KOLOA — Dropping a container of water was costly for the Koloa Elementary School Lego robotics team at the state competition. After misfiring on the task worth 60 points, Koloa tumbled to finish at 15th place at the Neal Blaisdell
KOLOA — Dropping a container of water was costly for the Koloa Elementary School Lego robotics team at the state competition.
After misfiring on the task worth 60 points, Koloa tumbled to finish at 15th place at the Neal Blaisdell Center on Oahu.
“We still had the highest score of any of the Kauai teams,” said Jakob Richards, a team member.
Koloa coach Keoni Pau said the event was very competitive.
“For Koloa to place third, the team would have had to have a perfect run,” Pau said. “Every point counted.”
Kauai sent three teams to the recent competition — Island School, the island’s first-place team, Kapaa Elementary School, the island’s runner-up team, and Koloa Elementary.
Following the island competition, the Koloa team redesigned its craft.
“It was pretty intense,” Pau said. “The students had less than three weeks to put together their new robot in time for the state competition.”
Collaborating with their adult mentor, Dennis Bonilla, the students increased the craft’s wheelbase, added an arc to the chassis, enhanced the operation of its caster wheel, and repositioned the NXT monitor — all factors leading to the mechanical design award.
“Building the robot is the easy part,” Pau said. “Fine tuning it to work is the time consuming part.”
“The original robot kept getting hung up on obstacles,” said Macaiah Fuller, another team member. “We had to put in the arc. The robot kept getting upended so instead of four wheels, it was running on two wheels.”
Richards said he was nervous at the tournament.
“We were at the second table, the one closest to the spectators, and everyone kept trying to find ways to get us disqualified,” Jakob said. “But our robot kept on going.”
Pau said the goal of the Koloa team was not to just attend the competition, but to showcase the abilities and achievements of team members.
The Koloa School robotics team is made up of Jakob Richards, Kaylah Santos, Ayden Quinn, Micaiah Fuller, Joseph Richards, Nahe Bukoski, Erik Olsson, Mason Yoshimori, Brok Baldwin, Chazlyn Olsen-Rivera and Tessa Dawe.
“The robotics program is just a stepping stones for these students,” Pau said. “They will go on to careers armed with the problem-solving, teamwork, and other skills learned in the program.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
