Fifty-two teams from around the state competed in the 8th annual FIRST Lego League State Championships on Dec. 1.
In the district tournament held at Island School in November, three Kaua‘i teams qualified to compete at the state tournament held at the Neil Blaisedell Center, including Island School’s Lego Masters, the Señor Bots made up of students from Hawai‘i Technology Academy and home school students, and the Dolphins from Kapa‘a Elementary.
FIRST Lego League is designed for students ages 9 to 14 and seeks to generate enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM subjects). The competition has three parts and challenges students to research and solve a real-world problem, as well as to use LEGO elements to construct and program a robot. Teams are also judged on Lego League’s Core Values, which emphasize teamwork.
This year’s problem was “Senior Solutions.” Teams designed a robot that would “improve the quality of life for seniors by helping them continue to be independent, engaged and connected in their communities,” according to the FLL website.
“Our team was visited by Dr. Dennis Scheppers, who talked about the memory problems faced by many senior citizens,” Coach Sue Macklin said. “The kids came up with an idea they named ‘Watch Talk.’ Seniors would wear a device on their wrist that they could simply program to remind them of important things. For example, if they needed to take their meds at 8 o’clock, they would tell their Watch Talk, ‘Meds at 8 o’clock.’ Then, at 8 o’clock a voice would alert them to take their meds.”
The team built a model which was presented to a panel at the tournament. Their project won first place at the district level.
The second part of the tournament was the Robot Game. Students worked together to build, test and program an autonomous robot to solve a set of missions on an obstacle course using Lego Mindstorms. Island School’s Lego Masters’ robot performed especially well, winning first place for their robot’s mechanical design.
“There is so much enthusiasm for robotics at the elementary level, Lego Masters is becoming a year-long, after school club,” Coach Nathaniel Evslin said. “Getting these kids excited about robotics in elementary school can plant the seeds that will grow into our future engineers and computer scientists.”
The club will meet twice a month in anticipation of the 2013 FIRST Lego League competition. The team from Moloka‘i was the overall winner of the tournament and will represent Hawai‘i at the national championship held in St. Louis in the spring.
Robotics is a popular activity at Island School in middle and high school. These older students participate in the VEX and FIRST Robotics competitions which will be held in February and April 2013.
