Senior Solutions: Facts About Seniors

Facts about senior citizens continued...

1. According to predictions, in 2050 there will be 88.5 million seniors living in the world which would be 20% of the current population. 

Source: http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/senior-american-statistics.php
2. In the U.S., there are 35.03 million seniors. Of these seniors, 18.1 million or 52% have a disability.

Source: http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/SeniorStats/2008/20081218-MoreThanHalf.htm

3. Surprisingly, 46% of family caregivers performed some kind of medical task for their  senior loved ones.

Source: http://www.alfa.org/News/2782/Nearly-Half-of-Family-Caregivers-Assist-With-Medical-Tasks%2C-Many-Receive-No-Training

4. Out of the people from ages 70 to 80, about 30 percent of those are impaired in smell or taste. As a result, they sometimes avoid eating, eat unhealthily seasoned foods, or even eat too much. It can even lead to diabetes or high blood pressure.

Source: http://www.nia.nih.gov/newsroom/2005/08/nihseniorhealth-adds-information-smell-and-taste (2005)

NYCityzens @ the 2012 Maker Faire

Sept. 30th., our team, the NYCityzens, was invited to the Maker Faire, an annual event that the Hall of Science hosts. Several FIRST teams (FRC, FTC, FLL) gather at the Maker Faire every year to show off their creativity and skills. At the Maker Faire there were many original and imaginative creations and inventions that were simply amazing!

Our team presented our various types of LEGO(R) NXT robots in the later part of the afternoon. We showed our audience how the robots functioned, the various types of sensors and parts used to build the robot, and what the robots were programmed to do. Our team received many impressed expressions, and the girl’s robotics team, that our coach teaches, even got a new member!

We even had an “Interactive Station”, where anybody can interact with our remote control robot and jack-in-the-box robotic device, and we even had a “Guess How Many Legos are in the Jar”, which is a game of strategy and luck.  Two lucky winners won the “Guess How Many Legos are in the Jar”, and they received mini LEGO kits! 

Our team exhibited our Bowling robot and our sister team, Dragonbotz, demonstrated the Chair mission on this year’s  field mat.. The Bowling robot had to complete the bowling mission and ended up balancing one of the Transition bridge on the field. In the Chair mission the robot had to bring part of the chair from the field back to base, and then push the completely built chair under the table on the field. Shockingly, on our very first try/presentation to the audience on how the Bowling robot worked, the robot got a STRIKE, and balanced perfectly on the bridge! People passing by our booth stopped to glance at our robots or chair robot, and they were immediately intrigued. 

Personally, the Maker Faire was a great experience for me, as well as all the other members of the team. I think that we learned to work respectfully and in an orderly fashion with each other more at the Maker Faire. We became more encouraged and determined as more and more people watched our presentation. I feel that our team is now more enthusiastic than ever to try our hardest at the real FLL competitions. Our team impressed many people, and that also motivated the team to work harder as well. Together, we all had lots and lots of fun at the Maker Faire, and had an inspirational time as well. 

by R.K. 

Senior Solutions: Facts about Seniors

Facts about senior citizens

1. About one third of the elder population older than the age of 65 falls each year, and the risk of falls increases proportionally with age. At 80 years old, more than half of seniors fall annually
2. There are 789,691 blind seniors in the US.
3. In the US on Nov. 1st, 2005, there were an estimated 67,473 centenarians (seniors aged 100+.)
4. 43 percent of working seniors work in management, professional, and related occupations.
5. Despite needing less calories due to a slowing of metabolism, seniors need more nutrients.
6. There are 48.3 million seniors in the world today

Sources: medindia.net, livestrong.com, www.census.gov, learnnottofall.com, actionfund.org.

ROBOT AND FRANK: A Movie Review

                                Recently I watched the movie "Robot and Frank" This movie is about how a humanoid robot helps a senior citizen named Frank . The humanoid was a present to Frank from his son, Hunter. Frank at first hated the robot, but eventually overtime, Frank and the robot created a very strong relationship. The humanoid cooks for Frank, tends the garden, walks with him, and is even his personal calendar. The humanoid reminds Frank what time it is and when to wake up or to go to sleep. Frank and the humanoid eventually become great friends.

            Frank in his younger days was a jewel thief. Now with his robot friend he figured he could teach the robot how help him rob again. So Frank and the robot robbed an extremely rich and mean person, who lived in his community. The police realized that the only way to prove Frank did it, was to check the robot’s memory, because the robot helped in the theft. Realizing this, Frank, even though he hated to do such a thing, erased the robot’s memory to save himself. Even though the police had no evidence of Frank’s theft, his son took the robot away from Frank and sent him to a seniors’ center. At the end, what was so sad was that other members at the senior center had their own robots that looked exactly the same as Frank’s.

By C.C.

WELCOME: ABOUT US

Hello, we are the NYCityzens team 5086. We are a FLL all-boys team from Brics~2~Bots Academy in Queens. We have five team members named Ryan, Daniel, Elias, Joshua and Corban. FLL stands for FIRST LEGO League. FLL is a LEGO competition that allows kids to use their creativity and imagination to build robots and find a solution to that year’s theme. This year’s theme is Senior Solutions. This theme is based on problems that seniors face in their everyday lives. You are to find a unique solution to senior needs. We will be building and programming robots to complete field missions while researching to find a solution to senior’s issues.

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