from the rest?
Category Score	Excellent       10          9          8	Good       7          6          5	Fair           4          3	Weak       2          1

 

Overall degree of difficulty
Difficulty Score	Advanced 10          9          8	Intermediate 7          6          5          4	Beginner 3          2          1

 

Robotics Skills
Category Scores	Excellent       10          9          8	Good       7          6          5	Fair           4          3	Weak       2          1
Mechanical Design:	Robot is complete, solid, and holds up to repeated runs.	Robot is complete, fairly solid, and needs little or no repairs or adjustment between runs.	Robot works some of the time and repairs or adjustments are often needed to accomplish task.	Robot doesn’t work or only works with direct human intervention.
Programming:	Program works well and the team can display how the program works.   Program uses loops, jumps, variables, or other programming components. Copy of the program was included with the display.	Program works well and the team can display how the program works.   Program uses some advanced features, but not many. Copy of the program was included with the display.	Program works but does not contain any loops, forks, jumps, or variables.   May contain sensors. Copy of the program may or may not be included with the display.	Program only uses motor controllers and timers, i.e. out, back, turn, stop.   Copy of the program may or may not be included with the display.
Operation:	Robot does what is expected all the time.	Robot does what is expected at least 2 out of 3 times.	Robot works at least 1 out of 3 times.	Robot cannot complete its designed function.

TOTAL SCORE_____________

COMMENTS:

                                                                     

Presentation Skills
Category Scores	Excellent   10          9          8	Good     7          6          5	Fair       4         3	Weak           2          1
Clarity of Project	Project has clear purpose. Team had a goal in building the project and it was achieved.	Project has a purpose. Team met most of its goals in building the project.	Project goal not clear. Team was not able to clearly state goal(s) of project.	Project did not have a clear focus. Difficult to understand the purpose of the project.
Display of project	Clearly displayed with supporting pictures/diagrams or other material. Display is pleasing and easy to understand. Neat and attention to detail. No spelling errors.	Clearly displayed with supporting pictures/diagrams.   Display is good.	Project is displayed with little supporting material.   Display is adequate, lacks in quality of material- may not appear “finished”.	No display to accompany project.
Communication of Project	Entire team can clearly communicate purpose and operation with judges. Strong voice level, composure, smiles are evident. Willing to expand on answers/information. Eye contact.	One or two team members can communicate purpose and operation with judges. For the most part, good voice, fairly relaxed, some eye contact.	Team has difficulty communicating the purpose or design. Difficult to get more than short answer responses. Clearly uncomfortable.	One team member dominates communication of purpose and operation, and/or coach prompts youth.
Team Work	All team members participate in presentation, clearly have identified roles, all members are engaged and enthusiastic with each other, judges and general public. Willing to help, support and praise one another.	All members participated in presentation, but roles may not appear to be clearly identified, members are engaged with judges and general public, no strong sense of team.	Some team members participated in presentation, some team members not engaged. One or two members tend to dominate presentation.	Only one member presents for judges, other team members are present but there is a lack of unity amongst the team, display disrespect toward each other, coach, judges or general public.

TOTAL SCORE_____________

COMMENTS: